I only heard about this restaurant after reading a review last week by Virginia Miller in The Bold Italic (I am a big fan of her reviews. Since she’s local, we are often eating at many of the same new restaurants and her reviews are detailed and well written and we agree with her reviews so she serves as a very informative guidepost). This restaurant was reinvented in September from Goza (which I also had never previously heard about) which used to be a wagyu-centric, tasting-menu-only restaurant. Now, The Wild is more focused on a variety of local ingredients and has their dishes available a la carte.
For us, it’s a bit of a trek to get all the way down to Spear St. during rush hour, esp. during the holidays, during the rain. Because of the way the entrance is set up, you can’t see into the dining room from the street, but once you step inside and around the bend, we saw a nice open space with the prep area right in the middle with a small wood burning fire. Seating is a counter that surrounds the prep area (we did also note a single table also available that is not at the counter) that reminded Andrea of the now-defunct Momofuku Ko.
Once seated, the menu was there, anchored by a rounded rock. On the front of the menu was a quote from Thoreau which aligned with “The Wild” theme. We were offered the drink menu via iPad and we each ordered a cocktail. Andrea had the Freezer Yuzu martini, which tasted pretty much exactly as you would expect – delicious and refreshing with a bit of a lift from the yuzu. I had the Costa Brava which was vodka, spanish red vermouth, yuzu, and olive. Whereas Andrea’s cocktail was light and refreshing, mine had a more weighty and savory taste to it from the red vermouth and olives and it was also delicious.
The menu was simple separated into chilled and warm small plates, mains, and dessert with 3 choices in each section except just 2 for dessert. There was an option for the tasting menu (Chef’s Choice) very reasonably pricied at $130. This was normally 5 courses, but we were told it was 6 today. Normally, it’s a no-brainer for us to go for the tasting menu, but we were so interested in the other offerings from the menu that we decided to go a la carte and each order different dishes so we can try as much of the menu as possible (4 courses x 2 of us = 8 dishes to try). We were not disappointed.
First came an amuse. I can’t remember the ingredients in here, but you can see how meticulously prepared it is from the photo. I just remember an array of flavors and a nice crunch.
Our two cold small plates came out. We ordered the charred kale and honeynut squash salad as well as the caviar sundae (and we were really tempted by the yellowtail crudo with bonito ponzu (hamachi and ponzu is Andrea’s go to at a sushi restaurant)…next time). We had ordered the kale because we both figured we should have some greens in our meal somewhere, lol. This actually turned out to be one of our favorites. With this dish (and as would turn out with every dish), there were layers of flavors. Of course there was the kale and the squash, but there were also some seawood/nori bits and the sesame from the dressing was flavorful just by itself. It made for a fantastic salad and Andrea was only wishing that there had been more if it.
The other dish was the caviar dish, which of course we couldn’t resist. They use hybrid kaluga (my favorite) from The Caviar Co. which we have enjoyed numerous times in the past at home, at their restaurant in Tiburon, at other restaurants, and at their Caviar Day event. This caviar was served on creme fraiche ice cream sprinkled with a bit of corn which was and interesting but perfect pairing for the caviar.
For the warm small plates, we ordered the abalone and the venison dishes (although again, we were very tempted by the mussel dish with the gochujang…next time). I often order abalone if it’s offered since it’s a relatively unique ingredient. The sauce for this dish was made from the abalone liver (I didn’t even know abalone had a liver…) and was so incredibly rich and flavorful. The added bits of kholrabi and madeira soaked raisins all added harmonious elements that layered additional flavors.
Our other warm small plate was the venison, which came in small perfectly cooked rounds of meat. The berry jam and the fennel foam were nice accompaniments to the meat. It was a very nice, well executed dish and only suffers just a touch in comparison to some of the other even more interesting dishes at the meal.
For the mains, we ordered the duck confit and the uni and noodles dishes and Andrea added the white truffle from Alba to the uni noodle dish (and you know we’re suckers for truffle, esp. white truffle from Alba). There was also a cod dish available that we didn’t order, but would certainly consider next time and they also mentioned an off-menu wagyu dish available (was tempting given they were previously a wagyu-focused restaurant, but we did already have steak for dinner last night…next time…). We started with the uni noodle dish. I forgot to ask from where the uni was sourced, but it certainly looked like a domestic (e.g. Santa Barbara or Ft. Bragg and definitely not Hokkaido). This dish was fantastic in large part to the fantastically rich and flavorful uni-lobster foam/broth. I pretty much never eat all the noodles in a broth/soup dish (e.g. pho, ramen), but these noodles had a good flavor and a nice texture and we ate every last noodle.
The duck dish was a perfect winter (ha, we’re suffering through 50F lows with this rainy weather) dish. The confit had a smokiness to it and wasn’t overly greasy like some confit. There were vegetables, mushrooms (cordyceps…don’t think about The Last of Us, haha), and rice all mixed together. It was an elevated comfort dish and perfect for the rainy day and season.
There were two dessert options, so we ordered one of each. Up this point we’d had wine by the glass. All had been decent (no clunkers), but nothing particularly exciting (a Grüner Veltliner, a Gigondas, and a California cab), but for dessert we were offered a couple interesting pours. One was the Tamagawa Time Machine sake based off of a historical sake recipe. This didn’t smell or taste like any sake we had ever had (just look at the color). On True Sake’s site, they describe this as sake as “an enticing collection of mushroom, mochi, dried grass, cooked oranges, maple syrup, lemon honey, burnt wood, and whisky aromas” if that gives you any idea of how different this was. The second was a the Björk liqueur made with Icelandic Birch (including a twig inside the bottle).
Our two desserts were the pear sorbet and the dark chocolate namelaka. The pear sorbet had such a full ripe pear flavor (it’s going to sound weird but it made me think fondly of my childhood when I ate canned bartlett pears that came in a light syrup) along with bursts of chamomile (we actually wish there had been even just a bit more) and honey. Sorbet so often sounds like a throwaway and we would pretty much never order it, but it was well worth it here. The namalaka is basically a Japanese version of a ganache/cream with bits of brown sugar cake and some maple. I think the somm had intended for us to pair the sake with the namalaka and the birch liqueur with the sorbet, but I actually liked it the other way around (i thought the birch was too heavy with the pear sorbet).
Lastly came the petit fours, which again often are just an afterthought, but these were also surprisingly enjoyable. The berry gel, was flavorful without being overly sweet and had the perfect texture, not too gummy/firm and surprisingly delicate. The other was a praline flavored bite had a surprising depth of flavor at this perfunctory offering.
Suffice it to say, we had a fantastic time. It is really a gem of a restaurant with modest pricing (we’ve had meals that literally cost 5x more that was less flavorful and we enjoyed less). We’re interested for when they change their seasonal menu in January and hope to come back here again (minus the laborious commute…).
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