Our initial plan to eat at Estiatorio Ornos was thwarted when the restaurant closed due to flooding with all of this rain, so I booked last minute here at Nari which is someplace we’ve been meaning to try ever since we had some great takeout during the panic from here and the sister restaurant Kin Khao. Khin Khao managed to retain it’s vMichelin star despite never being open during the pandemic (whereas many other places in SF lost their star. also Nari is the higher end restaurant to Kin Khao but only received a Michelin Bib Gourmand recognition). So this had been on my list of places to try, but we’d been doing the fine dining thing for awhile and didn’t get around to Nari until now. In any case, this was a very enjoyable alternative.

It was nice to see the five flavors in combination in the dishes. From the first course (first 3 dishes), the saeng wah (prawns in tamarind, lemongrass, ginger, chili) was fantastic as was the miang pla (whole branzino fried, with lemongrass, ginger, peanut, chili and various greens for wraps). For the second course, the weakest was the gaeng som (hamachi with curry….the hamachi was good quality, but with curry it was sort of a half cooked fish), but the gaeng bumbai aubergine (eggplant) was excelletnt and I enjoyed the gaen massam gae (lamb shank in massaman curry) was enjoyable. For dessert, we had the Dreaming of Lod Chong. It was described as a pandan parfait, but it’s not layered at all like we were thinking, but better described as a savory flavored marshmallow. Wine and digestifs as recommended by the somm were spot on.