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Petit Crenn - Dominique Crenn's Brittany-Inspired French by Chef Sam Nuckols on Hayes and Laguna Street in Hayes Valley


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We had dinner at Petit Crenn tonight.

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House-made brioche, butter, sea salt.

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Trio of canapes.

Top: French breakfast radishes, herb butter.
Middle: Gruyere gougères,
Bottom: Oysters with shallot and samphire; tuna crudo, radish, shrimp cracker; cured trout, trout roe.

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Seafood bouillabaisse, with clams, mussels, potato and fennel.

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Sourdough bread, with butter, crème fraîche and espelette pepper.

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Pan-seared turbot, celeriac mousseline, pea shoot, with beurre blanc and herb oil.

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Gnocchi à la Parisienne, beurre noisette, mushrooms.

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Whole-roasted cauliflower, almond crumble.

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Endive salad with green goddess dressing, shaved beets and Comté cheese.

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Valhrona Manjari chocolate ganache, brown butter crumble, grapefruit and orange, lime curd, buttermilk snow.

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Mignardises.

Background: strawberry chambord gelée.
Middle: salted caramels.
Foreground: strawberry macaron.

It was awesome. We'll be back; count on it.

If I had a criticism, I would say that the middle course was too monochromatic. And I'm not exactly a fan of whole-roasted cauliflower; the top gets crispy but the middle is decidedly a bit too crunchy for my palate.

Service charge is included. With two glasses of wine, tax and additional gratuity, it came out to $125 per person.

Petit Crenn
609 Hayes Street (Laguna Street)
Hayes Valley

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Kumiai oyster, crème fraîche, pink peppercorn, rosé gelée.

Very good and a great beginning.

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Kampachi (amberjack) sashimi, apricot purée, almond, Valencia orange and radish.

This was served with brioche and unsalted butter.

It won over B and he doesn't really like fruit with savory.

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Manila clams, fava beans, fermented celtuce, wild borage.

The broth was a clam dashi (clam juice, kombu, bonito flakes, then strained) and a chive oil drizzled over. Exceptionally clean-tasting and a purity of flavor. This was probably our favorite dish tonight.

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Buckwheat crêpe, purple snow peas, lavender mint, burn morels, black summer truffles.

Burn morels are apparently morel mushrooms that grow after a forest fire.

The crêpe was overcooked (B remarked that his was "burnt"), the peas a tad undercooked and someone didn't clean the morels properly (IOW if you can taste grit, it's poor prep work). Looked good though. In terms of flavor, this was "average".

Sorry if that sounds harsh but at the prices that we're paying for a restaurant of this caliber, then I expect perfection. This was not it.

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Trout, asparagus, tarragon pistou, baby gold potatoes, trout roe, mustard seeds.

They omitted the pistou for B since he's not a fan of tarragon. Was a nice, relatively average 5-6 bites of food, and that's about it. This being a high-end restaurant, you're supposed to overlook the fact that the amount of food on the plate is disproporionate to the plate size.

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Strawberry sorbet, lemon verbena sugar, tarragon ice.

This combination worked but I can see how some folks might find that off putting. B had the sorbet only - thanks must be extended to the kitchen for omitting the ice from his plate.

Pairing herb and vegetable components is a trend in fine dining. For instance, parsnip crisp made an appearance at NYC's Villanelle and corn husk meringue at Enrique Olivera's restaurant Cosme a couple of years ago.

Nice transition from savory to sweet.

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German black forest chocolate cake with cherry jam, roasted cherries, kirsch, chocolate ganache and chocolate crumble.

Very good. This was our second dinner at Petit Crenn and if anything, whoever is their pastry chef does an excellent job. A perfectly sized portion that book-ended our meal.

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Mignardises - blood orange gelée; black sesame financiers.

 

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