Disclaimer: We have a tiny stake in this restaurant, since getting a reservation was impossible, we decided to put some money into it and have access to reservations. Expensive way to get a table, hopefully it pays off.
Lazy Bear started off as a pop up by chef David Barzelay who wanted to find a new direction in life from his previous job. I believe he taught himself to cook, and did not receive any, or much, formal cooking education. After a few years of pop up restaurant-ing, and a few failed attempts at getting a restaurant space, he and his team finally did it! There are 2 seatings each night, and each guest is served the same dish at the same time. Here is a photo of the interior of the restaurant, located in the Mission district of San Francisco.
There is an upstairs lounge area that you are escorted to to enjoy some snacks before the dinner formally starts. Here is a photo of our snacks. I found them to be very innovative and delicious, except for the cocktail which I found pretty gross but it may be because I do not drink much.
Then we headed downstairs for the main courses. Each guest was given a Lazy Bear book with a description of each dish inside. As they served each dish, a member of the kitchen would come out to talk a little about it. The pastry chef was a sweet-looking girl and she presented the last 2 dishes, which were the desserts, but she seemed very nervous or at least she was extremely fidgety and she really needs to work on presentation. Everything was interesting and seriously delicious, and I think I say this without much bias since I am usually pretty objective. My favourite was probably the shellfish course with the grits. The only dish I found a tad boring and unfun and not the most yummy was the meat course, right before dessert. That disappointed me. The sourdough ice cream thing was most unique with a funny yeasty taste that tasted probably much better than I'm describing.
Just when you think the meal is over, out comes some dessert-y snacks/petits fours. Really, I could not fit it into the picture above, that's why it is by itself. There were macarons, a sesame ball filled with I believe chocolate (like a dim sum, it was described to us), some berry jelly thing, some chocolate thing and maybe a brittle which is what it looks like.
I had a wonderful experience at Lazy Bear. My big complaint is the cadence was a bit of, sometimes the food came out at a nice pace and sometimes it was very slow. I suppose it was only day 3 of cooking for them so they might still have things to work out. Sadly it is so hard to get normal reservations on the website since they use a ticketing system that to me is impossible. The famous Alinea restaurant has a perhaps more casual restaurant offspring called NEXT with this system, which Lazy Bear adopted, and I never managed to get tickets to NEXT. Glad I don't have to deal with that.
Lazy Bear started off as a pop up by chef David Barzelay who wanted to find a new direction in life from his previous job. I believe he taught himself to cook, and did not receive any, or much, formal cooking education. After a few years of pop up restaurant-ing, and a few failed attempts at getting a restaurant space, he and his team finally did it! There are 2 seatings each night, and each guest is served the same dish at the same time. Here is a photo of the interior of the restaurant, located in the Mission district of San Francisco.
There is an upstairs lounge area that you are escorted to to enjoy some snacks before the dinner formally starts. Here is a photo of our snacks. I found them to be very innovative and delicious, except for the cocktail which I found pretty gross but it may be because I do not drink much.
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| Some cocktail, whipped scrambled eggs (bacon, maple, hot sauce), shigoku oyster (tomato water gelee, fennel pollen, jalapeno oil, cherry tomatoes, black salt), damson plum brulee (chicken liver mousse, brioche, sorrel), sweet corn custard (american white sturgeon caviar), charred tomatillo (beef jerky, creme fraiche, radish) |
Then we headed downstairs for the main courses. Each guest was given a Lazy Bear book with a description of each dish inside. As they served each dish, a member of the kitchen would come out to talk a little about it. The pastry chef was a sweet-looking girl and she presented the last 2 dishes, which were the desserts, but she seemed very nervous or at least she was extremely fidgety and she really needs to work on presentation. Everything was interesting and seriously delicious, and I think I say this without much bias since I am usually pretty objective. My favourite was probably the shellfish course with the grits. The only dish I found a tad boring and unfun and not the most yummy was the meat course, right before dessert. That disappointed me. The sourdough ice cream thing was most unique with a funny yeasty taste that tasted probably much better than I'm describing.
 |
| Bay laurel and molasses bread (cultured butter, buttermilk), chilled lettuce soup (little gems, summer squash, fried anchovy, parsley), delta crawfish (carolina gold rice grits, spot prawn, cucumber, celery, purslane), guinea hen (butter bean, chanterelles, fine herbes, hen jus), seared sungolds (smoked beef striploin, basil, amaranth, tomato raisins), pluots (pluot consomme gelee, myoga, ginger curd, shiso, mint), sourdough (scotch, pears, earl grey, crysanthemum) |
Just when you think the meal is over, out comes some dessert-y snacks/petits fours. Really, I could not fit it into the picture above, that's why it is by itself. There were macarons, a sesame ball filled with I believe chocolate (like a dim sum, it was described to us), some berry jelly thing, some chocolate thing and maybe a brittle which is what it looks like.
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| Simply called treats |
I had a wonderful experience at Lazy Bear. My big complaint is the cadence was a bit of, sometimes the food came out at a nice pace and sometimes it was very slow. I suppose it was only day 3 of cooking for them so they might still have things to work out. Sadly it is so hard to get normal reservations on the website since they use a ticketing system that to me is impossible. The famous Alinea restaurant has a perhaps more casual restaurant offspring called NEXT with this system, which Lazy Bear adopted, and I never managed to get tickets to NEXT. Glad I don't have to deal with that.
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