We hadn’t made any explicit plans for dinner this week, but living here in SF, we have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to places to dine. So yesterday I started looking through OpenTable, Resy, and Tock and Lazy Bear was available for a 6:30 dinner. We ate here sometime pre-pandemic (seems so long ago) and enjoyed our experience. I can’t remember all the details of our previous dining experience here (it was definitely even before pre-pandemic), but this experience was fantastic.

I do remember that the first time we dined here, this was the first restaurant where we had to entirely pre-pay for our meal. Nowadays, this is very common, but back then it was a first, but I could certainly understand from the drivers for a restaurant to do so. The meal started up in the upstairs area. When we came here before, it was with a large group of people who were all part of the first seating and then we all sat for dinner below together, but this time we were staggered individually which was nicer than being handled en masse. They also redecorated a bit upstairs at it was much more cozy.

We had our first courses upstairs. First we were provided a tea made of 30 locally foraged ingredients. There were two wine pairing options, the standard pairing and the reserve pairing. We always split (i.e. one of each) so we can try all wines. They used to call the reserve pairing the YOLO (you only live once) pairing and it is priced accordingly…. Lazy Bear was just recognized yesterday as a James Beard award for outstanding wine and beverage program.

The first course was a “breakfast” egg dish paired with a Billecart Salmon and a Krug champagne. The second course was a a trio of seafood dishes which were all so different and interesting…the kusshi oyseter with pomegranate, lemon, and vodka, a raw bay scallop with lime, and a spicy tuna bite. Hard for me to choose a favorite since they all expressed something different.

We were then taken downstairs to our seating at the communal table. When we last dined here, we were packed in much closer, but there we floral arrangements that separated each dining group so we could just as easily have been seated at separate (albeit fairly close) tables.

From here, the meal really took off. First was a dry aged tartare with some mustard and a delicious allium “pancake”. Next came a cauliflower dish served 2 ways with some reserve caviar from California Caviar Co. specifically produced for the restaurant. Then came a delicious dungeness crab, california rice, chanterelle mushroom dish. Every single one of these dishes were flavorable, made with fantastic ingeredients meticulously prepared, and creative and interesting, esp. for such seasoned diners as us.

Then came a sourdough pretzel roll and house made butter. The roll was so delicately crunchy on the outside, but so moist and tender on the inside. The butter was so flavorful as well and as good as the roll was, for me it was the vehicle for the tasty hand churned butter.

Next course was winter roots with black truffle. In some many of these dining experiences, we’ve been so burned with terrible dried out truffles (despite our inquiring about when they arrived, ho fresh, etc.). But fortunately, these truffles were very fresh, moist, and fragrant. At this point, we’ve already had the trifecta of fine dining ingredients…wagyu, caviar, and truffle.

Next dish was a pork chop with a slice of “apple pie”. interesting, but not as flavorful (except for the sauce) as most of the other dishes.

Then came a sort of palate cleanser with buttermilk, huckleberry, lemon and was far more flavorful than a basic sorbet. Then came the dessert which was a carrot cake , persimmon, candied walnuts (so delicate and light and crisp compared to the usual), and walnut sabayon. Lastly, were some pancake macarons and cherry orange gummy bears.

Wine pairings were so interesting, often contrasting old world and new world. Generally well paired and interesting…not the standard typical wine choices. We also had a couple additional after dinner drinks that the somm recommended – one a sherry with a finish that went on forever and the other a 1927 madeira which had a surprising amount of acid still to keep it surprisingly bright (in my mind, the age would have made it heavier and less acidic so this was a pleasant surprise).

All in all, I’d easily agree with their 2-Michelin star rating…food was solid, tasty, inventive across the board, the wine pairings were all interesting as well, and the service was very good (ever so slightly harried, but still very good overall). Overall, an easy recommendation for a 2-Michelin star restaurant that lives up to it’s billing.