Commonwealth

It’s hard to believe such a nice classy restaurant is situated smack in the middle of where you can also get bacon wrapped hot dogs, corn on the cob, chicharrónes and various other Central American street eats! Gentrification at its finest.
My fiancé and I came here to celebrate our recent engagement. The hostess gave us a choice to dine at a regular table or at the bar by the kitchen where we can watch the chefs in action. Of course we chose the bar because it adds to the dining experience! We were offered complimentary celebratory champagne which was a very sweet gesture from our server! We also ordered a bottle of the Pineau D’Aunis Rosé from Loire Valley, France which tasted crisp and refreshing.
Decisions are too hard, so we immediately agreed on the 6 course tasting menu. It was really dark in the restaurant, which made it difficult to visually appreciate our dishes. Luckily, I took pictures and it wasn’t until I looked at the pictures on my phone the next day, I realized how beautiful and colorful the dishes were!
My favorites were:
Poached oysters, potatoes cooked in clay, kombu, spinach, squid ink meringue — This dish was amazing because it had so many textural elements to it in every bite! It felt like a party in my mouth.
Sesame and nori coated avocado, charred romaine, popcorn, togarashi, yuzu kosho milk — Perfectly ripened avocado with crunchy nori, creamy sauce and popcorn?! Delicious and creative!
Celery Sorbet with verjus soda — I’m not a big fan of celery, but this sorbet surprised me! It acted as a palate cleanser; the fizzy soda tingled and cleaned up my taste buds and prepped it for the finale… dessert!!!
Beer Meringue, chocolate ganache, pretzel crumble, crème fraîche ice cream — Another dish exploding in textural and flavorful surprises! The crème fraîche ice cream was light and creamy, chocolate ganache was rich and bittersweet, beer meringue airy and chewy, pretzel crumble was crunchy and crumbly! All these elements bonded together into perfection. I was impressed.
The only downside is, I wish our bottle of rosé was kept in a bucket of ice because it started to taste warm around the 4^th course. Overall, the service was wonderful and it was amazing to watch the chefs work together in such sync and harmony without having to speak to one another. It’s as if they can read each other’s minds. We had a very romantic evening and would recommend others to come here to celebrate any occasion because they really make you feel special!

Food is okay but not really «worth it.» Service is a bit lacking but maybe that’s the style. Bit patronizing. Donates to charity which is a plus. Overall, worth a visit maybe but not a second imo.

Returning to Commonwealth for the Nth time and every single time, the tasting menu continues to be as inspiring as ever. Eating well and giving back to the community never has never tasted better where each small bites build up to an ever more wondrous ending of a meal. Always.

Service: Excellent. Stephanie was our server and she was great. We never had to flag her down, the attention was great, and when we made a passing comment that we enjoyed the dessert, she brought us some more!
Food: we opted to go with the a la carte menu because it would end up being cheaper and we could get more of the dishes we wanted. Everything was delicious but the highlights of the meal were the scallop, the smoked mussels, and the beer meringue dessert. We had 6 dishes and were full but not feeling sick. Perfect amount.
Wine: we had the Chianti Sangiovese which was delicious and ended the meal with a port.
If you haven’t gone yet, check it out!

