Zagat Presents RN74

Michael Mina's about as prolific a restaurateur as they come, but in a city with umpteen of his restaurants, I've never been to one! That changed last month when John and I attended the new RN74's prix fix 3-course dinner pulled together by Zagat. The space in SOMA is meant to feel like a European train station, complete with life-sized revolving marquis along the domed, slatted north wall. Rather than destinations and departure times, it flips through bottles of wine and prices. Each time it rotates, the room is quiet except for the sound of it, and everyone's attention is on the random bottle that can be ordered for $1. Each time it's ordered—and it's always the last bottle of that particular vintage—it flips again to the next batch.

Wine bar atmosphere can be pretty generic, if not pleasant with its dark, cozy, cellar feel. But the twist at RN74 is that it's not overly warm. Concrete floors and tables with flat wooden benches; you really feel like you could be dining railside at Gare Saint Lazare.

First course was an interesting sashimi of Cobia with scallions and mizuna. The cobia was technically "grilled" but it was a paper-thin searing. The fish was very sweet and the sauce was an even sweeter green orange (sweet and sour). Almost translucent sunchokes provided necessary breaks from the richness of the fish. I love the texture of sunchokes, like the Asian Pear of root vegetables. I thought the mizuna leaves were shiso at first, but the shape was a little different. These were a little spicy and I started cutting them up and adding a little piece to each bit of fish which reminded me of pairing fresh basil leaves with soft bufala in a caprese salad.

For our main, we were served a whole roast quail over lentils. Stuffed with spicy sausage and crunchy fennel seeds, the quail was equally crispy on the outside and so tender on the inside it was like the most tender duck dark meat. It was extremely rich and tough to negotiate around the bones, so I finished all of the green peppercorn lentils with turnips and beets that (again) were a nice relief from all that richness. Even given the quail was about the size of my fist, I was stuffed!

Dessert was gorgeous if not a little disappointing in the flavor department. It was called a mille-feuille but there were only five layers of pureed peach and puff pastry. This was placed on a brushstroke of pistachio paste next to a scoop of—this was nuts—keffir lime and coconut sorbet. While I was impressed with the unique, mouthwatering Thai flavors, I had no idea what they were doing with the too-sweet peach and pastry. I felt dense, like the taste combo was way over my head. But it was beautiful!