2224 Mission Street (Mission District)
San Francisco, CA 94110
Tel. 415.355.1500
commonwealthsf.com
Chef Jason Fox
"A progressive American restaurant in San Francisco's Mission district." This is how Commonwealth describes themselves on their website. Jason Fox, who used to be the Chef at Bar Tartine, is now the Executive Chef of Commonwealth. Having eaten at Bar Tartine the year before and enjoying a good meal, we had heard great things about Commonwealth. Commonwealth strives to be a restaurant that has finer dining at reasonable prices, which is something that we love.
seaweed flecked house made potato chips (complimentary)
The chips texturally were similar to Lay's but had a flavor that would most likely to be found in Japan Lay's and not in America. The seaweed flavor wasn't an "in your face" seaweed flavor, but more of a light dusting of seaweed.
malt vinegar foam
The chips were meant to be eaten with the malt vinegar foam, which added a nice acidity. This tasted like a salt and vinegar chip...correction..a seaweed and vinegar chip.
shishito peppers, goat cheese and rose petals (6)
The peppers were nicely blistered. The addition of the goat cheese went really well with the peppers to help lessen the heat from these peppers. Luckily, we didn't have any that were over the top spicy. The rose petals visually were a beautiful addition to the dish and lent a slight floral scent to the dish.
garden tomatoes and basil, black olive crumble, smoked bread, idiazabal cheese (13)
This is what I consider a fancy version of a caprese salad. The dish was beautifully plated on a piece of slate. Every component of this dish worked well together.
summer squash, chilled soup, fried blossoms, shaved salad, vadouvan (9)
One of my favorite courses of the night. This was a chilled soup, which is something that I don't always have the opportunity to try out, with the exception of a gazpacho. The shaved salad was placed in the chilled soup which texturally added to the already delicious vadouvan flavored soup (vadouvan is like french curry spice). The addition of the fried squash blossoms, although unnecessary, were delicious as well.
potato gnocchi, corn, maitake mushrooms, sage, parmesan reggiano, truffle oil (12)
Another favorite of the night, was this gnocchi dish. The gnocchi were perfectly prepared to a pillowy consistency. This was a very well composed dish with the corn adding a sweetness and slight crunchiness, the mushrooms and truffle oil adding an earthiness and the parmesan adding a salty cheesy flavor. Delicious!!!
marrow stuffed squid, tamarind pork, shelling beans, black garlic, cilantro (13)
Compliments from the chef for our anniversary! What a nice touch by the staff at Commonwealth. The squid was nicely cooked. The marrow and pork added a meatiness to the dish. Didn't really care too much for the beans. This was Commonwealth's version of surf and turf.
corn custard, sea urchin, chorizo, lobster emulsion, jalapeno (15)
This was one of the dishes I was most looking forward to as I perused the menu. What's not to love about sea urchin, chorizo, lobster, and corn custard? The corn custard itself was very light, almost like a panna cotta with the essence of corn. I couldn't really detect too much flavor of lobster though. The jalapeno flavor kind of hits you on the palette and creeps up on you. The sea urchin and the corn custard had a nice creaminess that went really well together.
grilled lamb tongue, chard, burnt eggplant, miso and mint (12)
This is the only dish of the night that I did not enjoy. Reading the description, I thought that the miso flavor and mint would work wonderfully together.The dish in my opinion was over salted and lacked the complexity that I was expecting. I really couldn't taste the miso.
frozen matcha meringue, pistachio, summer berries, strawberry consomme (8)
I believe this dish involved the use of liquid nitrogen to freeze the matcha meringue. I enjoyed the taste of the matcha with the berries and the consomme.
Commonwealth in my opinion has met its goal of serving upscale food at reasonable prices for a larger segment to enjoy. The dishes at Commonwealth are beautifully composed and for the most part were all very good. If you are looking for a reasonably price restaurant that is serving innovative dishes, I would definitely give Commonwealth a try.
