When a restaurant is packed at 5:15 p.m. on a Tuesday, you know it has it going on.
And when the Michelin Guide bestows upon it a Bib Gourmand, then you know it’s definitely worth a special trip to try.
That’s definitely the case when it comes to Mazra, the family-owned Mediterranean restaurant with locations in San Bruno and Redwood City.
I visited the latter one last week, and came away marveling at the food, service, and price point.
The dining room. There’s also a sweet outdoor dining area, too.Artwork.
The restaurants were founded by brothers, Jordan and Saif Makableh, after they managed to talk their father into letting them transform his Green Valley Market in San Bruno into the first location of Mazra.
It is by Tu David Phu, a Vietnamese American chef raised in Oakland, who competed on “Top Chef” Season 15. He is now the owner of Gigi’s, a Vietnamese wine bar in San Francisco.
It was co-written by Soleil Ho, a Vietnamese American writer, podcaster, and former restaurant reviewer at the San Francisco Chronicle.
For a time, it seemed as if French restaurants were an endangered species in San Francisco.
But in the past few years, that classic cuisine has arisen from the brink. That’s no more evident than the arrival last month of JouJou by David Barzelay and Colleen Booth, the team behind Michelin two-starred Lazy Bear in San Francisco.
While the latter delivers an ambitious tasting menu along with the theatrics of an open kitchen, JouJou in contrast serves only an la carte menu in a sprawling 6,500-square-foot space, divided into a few different dining spaces, along with two bars.
The first bar.And the second one.The enclosed patio dining room that’s like dining in a greenhouse.
It’s fitting that the restaurant is located in the Design District, what with its shades of cream, milky green, and soft pink that create a sort of vintage vibe, not to mention the rather risque baroque wallpaper in the bathrooms. The decor definitely leans into the restaurant’s name, which is French for “plaything.”
Simple and delicious, these lamb loin chops get served with a fresh, creamy, and herby yogurt sauce.
The certified organic, 400-acre farm in the Capay Valley is one of Northern California’s most beloved.
Full Belly Farm draws crowds at its stands at Bay Area farmers markets, and its produce stars on a legion of restaurant menus.
Established in 1985, it grows more than 80 different crops, including all manner of veggies, fruits, nuts, herbs, and flowers. It also raises chickens, sheep, goats, and cows. It offers farm tours, school visits, and popular events that include farm dinners and pizza nights.
Its first cookbook, of which I received a review copy, was written by Amon and Jenna Muller, who are part of the farm’s second-generation owners. Amon Muller, who runs the farm kitchen, trained at legendary Bay Area restaurants, Chez Panisse, Quince, and Coi. Jenna Muller organizes the farm events.
Dungeness crab and perilla tarts at Saison in San Francisco.
Like a rags to riches tale, San Francisco’s Saison restaurant began as modestly as it gets. In 2009, it began as a pop-up after hours in a Mission District cafe before its ensuing runaway success led to its relocation to a custom build-out brick building in SoMa, where it has held court with two coveted Michelin stars since 2019.
Its executive chef, Richard Lee, had even more humble beginnings in San Francisco. The youngest child of Chinese immigrant parents — a seamstress mother and security guard father — he grew up in a household where going to McDonald’s was a considered a treat, one that the family could rarely afford.
Since coming to Saison in 2019 as chef de cuisine, he and the restaurant have proved a synergistic fit. In 2023, Lee, who previously worked for six years at Michelin three-starred Eleven Madison Park in New York City, was elevated to executive chef of this ground-breaking restaurant credited with popularizing and evolving live-fire hearth cooking. Weeks ago, he was made a co-owner, too, a sign of just how much confidence and trust the rest of the ownership team has in him.
Executive Chef Richard Lee, a newly made co-owner of the restaurant.On the front of the building.
Dine at Saison, and it’s easy to understand why.
On a recent Friday night when I dined, every table in the lounge and dining room was filled. A few tables were celebrating birthdays, too.
