SINGLETHREAD

Michelin Guide needs to either award this restaurant four stars or kick a bunch restaurants off its guidebook because SingleThread has exceeded my high expectations and raised the bar for culinary art. Decadent can be used to describe so many other less creative restaurants where they make good things better, some of them much better: truffle, more truffle, caviars, more caviar, foie gras, seafood, steak, etc. SingleThread makes ordinary things magical. Every bite you take is a window into a different world. Every course is multiple windows because every part of the course tells a unique story:
The gentleness of yuba (silky tofu skin), the quiet ocean tales by the savory and lingering flavors of dashi (seaweed), the salty and cold Tomales Bay breeze from the oyster, the bitterness of crisp gai lan, and the explosion of excitements from this pastry/tart.
Paced like a traditional kaiseki meal, you get your appetizers (10 of them in fact served on a tiny tabletop mountain), sashimi, steam dish (chawamushi), fried dish (shirako, fried sperms that I usually avoid in Japan but enjoyed here), simmered dish (even the cabbage on the side in daikon bone broth was heavenly), veggie dish (what I can only describe as a sculpture/3-d salad hidden with surprises including duck pate cream at the base that you eat with every bite, and candied coins looking things that are dehydrated sparkle of flavors), fish dish (where the skin was fried like pork rind yet the meat melted in your mouth; it’s accompanied by mochi made by pumpkin yet the best mochi I ever had; it’s the same dish as the simmer dish btw so also the cabbage and soup), meat dish (the steak was flawless; the wine pairing was a comparison of two Pinot varietals; one from new world one from old world) , and finished with a rice dish (porridge of local mushroom; I ate the entire bowl!).
Lastly, the wine pairing was generous, and the take home menu was something I have never seen before… just look at the photo I post.

One of my favorite Michelin experience.

The meal was perfection, we did the wine pairing as well.. from start to finish everything was divine. The service, ambiance, experience, food, everything! I have celiacs and they made sure to make everything gluten free and cooked safely for me. AMAZING! Best meal/experience of our lives!!

Good service but odd description of the food, as Ingredients were listed in painful detail, but too fast and too quietly to really understand. Maybe I should have requested the server to be louder and slower. Food was superb. Service was very attentive. Music was too loud, registering about 72-74 decibels. When the music was briefly paused, the reading went down to 62-64. A major difference and much more pleasant. The desserts were sweetened to Japanese taste, although I prefer sweeter standards.

What an experience. The space was great. Gotta check out the bathrooms. Service was impeccable. The staff was attentive without being over bearing. Shout out to Jackson the sommelier for being knowledgeable and funny. Food was excellent and precise. Great presentation, delicious flavors and paired well with the wines.

The price was steep but ultimately worth it.