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In Situ (San Francisco, CA)

In Situ
SFMoMA
151 3rd St
San Francisco, CA 94103
Dining date: 12/17/16

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In Situ was probably my most anticipated restaurant opening in San Francisco this past year. It’s both a unique and copycat concept – the restaurant exists to duplicate dishes from notable restaurants around the world, as closely as possible. It’s kind of like a rotating museum exhibit of restaurant dishes, fittingly housed in the SF Museum of Modern Art.

The “chef” here is Cory Lee, ex-chef de cuisine of The French Laundry and chef/owner of Benu and Monsieur Benjamin. He has as strong a pedigree as anyone to be able to duplicate this diverse cuisine here.

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A broad array of dining instruments clearly indicated this would be a unique kind of meal.

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Shrimp & Tasso Henican Five pepper jelly, pickled okra, Crystal hot sauce beurre blanc (Tory McPhail, Commander’s Palace, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1990)

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Glazed Chicken Thigh onsen egg, lettuce, sansho, teriyaki (Hiroshi Sasaki, Gion Sasaki, Kyoto, Japan, 2015)

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Fresh Stone Crab Claw steamed with egg white and Chinese wine (Lau Chiu Shing, Fook Lam Moon, Hong Kong, China, c. 1970)

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Octopus and the Coral braised octopus and seaweed (Virgilio Martinez, Central, Lima, Peru, 2014)

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Liberty Duck Breast French green lentils, apples, aged red wine vinegar sauce (Thomas Keller, The French Laundry, Yountville, California, 1995)

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The Forest quinoa risotto, mushrooms, parsley “moss” (Mauro Colagreco, Mirazur Menton, France, 2011)

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Jokbal Ssam lettuce wraps with pig’s trotter (Byung Jin Kim, Gaon, Seoul, South Korea, 2015)

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Spicy Pork Sausage & Rice Cakes sichuan peppercorn, yu choy (David Chang, Momofuku Ssäm Bar, New York City, 2007)

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Guinea Fowl Larp Chiang Mai raw vegetables and herbs (David Thompson, Nahm, Bangkok, Thailand, 2011)

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Oops! I Dropped the Lemon Tart (Massimo Bottura, Osteria Francescana, Modena, Italy, 2012)

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Jasper Hill Farm Cheesecake hazelnut, white chocolate, cookie (Albert Adrià, Tickets, Barcelona, Spain, 2015)

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Interpretation of Vanity moist chocolate cake, cold almond cream, bubbles and cocoa (Andoni Luis Aduriz, Mugaritz, Errenteria, Spain, 2007)

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In Situ was an interesting meal. While I still love the concept; in practice, it made for a meal that seemed kind of all over the place. I guess that’s the point, but it felt disjointed when creole shrimp was served alongside a Japanese chicken dish and Korean pork lettuce cups. Or, Chinese stone crab served with Peruvian octopus. On an individual basis, however, I really enjoyed trying each one.

Execution of the dishes seemed to be very strong. While I’ve been to a few of the restaurants represented this evening, I’ve never had any of the exact dishes so it was hard to truly compare. However, the flavors and preparations for the restaurants I was familiar with (The French Laundry, Commander’s Palace, Momofuku Ssam Bar) seemed pretty consistent with what I remembered. I would definitely return once the menu refreshed.

4 Comments

  1. The cheesecake at Tickets was truly mind blowing! My only regret was only getting 1, but the two of us shared 9 desserts that night 🙂

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