See Us Eat: Dinner at Bushi-Tei, San Francisco, CA

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Dinner at Bushi-Tei, San Francisco, CA

We needed to find a place for dinner close to the Kabuki Cinema since we were having dinner between film festival movies. We'd heard of Bushi-Tei, but never eaten there. It's a high end Japanese place with beautiful decor and very friendly staff, but ultimately, it's just too expensive for what it was. We only ordered appetizers, and strangely, the appetizers were not much less expensive than the entrees. Go once, if only for the Japanese toilet...

Cooked Marinated Tuna (gratuit)
This was tasty, but it looked raw, so that's what we were expecting when we popped it into our mouths. It was flavorful though, and unexpected.

Bread and Butter (gratuit)
Usually we don't photograph bread, but this was very good. It was served warm and chock full of toasted rice.

Fluke Sashimi with Golden Beet Carpaccio $14
All of the ingredients by themselves were very tasty. As a whole, we're not quite sure that this dish worked.

Tuna Tartare $16
Far too expensive, but a solid rendition. I wish chef's would forget about the avocado already. I haven't had a tartare without avocado in a while.

Miso Marinated Kobe Beef with Grilled Camembert $20
Also very expensive. The bread was totally unnecessary and the beef didn't taste like miso, although the dish as a whole was nice. The granny smith apples added a nice tart crunch.

Crab and Lobster Salad with Papaya and Bacon $20
Really delicious. The bacon was a nice added bonus, and the crab and lobster were plentiful and fresh.

Seared Foie Gras with Pumpkin Pot de Creme and Pistachios $22
This was the star of the show. Alexis isn't usually that into foie gras, but she loved this. Although it was a bit sweet, the pistachios added a nice texture contrast to the rich custardy texture of both the pot de creme and the foie.