Located in an unassuming and seemingly abandoned building at Mission and 18^th, I swear I’ve walked by Commonwealth more than a dozen times without knowing it was a functioning restaurant, let alone a one star Michelin. In fact, the Mission seems to harbor many of these hidden culinary gems hidden in plain sight. We are truly lucky to be living in this neighborhood — so many secrets here. I digress though.
The restaurant itself is cozy, with an open kitchen and frosted windows to block the outside world. The frosted windows are most likely to block the possible un-​pleasantries of Mission Street such as a hobo relieving himself just as you receive your main course. I’m all for the social support the city provides, but we all have our limits. :)
Anyhow — onto the food!
My date and I decided on the a la carte menu so we could try seven unique dishes instead of sharing the same tasting menu plates.
Listed in order of favorites.
1) Uni, butternut squash, puffed barley, black walnut, squash consommé.
Amazing. Even my date who doesn’t usually like Uni loved it. There was a sweetness from the butternut squash and squash consommé that paired very well with the uni. Along with some crunch from the puffed barley and walnut — you got nuttiness ending with the creaminess of the Uni. I think they also shaved some Yuzu skin all over the dish which just added another level of amazing.
2) Potato, bone marrow, cabbage, black garlic, preserved lemon aioli, Cabbage glass.
Wow. Technically and artistically amazing. There was a sheet of cabbage glass laid on top. Think a thin sheet of translucent paper that has a strong essence of cabbage. Wtf. There was also what seemed like pickled sweet cabbage, which you mixed with the bone marrow sauce, black garlic, aioli, and smoked potato. Combined — such a symphony of flavors.
3) Young hen, parsnip, white chocolate, grapefruit, almond and chicken skin crumble.
Super interesting dish. They took a piece of young hen and crisped up the skin. Another piece of hen was sous vide’d. White chocolate shavings all over including what seemed like a sauce that had some white chocolate, almond, and chicken skin. Just an amazing dish. The white chocolate worked so well with the hen.
4) Pickled Mackerel, egg noodle, sweet potato fritter, charred turnip, salsify, trout roe.
One of the most beautiful dishes of the night — There was dashi broth turned into agar jelly scattered with beautiful pieces of mackerel. Add in a sweet potato fritter topped with trout roe. Just an amazing art piece and perfect if you love the essence of seafood.
5) Sablefish, ember roasted chile, fennel, olive, puffed rice crackers, black lime.
A solid dish with some bite — the chile really added a nice kick to this dish. Just hot enough to make you sweat but not so much that your taste buds were singed. I definitely loved the play between the sablefish and the sauce.
6) The complimentary homemade seaweed potato chips with malt vinegar foam.
I really loved this — the malt vinegar foam totally coated the chips and upon contact with your tongue, the micro air bubbles spread across everywhere, lending an interesting complex flavor.
6) Sesame and nori avocado, popcorn, charred romaine, togarashi, yuzu kosho milk.
I heard so much about this dish but wasn’t wowed by it. To me it just tasted like a salty avocado wrapped in seaweed. I would have hoped for more crunchiness as the avocado was very ripe — a texture differential would have been nice here.
Service was very attentive and the waiters were very knowledgeable about every component on each dish.
I would totally come back again to try any new seasonal items on the menu.

Color me unimpressed.
My table of three sampled 9 dishes, and let me just reinforce that these are some teeny-​tiny dishes, even by the standards of a high-​end New American restaurant. We each got roughly one bite from each dish.
The bay scallop crudo with beets was our favorite; the sweet beets and molasses alongside citrusy ponzu were pleasant, although you certainly don’t taste much scallop.
A seared black trumpet and gold rice dish sounded nice but the watery onion broth diluted everything to a pulp.
The smoked mussels with horseradish cream were particularly unpleasant… abusively smoky and no need to add horseradish to the mix.
The setting is cozy and our server was great, but our dishes were unmemorable, tiny, and expensive. No need to go back.

Sadly I was all around unimpressed with Commonwealth. My husband had a been a few times previously and really liked it, but he agreed this time around was a bit of a disappointment. First, we had a reservation but had to wait 45 minutes before our table opened up. They didn’t offer us a free drink until about 35 minutes in, and I believe they only did so because we hadn’t ordered one ourselves at the bar yet.
We didn’t do the tasting menu but decided to order a la carte. Everything we ordered was just okay, nothing really stood out, and in fact the sea urchin was possibly the grossest thing I’ve ever eaten… but to be fair that’s probably just how I feel about sea urchin and not how it was specifically prepared here (it was my first time trying it).
Overall I think there are a lot of better restaurants in SF, especially at this price point. But I also recognize that I may have gotten unlucky, both with our timing and with what we ordered that night.
I may give Commonwealth another try in the future… we’ll see.

Came here for our first anniversary and had excellent experience with commonwealth. Here is one of my favorite places, great customer service, food was so good and wines pairing was great as well!

Food was outstanding, but approximately 1.5 bites each per dish (shared between 2). Very, very well put together dishes. Service was super pretentious, but I guess that’s the point — staff didn’t have a lot of interest in answering questions on anything other than complex food questions. What is a botini? What are king trumpets? Can I go off menu for cocktails? These sorts of questions resulted in faces akin to someone wondering if a nearby dog has gas. Tasty desserts.

$ 75 Tasting, totally excellent, every dish had some incredible flavour surprises. Some elegantly simple: savoury creamy celery sorbet contrasted with sour fizzy verjus soda. Artful presentation & absolute 2 hour delight to eat.

Commonwealth… We stood staring at the building. For s few moments before we realized the door was on the side. Cute space…
For the real now– this place is what it is I think it’s best for a 3.5 out of my personal review. But decided to round up. The place is good and is a total niche. They do things different here from their beer choices. From which I have never heard of. As well as their wine list. Food is lively. Fun. Portion is a tad small,.ingredients are provocative.

