Memorable Culinary Journey Through The France’s Burgundy Region At RN74 In San Francisco

RN74

Embark on a delectable culinary journey that highlights the cuisine and wine of France’s Burgundy region when you dine at RN74. Located in San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood, the restaurant is appropriately named after Burgundy’s famous highway, Route Nationale 74. In addition to a carefully curated selection of wines from regions of Burgundy and beyond, RN74 boasts an impressive menu that fuses the sophistication of French cuisine with the modernity of American influences.

Wild Gulf Snapper Crudo ($17)

Start the journey with Wild Gulf Snapper Crudo ($17). This refreshing dish features three slices of fresh snapper sashimi topped with thinly sliced green apple, beets, beech mushroom, wild herbs, and a sprinkle of spicy cayenne for an additional kick to the senses. The spoonful of caviar on top of the snapper, as well as the white soy vinaigrette, provides savory balance to the dish.

Hand-Cut Chitarra Pasta ($22)

Another highlight from the appetizer menu is the Hand-Cut Chitarra Pasta ($22). Accompanying a bed of al danta pasta are braised clams, guanciale (Italian cured meats), uni, and razor clam shell filled with crunchy breadcrumbs. The foamy uni carbonara sauce on the side is rich and creamy, presenting the perfect enhancement to the dish.

Smoked Bone Marrow ($16)

Don’t forget to order the Smoked Bone Marrow ($16) for the table. The dish may be a bit too rich and heavy for one person to enjoy, but perfect to share. The bone marrow, topped with smokey oxtail marmalade, Vadouvan butter, and lemon confit with thickly sliced, toasted sourdough bread on the side, oozes so much intense flavors as it melts in your mouth.

Porchetta Style Rabbit Pate ($18)

By far the most beautiful and colorful item on the menu, the Porchetta Style Rabbit Pate ($18) is a unique dish that resembles a savory yule log cake. The smooth and creamy rabbit pate packs bits and pieces of carrots, peas, and asparagus. It is wrapped in crispy prosciutto and topped with generous shavings of truffle. On the side are crispy, tempura fried sweetbreads in sweet and sour sauce and pickled vegetables over lyonnaise vinaigrette.

Caramelized Scallop Bouillabaisse ($36)

The name Caramelized Scallop Bouillabaisse ($36) is somewhat of a misnomer. While the plump scallop, which is seared perfectly crispy on the outside and juicy, almost raw on the inside, is certainly delicious, there is much more deliciousness contained in this bowl of bouillabaise than what the name indicates. The stuffed Monterey baby squid, giant gulf prawn, and nori crouton all accentuate the dish. The broth, however, could have been seasoned with slightly less salt as it unfortunately overpowered the seafood.

Coffee-Brinded Duck Breast ($36)

Even though the dish lacks intense coffee flavor, the Coffee-Brinded Duck Breast ($36) highlights an interesting interplay between savory and sweet with medium rare duck breast, blood orange sauce, and puree of butternut squash. The leanness of the duck breast is also accented by the slightly fattier, but much more tender confit of duck leg.

Mont Blanc Aux Noyer ($11) and Verrine Au Citron Et Au Pastis ($11)

Wrap up this fabulous culinary journey with delicate yet rich desserts. Mont Blanc Aux Noyer ($11) features apple compote and vanilla creme that has the softness and creaminess of soft serve ice cream, all sandwiched by a wall of crunchy walnut tuile. The deconstructed Verrine Au Citron Et Au Pastis ($11) is a refreshing lemon mousse dessert with layers of star anise cremeux and moist anise cake. This concludes the unforgettable trip along the delectable menu of RN47, but there are many roads not taken - and I will certainly come back for more.

A Friend's Birthday Dinner at Catalyst

To celebrate my friend's 20th birthday, a group of us went to Catalyst Restaurant in Kendall Square near MIT. This relatively new restaurant serves modern American cuisine with French influence. According to its website, Catalyst uses products centered on locally grown organic produce and wild and farm raised food from sustainable practices.

The five of us started the meal with two appetizers to share. The first dish that came to the table was the Curried Tempura Asparagus ($10) with Deviled Egg Aioli and Pickled Ramp Salad. Fried food, along with pork and cheese, is something I do not eat, but I made an exception for this tempura asparagus. The tempura batter was crispy and seasoned perfectly that it did not need any dipping sauce. I have never had tempura asparagus, only tempura potatoes, onions, shrimp, carrots, etc. The pickled ramp salad was refreshing. I did not really taste the deviled egg aioli.

The second appetizer was Lobster Strudel ($15) with Bisque Emulsion and Herb Salad. It was a special appetizer of the day.

I really enjoyed the bitter greens in the salad. It accompanied the slightly creamy insides of the lobster strudel nicely.