San Francisco, CA 94110
Tel. 415.355.1500
commonwealthsf.com
Chef Jason Fox
"A progressive American restaurant in San Francisco's Mission district." This is how Commonwealth describes themselves on their website. Jason Fox, who used to be the Chef at Bar Tartine, is now the Executive Chef of Commonwealth. Having eaten at Bar Tartine the year before and enjoying a good meal, we had heard great things about Commonwealth. Commonwealth strives to be a restaurant that has finer dining at reasonable prices, which is something that we love.
seaweed flecked house made potato chips (complimentary)
The chips texturally were similar to Lay's but had a flavor that would most likely to be found in Japan Lay's and not in America. The seaweed flavor wasn't an "in your face" seaweed flavor, but more of a light dusting of seaweed.
malt vinegar foam
The chips were meant to be eaten with the malt vinegar foam, which added a nice acidity. This tasted like a salt and vinegar chip...correction..a seaweed and vinegar chip.
shishito peppers, goat cheese and rose petals (6)
The peppers were nicely blistered. The addition of the goat cheese went really well with the peppers to help lessen the heat from these peppers. Luckily, we didn't have any that were over the top spicy. The rose petals visually were a beautiful addition to the dish and lent a slight floral scent to the dish.
garden tomatoes and basil, black olive crumble, smoked bread, idiazabal cheese (13)
This is what I consider a fancy version of a caprese salad. The dish was beautifully plated on a piece of slate. Every component of this dish worked well together.
summer squash, chilled soup, fried blossoms, shaved salad, vadouvan (9)
One of my favorite courses of the night. This was a chilled soup, which is something that I don't always have the opportunity to try out, with the exception of a gazpacho. The shaved salad was placed in the chilled soup which texturally added to the already delicious vadouvan flavored soup (vadouvan is like french curry spice). The addition of the fried squash blossoms, although unnecessary, were delicious as well.
potato gnocchi, corn, maitake mushrooms, sage, parmesan reggiano, truffle oil (12)
Another favorite of the night, was this gnocchi dish. The gnocchi were perfectly prepared to a pillowy consistency. This was a very well composed dish with the corn adding a sweetness and slight crunchiness, the mushrooms and truffle oil adding an earthiness and the parmesan adding a salty cheesy flavor. Delicious!!!
marrow stuffed squid, tamarind pork, shelling beans, black garlic, cilantro (13)
Compliments from the chef for our anniversary! What a nice touch by the staff at Commonwealth. The squid was nicely cooked. The marrow and pork added a meatiness to the dish. Didn't really care too much for the beans. This was Commonwealth's version of surf and turf.
corn custard, sea urchin, chorizo, lobster emulsion, jalapeno (15)
This was one of the dishes I was most looking forward to as I perused the menu. What's not to love about sea urchin, chorizo, lobster, and corn custard? The corn custard itself was very light, almost like a panna cotta with the essence of corn. I couldn't really detect too much flavor of lobster though. The jalapeno flavor kind of hits you on the palette and creeps up on you. The sea urchin and the corn custard had a nice creaminess that went really well together.
grilled lamb tongue, chard, burnt eggplant, miso and mint (12)
This is the only dish of the night that I did not enjoy. Reading the description, I thought that the miso flavor and mint would work wonderfully together.The dish in my opinion was over salted and lacked the complexity that I was expecting. I really couldn't taste the miso.
frozen matcha meringue, pistachio, summer berries, strawberry consomme (8)
I believe this dish involved the use of liquid nitrogen to freeze the matcha meringue. I enjoyed the taste of the matcha with the berries and the consomme.
Commonwealth in my opinion has met its goal of serving upscale food at reasonable prices for a larger segment to enjoy. The dishes at Commonwealth are beautifully composed and for the most part were all very good. If you are looking for a reasonably price restaurant that is serving innovative dishes, I would definitely give Commonwealth a try.
4 comments:
WOW - this all looks amazing. i have to say hubby & i LOVE to enjoy chilled soups all summer long and have several wonderful recipes of my own for a few, so that one really caught my eye. the
potato gnocchi sounded really good too and that dessert looked so light and fresh! what a wonderful trip to the Commonwealth - thank you!
Hi Minimocs! Lucky you and the hubby to get to eat chilled soups during the summer. I'll have to start experimenting with some chilled soups too. Sounds great on a summer night or day. As always, thanks for the comment. We love them!
These all sound really good I'll have to try some of those chilled soups too.Thanks for sharing.
weight - The chilled soup was delicious. You should try it one day. Thanks for stopping by!
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