We were seated at 8:20 for an 8:15 reservation. Service was good (team style where anyone who is available serves you) but the woman who took our drink order could not hear me well so I had to scream a bit more than I’d like in a restaurant.
I admire the philanthropic concept of the restaurant — $ 10 from each tasting menu order is donated to a local charity — but the disclaimer on the tasting menu is slightly unclear and was not clearly explained to us. «Participation is required by the entire table.» Does that mean if one person has the tasting menu, everyone at the table must participate? Does it mean at least one person at the table must have the tasting menu? Or is it one of the many other ways that can be interpreted? Maybe my boyfriend and I are just dense, but after asking our server, we were unclear on the policy. Luckily we both wanted the tasting menu.
It started with house chips dusted in nori and served with a whipped vinegar. This was absolutely delicious and lightly crispy (like kettle chips) and I could eat a whole bowl of it while watching a football game. Classy, right?
There was also a foamy bowl of something fancy and refreshing — sorry, Unilocal,I forgot what was in it. :(but that was quite interesting.
Onto the six courses:
crispy okra, trout roe, corn pudding, crème fraîche, piment d’espelette, garden basils — lightly crispy and a nice balance in flavors. Okra still slightly slimy but there’s no getting around that. ⁴⁄₅
poached oysters, potatoes cooked in clay, kombu, spinach, squid ink meringue — oysters perfectly poached and the squid ink meringue was very interesting and tasted like chocolate, somehow. Maybe a product of «eating with your eyes»? My one complaint about this dish was that the potatoes’ skin was shriveled and hardened in its cooking process such that I took a wrong angled bite and it sort of painfully lodged in between two of my molars. ⁴⁄₅
fresh and pickled cucumber, burnt avocado, whipped buttermilk, dill, elderflower vinegar — this was my boyfriend’s favorite, but he likes sour things. The pickles were of varying degrees of acidity, balanced nicely with the rich avocado and the buttermilk. The char on the avocado wasn’t really necessarily, as it gave the dish a smokiness that tasted like a barbecue that had been left burning too long. ⁴⁄₅
grilled lamb, plum, black garlic, turnip, shiso, lemongrass, nori crisp — I didn’t care for the seasoning on this at all (sweet and bitter) and scraped off all of the sauce. The lamb itself was not super tender but cooked medium to medium rare. The turnip was just barely cooked and not pleasant. ³⁄₅
celery sorbet, verjus soda —
beer meringue, chocolate ganache, pretzel crumble, crème fraîche ice cream
All of the dishes were beautifully plated and each element of each dish seemed to be thoughtfully put together. There was just enough food to fill us, but no dish (besides the house chips) really left us wanting more.

You know what they do a great job on at Commonwealth? Vegetables. And that could be a problem for me because I’m generally meat-​focused. But tonight with the tasting menu I was as happy as a pig in a truffle patch.
All the things that blew me away were vegetable-​focused: okra tempura first course, charred cucumber third course, and especially the celery sorbet palate refresher. When then the meat finally arrived (a perfectly grilled specimen of lamb) I was a little disappointed at its one-​dimensional nature. Then when they served up a little gummy dessert at the very end (after the official dessert) made from tomato water, that was like that final flick from Ronda Rousey that makes the recipient wave the white flag. Except, unlike her opponents, I can’t wait for a return match.
i HIGHLY recommend you request the seat or seats immediately adjacent to the kitchen at the bar, and watch the precision and the detail play out before you. Only negative to this spot is that it’s too dark to see your beautifully plated food, so you’ll have to watch the magic come together in the kitchen.
I will second those who say this is an astonishing value in addition to the quality and sheer inventiveness (gelled sake spheres! freeze dried squid ink! both making an appearance in my oyster dish) and scratch my head at those who complain there’s not enough food. I left more than satisfied, and I’ve got a big appetite.
An easy five stars.

I have 3 words to describe my experience here: Underwhelming, Overpriced, and Unimpressive. I was extremely disappointed by the quality of the food. The presentation is beautiful, but there was no wow factor to the food. The portions were also extremely small, which wouldn’t have bothered me as much if the food was delicious, but every bite was disappointing. The waitress was very knowledgeable about the food and made a few recommendations, but she was a little snooty and wasn’t the friendliest waitress. We ordered 5 dishes, which we shared amongst 3 people, but we were still hungry afterwards.
Albacore crudo– there was nothing really memorable about the dish and portions were super small.
Sea urchin– the uni tasted fresh, but the herbs, wasabi sauce, and whatever else was in the dish didn’t add anything to elevate the dish.
Seared squid– this was probably the best dish we had, but still didn’t do anything to impress us. I was really disappointed that it only came with 2 small pieces of squid. The flavor was good though.
Young hen– this dish felt like it was missing something. I think the hen needed more flavor.
Sablefish– The fish was seared perfectly, but the flavor was a little lacking.
We ended up going to a taqueria down the street after we left, which ironically had better food and was packed with people.
Overall a very disappointing experience that cost us around $ 200. I will not be coming back or recommending this restaurant to anyone.

