You’re beholding Good Taste, a menu for treating yourself in the Bay Area. While our predictions don’t always materialize, our summer hunch that Bon Délire would be one of the more exciting restaurants to open this season did.
Last night, I was invited to eat dinner at the bar at the new Parisian-inspired bistro Bon Délire, which formally opens this at Pier 3 on the Embarcadero in San Francisco. Restaurateur Kais Bouzidi is also behind the nearby restaurants Sens and Barcha, and the attention with his newest project is to offer a taste of his hometown’s bistro and cocktail bar culture.
Exiting Muni’s Embarcadero Station before 6pm on Monday, there still weren’t that many people walking around on the eastern end of Market Street, even with the biggest companies calling for a return to work in person at least a few days a week. But the old-school restaurant row nature of the Embarcadero is starting to feel more alive again, aided by new places to eat at the Ferry Building (like the Cambodian restaurant Lunette), the coastal Mediterranean restaurant Alora (which is undergoing a complete menu refresh with the arrival of a new chef), and now Bon Délire.
Even the longstanding Peruvian seafood restaurant La Mar, where the criminally underrated chef and YouTube star Victoriano Lopez cooks brilliant food, is seeing more action than it has in a long time. The private dining room, which has windows out onto the street, was full of guests.
At Bon Délire, Chef Vernon Morales and his kitchen team looked very professional and dialed in already; he’s previously worked with Bouzidi and also the great Eric Ripert at Le Bernardin in New York City. The opening menu offers a number of snacks around $12, and the most expensive entrée, a 10-ounce steak frites that easily serves two, is $49.
They regaled us with sweet Point Reyes Miyagi oysters, a pleasingly peppery steak tartare with homemade potato chips, and an evening special of a 12-ounce, 34-day aged ribeye steak presented as steak frites (with French fries). Powdered sugar-dusted Madeleines with chocolate and crème Anglaise came straight out of the oven, and punctuated the luxuriousness of the evening without being too over the top. It’s a quiet star; I’d always want to order this on subsequent visits.
Amid the cocktails and bubbles, my friend and I felt special with our non-alcoholic Citron Pressés, a small tray of adjustable lemonade with the cutest little bottles, which one bartender suspects may find their way into people’s purses “accidentally.” There was no way I could steal one after that.
A vinyl wall, music video projections, and lively soundtrack foreshadows DJ nights here. Minus a couple ‘Ye tracks that grated, the music helped enhance a feeling of pleasant escapism, buoyed by butter, bread, meat, potatoes and bubbles. It’s a welcome delusion.
Tamara publishes the California Eating website, newsletter, and zine.