The strudel looked like Chinese egg role from the outside. It actually didn't taste that much different, except it was filled with lumps of lobster meat and some sort of creamy sauce. The outside wasn't fried flour, but baked phyllo. The outer layer of the phyllo was crispy, but the inner layer became soggy from the fillings.

For my main, I got the Herb Crusted Salmon ($27) with mushroom, fava beans, pesto, asparagus, and lemon sauce.

The salmon seemed to have been rubbed with more pesto than herb. I didn't taste any of the herb crusted on top.

I really like the strong scent of lemon layering the bottom of the salmon. The sour zestiness of the lemon went well with the fatty salmon. Also the fava beans and the asparagus both had nice textures.

The salmon was cooked rare-just the way I like it! It was so juicy and melted right in my mouth.

Bacon Wrapped Saddle of Rabbit ($28) on a bed of mashed potatoes with sherry jus.

Tournedos of Beef ($28) with Rainbow Chard, Taleggio Ravioli, Garlic, and Parsley Bordelaise Sauce. It looked like a person staring at you!

Roasted Blue Cod ($27) with Olive Oil Crushed Butterball Potatoes, Mussels Chowder, Bacon, and Herb Nage. What an interesting choice to have a filet on top of chowder.

No matter how full people are, they always have more room for dessert ;) Because we had hard time choosing our dessert, we decided that we might as well order everything on the menu. This is the restaurant's signature dish, Butterscotch and Passion Fruit Pudding ($9) with Warm Pound Cake Croutons on the side.

This was by far my favorite dessert. The butterscotch pudding had the right amount of sweetness, and it was so fantastic when dipped with the pound cake croutons, which was quite dense, yet moist and tasty! It tasted like denser version of churros without the sugar & cinnamon on the outside. I would definitely order this again.

Pear-Almond Financier ($9) with House Made Crème Fraiche Ice Cream and Candied Almonds. The financier is a light, moist teacake, similar to sponge cake. I only had a bite of this. Nothing too spectacular.

Meyer Lemon Pudding Cake ($9) with White Chocolate Ganache and Caramelized Pineapple Coulis was my second favorite dessert.

The dollop of creme on top was smooth, light, and airy, while the lemon pudding cake had a similar texture to a very fluffy cheesecake with a pretty strong lemon taste. The pineapple coulis reminded me of mango salsa. I also loved the white chocolate ganache at the bottom that I scraped it with my spoon :)

Finally, the Chocolate Fondant Cake ($9) with Caramel Glaze, Hazelnut Streusel, and Banana Coulis was served with a candle on top for my friend's birthday.

I am not a fan of chocolate so I can't say much about this, but if you are a chocoholic, you will love this dessert. The cake was very dense with a strong strong dark chocolate flavor!

Sandrine's Bistro: Hoppin' Rabbit

Sandrine's Bistro, located at the heart of the Harvard Square, presents classic and contemporary French cuisine. According to its website, the owner Raymond Ost is one of the most decorated French chefs in the region. With his partner Gwen Trost, he has created "a winning combination of European warmth and style with American efficiency."

I always walked past Sandrine's while visiting some friends in the River Houses, so I was excited to try the place for the first time. My friend I ordered the day's special appetizer, Avocado and Lobster.

Granted, we were surprised when the waitress brought the dish. It certainly didn't look like what I had expected! I have never had a dish with half shell of the entire avocado. The dish itself was presented beautiful, so I was really curious to see if the taste lived up to standard.

It certainly did. Like the unique presentation of the dish itself, the taste was nothing like I had ever tasted. We had to scoop the avocado with a spoon and get the crab meat and carrots/cucumber mixture (I believe it was mixed with mayonnaise and some spicy chili sauce). The savory crab meat went really well with the smooth avocado and the seaweed salad at the bottom. Even the cucumber and the tomatoes on the side, which I assume were used merely as a decoration, were tasty! The only minus would be that the dish was a bit difficult to eat because the avocado kept swiveling to the side.

I felt pretty adventurous, so I decided to order the Braised Organic Rabbit Leg (One rabbit leg with wide egg noodles, mushrooms, lardon, maille mustard a l’ Ancienne sauce). Again, it was my first time having rabbit. What a revolutionary experience! The meat was extremely tender, especially compared to the chicken my friend ordered. The sauce was a little too creamy and had big chunks of pork fat (aka bacon) that I was appalled by, but the combination of egg noodle and tender rabbit meat was fascinating.


This is the Organic Roasted Herbes de Provence Half Chicken with Crushed yukon gold potatoes, sautéed haricots verts, au jus that my friend ordered. Eh. Nothing too special. Just a regular chicken. The meat was a bit dry, but that could be because the rabbit was extremely tender in comparison! Rabbit meat could perhaps be my new favorite meat dish.