Gary Danko Visited 1/18/2012 5 Forks

Gary Danko 800 N Point St., San Francisco, CA 94109

Yes, the elusive 5 Forks.  I'm not giving it 5 Forks because of its reputation but the food was honestly some of the best food I've had a long time.  The quality of the food was simply top notch and prepared perfectly.  Hardly any flaws in my entire experience (except for the one fact that it's almost like a casino in there with the blacked out windows).  I was luckily able to go to dinner because of a work meeting and I was a bit ashamed to say that I had never heard of this place before and when I mentioned it to my business partners they almost passed out.  Now I know why. 

The menu is broken up into a set menu on the left or a la carte on the right hand side (either 3 courses for $71, 4 courses for $89 or 5 courses for $104 - incredibly reasonable pricing considering the quality of food).  The waiter explained that you don't have to order a typical structure of appetizer, entree and dessert.  If you like, you can order 3 appetizers or 2 appetizers and 1 dessert or they can make the entrees smaller size and you can order several of them.  The hardest part of the entire meal was deciding what to get.  I mean it was REALLY hard to decide what to order and even harder once the waiter came around and described some of the dishes.  I finally decided on the Seared Ahi Tuna with Avocado, Nori, Enoki Mushrooms and Lemon Soy Dressing to start, the Roast Maine Lobster with Potato Purée, Chanterelle Mushrooms, Edamame and Tarragon for an entree and finished with Warm Louisiana Butter Cake with Apples, Huckleberry Sauce and Vanilla Bean Ice Cream for dessert.  

Just by looking at the Ahi Tuna on the plate made my mouth water.  It was the freshest looking piece of tuna I've ever seen in my life (it tasted it literally had come out of the water right then and there) and I also have a huge crush on enoki mushrooms that it made the dish one of the most amazing dishes I've had in a while. The soy dressing was incredibly light yet was the ideal flavor combination to go with the tuna.  Next the lobster dish...even though I have high cholesterol I simply had to order it. It wasn't a huge piece of lobster that required messiness.  Instead they had already cut it open and taken it out of the shell to make eating it a lot easier.  The potato puree was smooth and amazing on its own, but everything together in one bite made my mouth explode.  Meanwhile the dessert was also delicious and the huckleberry sauce was one of the most unique tastes I've had in a long time.  The cake was almost like a rum cake without the rum but that doesn't detract from how great it was.

Meanwhile the waitstaff was almost too attentive. It reminded me of the service at Blue Hill at Stone Barns but it's what expected at a place like this.  As a nice touch, they gave each of the woman a parting gift of a pumpkin cheesecake wrapped in a gold wrapper.  Again, since it was a business dinner, I don't know how much it was but I heard it was somewhere around $800, which wasn't bad given we also got 3 bottles of wine. 

Photo Credit: Yelp