Josh Skenes can smile today as he finally feels some Bauer love: After being awarded a Rising Star honor this year but being left off the Top 100, Skenes’s pop-up-turned-permanent restaurant Saison wins three stars from Mr. Bauer, who calls the food “exciting and intricate” with “flavors are like a fine tapestry, intricately conceived and woven.” He digs all the fire-cooking, calls the space “a little raw and unfinished, but ultimately charming,” but seems to wish the menu had changed more often during his month or two of visits. He also highlights one of our favorite dishes of recent months: the seared abalone “mahogany from the hot griddle… one of the simplest presented dishes, propped on artichoke hearts the size of favas, briny sea beans and a vivid green sauce made from nettles, chervil, parsley, Sylvetta arugula and spinach.” [Chron]
Patti U. meanwhile heads out to the Outer Richmond to Superior Palace Seafood Restaurant (3546 Balboa Avenue), where she enjoys a dish of fried squash and geoduck, as well as a long-necked clam stir-fry with Chinese chives. But she reserves special praise for the snow pea leaves with preserved egg, which she calls “perfect,” and “my favorite dish of all, bright green, tender Chinese chives, wok-tossed with thin slices of sugar-cured Chinese bacon. [Examiner]
