Orson is the new restaurant by Elizabeth Falkner of Citizen Cake. The food is described as "edgy Californian cuisine." The place is one of those high concept restaurants. I went twice since the restaurant opened and I came away with the same opinion: it was weird, but in a good way. Some of the items were very good, others were just weird.
Orson is named in honor of Orson Wells. The menu had references to many of his movies. The restaurant looks like a cross between a movie set and a modern loft. This is another small plates restaurant. I thought that Orson was pretty expensive, given the amount of food that you actually get. For example, the special was a sous vide rib eye for $58.
The menu was hardly descriptive. They can't be bothered with things such as articles or even nouns at times. However, the staff was very helpful and knowledgeable, which was necessary when it came to picking out menu items.
Many of the drinks were named for Orson Wells movies. I started with a Lady from Shanghai cocktail, which had gin, passion fruit puree, ruby red grapefruit juice and
osmanthus flower foam.
These were some of the dishes I tried. All the portions were very small.
Duck fat fries with brown butter bearnaise sauce: The fries were very good. But if I didn't know that they were fried in duck fat, I wouldn't have been able to tell.
Asparagus and cardoons with black garlic sabayon: The dish only had 3 spears of asparagus and few thin slivers of limp cardoons. If the menu didn't say cardoons, I would have thought that it was celery. It was $9.
Black cod with butter beans and pimenton: The fish was nicely cooked, but not extraordinary.
Parmaggiano pudding with pepper jam and cocoa nib explosion: The pudding was very rich and almost buttery. The cocoa nib explosion made the dish, it was like eating pop rocks. It was kinda cool.
Chocolate pizza with piment d'espelette, sea salt and olive oil: This was a big surprise and the highlight of the dinner. It was delicious. The pizza drizzled with Scharffenberger chocolate and olive oil. The pepper and sea salt cut the richness of the chocolate and made it a savory dish. It was weird, but in a good way.
Carrot dumplings with blood orange and ricotta salata: This dish was weird, but not in a good way. I know that sous vide cooking is trendy, but it doesn't work for everything. I wouldn't want a steak cooked sous vide, since I like a nice seared crust on my steaks. But the carrot dumplings were cooked sous vide and they were very soft and silky. Unfortunately the dish had a strange flavor of Chinese herbs that just ruined the flavor of the carrots for me. I asked the waitress and she said it was an Indian five spice. Whatever it was, it was not good.
Pigwich: This was the dessert item. It consisted of maple bacon ice cream between two chocolate pizzelles. The dish sounded so strange that I had to try it. I like bacon, I like ice cream and I like maple syrup. But I don't like all three at the same time.
It looks like the menu had changed since I went to the restaurant. There are now tasting menus. Perhaps the diners complained about the size of portions.
Orson
508 4th Street
San Francisco, CA 94107
