Tonight’s dinner was at SSAL, newly awarded a Michelin star a couple weeks ago. Cuisine is Korean fine dining. The decor is Scandinavian minimalist, clean. Tables were nicely spaced out. Tasting menu was 12 courses plus the additional urchin/egg/slmon roe course I added.

Favorite courses were the wagyu tartare, seaweed eel roll, the amberjack, the octupus, and the short rib course. A few dishes were misses – the first course with the smoked kusshi oyster had some nice flavors except for the oyster (we’d much rather have fresh, chilled). Ingredients were excellent, but sometimes just not enough flavor. We did appreciate the korean flavors, which is unique in find dining (there is San Ho Wan which is also elevated Korean, but not fine dining). Desserts were mostly ok, but nothing spectacular although I did like their seaweed rice krispy (emphasis on both the rice flavor and the crispy).

Wine pairings were enjoyable. The 1996 Margaux with the short rib course was a special treat. Service was generally very good, esp. based on the strength of Destiny, the primary person who served wine and food to us. We love to ask all about the ingredients, the wine, the stemware, the cutlery. Yes, we’re dining nerds that way and she had information about it all.

Interestingly, almost all the diners were Asian (probably Koreean). The chef thanked us for dining with them on our way out. A very interesting and enjoyable meal and we’re glad we went, although the few not excellent dishes would probably keep us from coming back for awhile (again, so many great places to eat here in SF).