State Bird Provisions

This place is a must try from the perspective of the atmosphere, style of service, and uniqueness of cuisine. It was an extremely fun experience to sit right at the bar, learn about the different dishes and watch them be made, and try them ourselves. Due to the dimsum style service, which was quite fun, don't expect to eat in any particular order. We shared around 11 or 12 dishes across their standard menu as well as their rotating menu. Though this is labelled as "American" cuisine, each dish seemed like a fusion of another culture, be it east Asian, south Asian, etc. For example the 7th picture was a beat based dish that tasted just like my mom's beat curry. Flavours aren't subtle in most of the dishes -- that's not necessarily a bad thing, it just depends on your taste. Overall a fun and playful food experience!

High energy place and fun just being in the middle of the hustle and bustle - the chefs were ever moving, churning out dish after dish, the waiters were carrying plates of tapas or wheeling them around eg. Scallop crudo, potato chips with trout dip, pork belly with fish sauce, etc I really wanted to like the food but the ones I tried such as pork belly, sourdough-sourrkraut with pecorino and ricotta, black cod toast, state bird were too either too heavy or salty or hard (deep fried). The only one I liked was the scallop crudo. Overall, fun for a try but I expected much higher standards from a one star Michelin.

I generally do not ever leave comments but this was definitely one of the worst meals i’ve paid for in SF. To start off with dim sum style appetizers, hog island oysters with kraut was not good together. The kraut was too crunchy and too much on soft oysters which was overpowering in general. The pate is not very good, i think french butter would have been better with almond fancier. The “best” one was the handrolls and even that i didn’t understand other toppings with scallops. Just overall did not have any harmony with the ingredients. Regarding the “main” dishes we ordered state bird and the steak. The state bird chicken seemed a little undercooked and not worth $24 for 2 pieces of average fried chicken. Also the steak was tender for sure but was so salty i couldn’t taste the numbing sensation from sichuan peppercorn. I actually didn’t have high hopes and i genuinely felt robbed. Their drinks and water were very good.

What can I say about State Bird Provisions? We're been coming here for the past 10 years for the consistent, innovative cuisine and excellent service. This place will not disappoint if you are lucky enough to get a reservation. Our primary server, Megan, was kind enough to review the menu of main courses and the plethora of appetizers served dim sum style on carts pushed around the restaurant, pick and choose to your liking. For mains, we ordered California state bird, Wolfe Ranch quail which took 3 days to prepare, marinated in buttermilk. The best on the menu since the place first opened. We also had the Stemple Creek butcher's steak in a Sichuan peppercorn au poivre and tingly potato salad as well as local dungeness crab with kimchi yuba noodles and smoked egg bottarga. The steak was medium rare, flavorful and tender. The crab and noodles was underwhelming and should be skipped. Overall, State Bird Provisions is a consistently excellent with it's inventive cuisine and impeccable service. It's the reason it's so hard to get reservations here. State Bird Provisions is one of my top three places to dine in San Francisco.

Wow! 5 stars cannot even comprehend how wonderful this establishment was. My only complaint was not having a bigger stomach! We arrived for our reservation and was informed our table wasn’t quite ready yet, but we could step to their sister establishment next door for a quick libation while we waited. It was perfect timing for us to enjoy a quick cocktail before dinner. Upon being seated, we were quickly educated on how things would be orchestrated for dinner service. PSA - they are not exaggerating when they say they will bring round à la carte items for you to pick from in addition to the dinner menu. Wow! So many options - it was a tad overwhelming but in the best way. We opted for 4 à la carte items and 3 dinner items. A bit much for 2 people, but we just couldn’t say no. It was all outstanding. Sadly we had no room for dessert and that was one of the parts I was really looking forward to. However, we definitely had no shortage of amazing food. All our service staff was incredibly knowledgeable and professional. Thank you for a wonderful time.