Restaurants within restaurants and bars within bars are hardly new ideas in the culinary world, but often they can be over-hyped places to try to get more people in to feel like they are having an exclusive experience. Don’t get me wrong, some places do it amazingly, especially my favorite restaurant in London (and if you go visit, Kitchen Table should be at the top of your list of places to go eat). So when I heard about Overproof, I was keen to see which side of the spectrum this one would fall into. In case you don’t know, Overproof is a restaurant above ABV (I mean the name in itself is amazing) that has a rotating 5 course/5 cocktail menu that changes quarterly. They aren’t really pairings, they just strive to create great cocktails and great food around a central theme.
The first time we went, the food and cocktails were Caribbean/Pacific Rim themed with rum being the star of the show. Even though I’m not a fan of rum, I was interested enough to try the restaurant figuring if it was good enough, then going back for the second theme of whisky would be a must-do in the summer. The rum theme was really spectacular, with a selection of rum drinks that were insanely better than I expected. I usually think of rum cocktails as sweet (and I’m not a fan of sweet cocktails), but these were the opposite. As we were eating the food courses, we were really blown away by how good everything tasted. The first four courses of the house-made spam musubi, the stuffed clam, the lamb curry and the jerked chicken wings all seemed to just get better and better, so we knew we were coming back. The final course of the Trinidad chow mein was nice, but for me it felt a bit like a throw away course. Although when we talked it over with the people running everything, they said that it was one of the most popular dishes and people wanted extra to take home. I guess everyone has their own taste, for me, it just wasn’t a winning dish. But four out of five dishes and amazing cocktails was definitely enough to make me want to return.
We decided to go back for the next menu, this time consisting of Japanese fusion style food served alongside a selection of whisky cocktails. We arrived a bit early, so we had a few drinks downstairs before heading up for even more cocktails and food. The cocktails at ABV were also fairly tasty, with our favorite being an intensely smoky whisky drink (I guess getting us ready for our cocktails upstairs). They had completely redecorated and had a massive selection of whiskies along the wall (which were available by the dram later after the meal). When we were seated, there were already a couple of nibbles on the table: Kimchi and fermented edamame. The edamame were some of the best I’ve had; more places should ferment them before serving them. The kimchi was also great, and we were told to save some to enjoy with the first course. We also had time to peruse the menu hanging on the wall to see get an idea of what the evening had in store.
Up first was an Asian style Scotch egg made with chicken. It really was one of the best Scotch eggs I’ve had (and I had quite a few when I was living in the UK), made even better with the addition of a bit of the kimchi on top. It was a great start to the meal. Up after that was the avocado and seaweed salad. It wasn’t the standard seaweed salad that you get in a sushi restaurant, it was much lighter, and the addition of pea shoots was a fantastic idea. The third course of the night was dashi with a slow cooked ramen egg in it. For me, this may have been the best course of the night. The dashi broth was light and full of flavor, and breaking into the egg added depth and richness to the dish. The cocktails served with the courses were also very boozy and creative, so everything was fantastic up to this point.
The fourth cocktail of the night was the Longblood which was probably the best one we had for the evening. We were excited by the description because it had three of the things we love to have in drinks: Scotch, Blood orange and bubbles. Although it turns out the bubbles wasn’t Champagne or Prosecco like we thought, they just carbonated the Scotch and the blood orange, but it was still a fantastic drink. We were also enjoying the smaller sized glasses they served the cocktails in, and we had to ask about them as they seemed like such specialty glassware. The fourth course of the night of yam done in an agadashi style was nice, but didn’t really feel like anything special. In that respect, it did remind us a bit of the noodles that we had the first time we went. Finally, we were given some koji marinated beef. I really liked the bitterness the koji added to the beef, so it was a great way to end the meal. After dinner, we ordered some of the rare whiskies, two different Islay whiskies as the smokiness of that region is something we really appreciate. I think the Ardbeg was slightly nicer, but they were both fantastic.
We did have to take our drams of whisky down to the main bar as they do kind of kick you out as they have to prepare for the second seating at 9:00 pm. Nothing against them for it, I completely understand that they have to do that, so it really wasn’t a big deal. It is also all communal dining, but as the tables only hold up to six people, it’s not quite as bad as some of the other communal dining experiences we’ve had where you can’t have a real conversation with the person across from you as all you can hear are the people next to you. It’s definitely been small enough that that does not happen here. The second meal we had here was just as good as the first, so I’m sure we’ll be back for the third experience that they mentioned was going to be gin, sherry and tapas. As a huge fan of gin (and Spain!), it sounds like another amazing night will be in store for us!
Food: ★★★★☆
Service: ★★★★★
Atmosphere: ★★★★★
Value: ★★★★★
Overall: ★★★★☆
Price (at time of dining): $60pp for five courses and five cocktails
Overproof (at ABV)
3174 16th St
San Francisco, CA 94103