*PREPARE TO BE IMPRESSED BY THE INNOVATION OF THE DISHES**
In full disclosure, Jason Fox, the owner and executive chef, is our neighbor. We have been meaning to eat here for a long time. So glad we finally did.
AMBIANCE
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It is simply decorated. The décor is obviously not meant to be the focus (where the food is) but it is clean and and has an open kitchen concept. All of the tables have white cloths and all of the places are set with glasses and silverware.
PLEASE NOTE THIS PLACE HAS ITS OWN PARKING LOT!
FOOD
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APPETIZER
Chips, sparkled with seaweed with a side of mousse.
Yum.
⁵⁄₅
6-​COURSE TASTING MENU
First Serving) Crispy okra, trout roe, corn pudding, crème fraîche, piment d’espelette, garden basils
Second Serving) Clams dressed in chicken fat, charred leek vinaigrette, pistachio crumble, yuzu bubbles
Third Serving) Fresh and pickled cucumber, burnt avocado, whipped buttermilk, dill, elderflower vinegar
Fourth Serving) Grilled lamb, plum, black garlic, turnip, shiso, lemongrass, nori crisp
Fifth Serving) Celery sorbet, verjus soda
Sixth Serving) Beer meringue, chocolate ganache, pretzel crumble, crème fraîche ice cream
⁵⁄₅ — LOVED IT!
BEVERAGE
=========
SPARKLING WATER — but they do have pairings to go with many of the servings
DECAF COFFEE
Fresh and Bold
RATING: ⁵⁄₅
PRICE /​VALUE
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It was not cheap, but it was worth it. Commonwealth offers a 6 course tasting menus for $ 75 from which $ 10 is donated to a local charity. They also offer a la carte items priced between $ 14 and $ 19.
SERVICE
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Service was excellent. The staff was very knowledgeable about the food and attentive to us as guests. They were on top of all of the many silverware changes.=)
PRO TIP
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Make sure you make a reservation
HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

It’s strange, when I looked up Commonwealth as a dinner possibility I thought that the dishes would be right up my alley. But when I walked away from my dinner, I really could not remember anything that I had eaten. It was just that forgettable. Not only that, but the portions are really REALLY small!
With so many SF dining options in the $$$ range this is one I would skip despite the cute ambiance and hip location.

Wow!
This is my husband & my favorite elevated new American dinning experiences in the city!
What to expect when dining here:
An overall superb dinning experience
–Helpful servers
–A changing wine list that complements most menu items VERY well!
–Seasonal, fresh ingredients with inventive techniques & beautiful plating!
–Small dishes
–A bit pricy but completely worth it!
If you like watching the back of the house do their thang, dining at the bar is saucy a great place to do so! They use torches & liquid nitrogen, it is quite the entertainment!
I have never been disappointed dining here & recommend it to anyone looking for a very nice evening out.
They also donate a portion of their proceeds to a charity every month!

Minimalist setting, beautiful presentation, and very fresh ingredients but very small portion. While the dishes were creative, they lacked ‘wow’ factor in flavor. Overall, a delightful experience but in my mind, a bit overhyped.
Good to know they support good cause by donating a portion of the bill to local charity.

Can’t believe I have not reviewed this superbly awesome restaurant! Been here twice and both times the experience was the one to remember and talk about. The neighborhood is., well — good like finding this gem among all other establishments. But once you do and walk inside, you will be pleasantly surprised. Farm to table wholesome and artsy dishes, seasonal ingredients well played and plated… Loved it! Can’t wait to come back.
The place is tiny, a reservation is a must!

The food here is anything but common, but being wealthy wouldn’t hurt when dining here. Ok… well, it’s actually not really that expensive in comparison to other restaurants serving similar quality food; it’s quite fairly priced in my opinion.
There is an a la carte menu to choose from, but seriously the tasting menu is the way to go so as to get a nice comprehensive sampling of the delicious offerings here.
First off, make sure that your smartphone is charged. You may feel compelled to call someone and let them know immediately about how delicious your meal is… but don’t do that… it’s rude. Make sure your phone is charged sufficiently because the food is really as good as it looks. And they serve up some of the most photogenic food around at Commonwealth.
What did we have, besides the extras that normally accompany a tasting menu?
— albacore tartare
— amazing abalone topped with New Zealand spinach and mushroom dashi
— sweet stonefruit
— sensational sweetbreads (I normally don’t care for them too much but here they were very good and topped with thick truffle shavings ftw)
— superb celery sorbet
— best beer meringue… seriously this dessert was excellent, especially for a b-​day dessert!
Gotta thank my amazing wifey for treating me to this excellent b-​day meal!