The Progress 1 MICHELIN star San Francisco Restaurant [Review]

A few years back, I had visited State Bird Provisions, a 1 MICHELIN star restaurant in San Francisco known for their small plates, American cuisine. I had really enjoyed the experience so I decided to try their sister restaurant, The Progress.

The Progress is a New American restaurant in the Filmore neighbourhood focusing on a la carte, family-style plates.

Menu

The menu is organized into Vegetables, Mostly; Western Additions; Seafood; and Meat.

What We Tried

Josey Baker whole grain bread

with cider vinegar butter

Radish Kimchi Toast

with honey butter and pine nuts

Hikari Farms Cucumber & Smoked Roe

with Mendocino nori and horseradish buttermilk

Brown butter seaweed noodles

with oyster mushrooms, tomato-kale dashi and bonito

BBQ Liberty Farms Half Duck

This is their signature dish featuring 22 slices of medium rare duck breast presented on a large, white platter with a duck leg and wing on the side. The center of the dish has a mound of fried rice topped with crushed, roasted peanuts with a touch of smoked chile vinegar.

Tempura Zapallito Squash

with scarlet runner beans and jalapeno-pepita crema

Chocolate Layer Cake

with Raspberry Jam, Pink Pepper Peppercorn Cream, Hazelnuts, Long Pepper and Knoll Organics Figs

Lemonade

Interior

The dimly lit interior features a rustic yet modern interior, adorned with reclaimed wood and exposed brick.

Service

The service was memorable for me because it wasn’t very good! This is surprising at the MICHELIN star level but it just wasn’t our luck to receive good service. The bad vibes started at the beginning when our server wasn’t particularly enthused about explaining the menu to us even though we were first-timer guests. She wasn’t around our table very much throughout the evening because I wanted to order more dishes and couldn’t find her. Our glasses weren’t refilled and she didn’t really check on us either.

In contrast, the table next to us seemed to have a better server because I could hear and see how he was interacting with the guests. I guess it wasn’t our night to receive good service.

Overall

The food at The Progress was quite good and I appreciated all the unique ingredient combinations and tastes. My favourite dishes were the Brown Butter Seaweed Noodles and the BBQ Liberty Farms Duck. The service (or lack thereof) cast a shadow on our overall experience but perhaps others will have better luck when they dine there.

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