Review: Trestle
For those of us wondering where in SF we can still eat a decent meal without breaking the bank, look no further. Sitting on the edge of Chinatown at the corner of Jackson and Columbus is a humble restaurant called Trestle, a place that focuses on the comforts and tastes of a family meal. At Trestle, the $35 three course pre-fixe menu changes on a daily basis but will often have a couple repeating dishes for each season. The food here is fancy enough to make the restaurant the perfect place to celebrate a special occasion or a romantic date, yet the atmosphere is casual enough that there’s no hint of stuffiness or pressure to dress up.
At Trestle, the menu is composed of 2 appetizers, 2 mains, and 2 desserts with 2 optional $10 pasta supplements that can be shared among two people. If you do come here as a party of two, I highly recommend ordering one of each dish on the menu and then sharing everything. We did exactly this and were able to sample the entire menu 🙂
Our first course was a Butternut Squash Soup with Granny Smith Apple, Sage Yogurt, and Nutmeg. This was an absolutely amazing dish with so much flavor packed into each bite. The soup was creamy but not too rich, and the acidity from the apples balanced out the natural sweetness of the butternut. This was a great start to the meal, and I could have easily eaten two bowls of this!
The other appetizer was a salad of Crispy Pork and Chicories, with Chinese Five Spice, Fuyu Persimmon, and Walnuts. I’m usually not a huge fan of salads just because they are, more often than not, inconsistently dressed, but I was nicely surprised by how well all the flavors worked together to create something that was super refreshing and bright. The pork and chicories added a nice crunch to the salad as well.
The pasta options available that evening looked amazing, so we couldn’t resist. The first pasta dish was a Papparadelle Pasta with Soft Poached Egg, Whipped Ricotta, and Cauliflower. The texture and thickness of the pasta was spot-on, and the egg was oh so rich and creamy. I’m also a huge fan of papparadelle, so this was the perfect pasta dish for me!
The second pasta supplement was a Mushroom Risotto with Maitake, Grana Padano, and Mignonette. The mushroom flavor was very strong in this dish, though it was a bit heavier than expected and filled us up quite a bit.
For the mains, we had the Truffle Stuffed Chicken with Savory Bread Pudding, Green Beans, and Cranberry Jus, which was essentially Thanksgiving on a plate! The chicken was perfectly cooked and overall the dish was very satisfying, though it could have used a touch more of the sauce.
The second main was a Pan-Roasted Salmon in Coconut Lobster Broth, Mussels, and Crispy Chow Mein. We loved everything about this course except for the crispy chow mein, which we thought was a very strange addition to the almost soupy nature of the dish.
And then came dessert! Our first was a Cinnamon & Dark Chocolate Mousse with Egg Nog, Hazelnuts, and Ginger Bread Crumble. We were again impressed by how the restaurant was trying to stick to their holiday-themed dishes, and while we preferred the other dessert over this one, we couldn’t deny that the mousse was absolutely delicious 🙂
Our second dessert was a Huckleberry Coffee Cake with Espresso Streusel, Vanilla Ice Cream, and Milk Jam. To be honest, any sort of buttery, cakey dessert with a scoop of ice cream is automatically a favorite in our books 🙂 We absolutely loved how well the huckleberries and milk jam paired with the coffee cake, and I honestly wish we had ordered an extra of this dessert!
If you haven’t visited Trestle yet, I hope this post inspired you to try out the restaurant. I truly mean it when I say it’s a gem – in fact, I’ve already made another reservation back!
Final Rating: ★★★★★
Price: $$
Trestle
531 Jackson St., San Francisco, CA 94133
(415) 772-0922
http://trestlesf.com/