In Situ is the one Michelin star restaurant inside the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. It is a very modern large place with a separate entrance from the street, so you don’t have to be in the museum. A couple of long wood tables with bar stools are up front opposite a painting created for In Situ. The other tables are small blond wood and appointed with bench seating or wood chairs. It’s very bright and open and a really interesting ceiling sculpture of wood is a highlight of the decorating, as there is surprisingly little art on the walls. Their concept is to present some of their own creations but also to feature some highlights from their ‘current collaborators’ or well-recognized chefs around the world. We have been lucky enough to visit some of these places in their home countries and had the original take on the dish and when possible I have posted those pictures following the ones from In Situ. The chefs do advise and approve of the version of their dishes and I thought they did a good job. It’s a fun concept. Service was excellent. Our server Katerina, from Lithuania, was most helpful and interested in seeing pictures of the corresponding dishes. She even brought us an extra dessert, one developed by their staff, so we could get a real sample of what was going on there. I would recommend the place for a fun lunch.
We split a number of dishes starting with Dadinhos de Tapioca or tapioca and cheese fritters. They were served with a sweet chili sauce. The squares were lightly fried with a nice crispy coating and paired nicely with the sweet spicy sauce. Inside they were tender and a little gooey. Good. The Cuttlefish Cappuccino was potato with braised cuttlefish and ink from Le Calandre in Italy. This one was really good with a smooth and rich layer of potatoes mixed with tender braised cuttlefish. The soft tender chunks of cuttlefish were dark from the ink and added a fun texture to the creamy potatoes.
A Wasabi Lobster was lobster with mango jelly and Thai vinaigrette decorated with wasabi marshmallows which were slightly spicy. This was a dish from Tim Raue in Berlin, where he made it with prawn. This lobster was from Nova Scotia and was fresh and tender. It was lightly coated and fried and in a sauce delicately flavored with wasabi and chopped vegetables. It was excellent and benefitted from a bit of ginger somewhere in the mix. This was a fabulous dish.
A ‘Lamb Carrot’ was braised lamb with sheep’s milk yoghurt from Clare Smyth’s Core in London. It was served with soft and doughy rolls stuffed with a bit of well done lamb. The sheep’s milk yoghurt held a bit of pesto and on a bed of lamb jus. The sauce was particularly good to sop up with the rolls. Everything went very well together and left a lot of wonderful lingering aftertastes in your mouth. Very good.
For dessert we had the Jasper Hill Farm Cheesecake with hazelnuts and white chocolate alongside cookies from Tickets in Barcelona. The thin buttery cookies were the real amazing part here. They were so delicious Katerina brought us another plate of them to eat with the tender, creamy cheesecake that was wrapped in a layer of white chocolate. It was an excellent combo. Ice Cream of Salted Butter with hazelnuts and molasses was from Maaemo in Oslo. The sweet, creamy ice cream was drizzled tableside with molasses. It was very tasty.
Mint Chocolate feuilletine, cocoa nibs and amaranth seed was an In Situ creation. It was a thin box of chocolate ‘cake’ filled with chocolate ice cream and then topped with mint ice cream. It was very nice and I appreciated the generous gesture.
