The Quince people really think a lot of themselves.   I had to make the reservation EXACTLY 30 days from the time I wanted the reservation. No more, no less.  They wanted a $100 deposit (cancellation fee) on the credit card for four people.  You can only bring up to two bottles of wine per table, at $35 corkage for each one.  And when I tried to take a picture of one of the courses, the hostess quickly ran up and said that there were to be no pictures of the food.  I thought I was on a Seinfeld episode, the one with the Soup Nazi.  That said, it really was a great meal.  We opted for the tasting menu as it offered both a great value as well as a good opportunity to really experience the chef’s talents.  One side note: a member of our dining party is pregnant and the server offered her a rather sophisticated beverage option: non-alcoholic gewurztraminer juice and later pinot noir juice.  They were actually fairly tasty.  The gewurztraminer especially almost tasted like the real thing. 

The tasting menu included the following:

Maine lobster salad, asparagus, trumpet mushrooms – Great start. Perfectly cooked lobster, delicate sauce.

Dover Sole, spinach and truffled hollandaise sauce – The best Dover Sole I ever had. Lightly coated in flour and perfectly sauteeed. Truffled Sauce was brilliant.

Caramelle, celery root and black truffle – Unexpectedly good.  The pasta looked like little tootsie rolls and had fantastic texture and depth of flavor

Agnolotti dal plin – Lovely meat-filled tiny raviolis, traditional Piedmonte style. Solid, but the table agreed they were not as good as the Caramelle.

Marin Sun Farms Ribeye, fried spring onions, creamed nettles, spinach – Only disappointment of the night. None of us cared for the dish.  Texture of the ribeye was not tender enough. Sauce overpowered.

Chocolate Hazelnut bombe, olive oil gelato – So rich, so decadent.  Olive oil gelato did not taste of strong olive oil flavor, which pleased me, is this is typically why I do not care for olive oil gelato.  I want more.

$110 PP

1701 Octavia Street
(between Austin St & Bush St)
San Francisco,
CA
94109
(415) 775-8500

http://www.quincerestaurant.com

Recommended!!