Ungrafted has been on my list since I heard about it! I do love a good concept restaurant, and one where the focus is first on the wine and then on the food is a concept that I can get behind! The restaurant was created by two sommeliers, so I can see why they would want to focus so clearly on wine. We finally went in on a Saturday night so we could check out the wine list and see if they really pulled the concept together as well as I was hoping!
I have to say I was slightly sad that even though I booked us in for a prime time (7 pm on a Saturday), the restaurant wasn’t that busy. I don’t know if it’s just the area or if it was just an unusual weekend, but it had me worried. We were shown to our seats, and dug into the wine list. There was definitely a lot of amazing (and pricey!) wines on the list, but the one that really jumped out was the very old Maury dessert wine, so we knew it was going to have to go on the list for the end of the meal. So we opted for some far less expensive (and yet very delicious) wine for the beginning of the meal.
Perusing the menu, we decided on a bunch of the smaller dishes to share, so we could try more and get an idea for what they offered. Up first was the torched kampachi crudo ($18). It was a pretty fantastic crudo, and it left us wanting more. We also got the “fish” and chips, which were vinegar french fries with tiny anchovies on top. It was a really creative idea, but the vinegar did get to be a bit much after a while. Although my dining partner loved them (probably due to his Britishness) so it may just be a personal preference sort of thing. We also ordered some of the caviar served with arepas ($24). It’s not cheap, of course, but the idea of serving it with arepas was really intriguing as I still have yet to master making them at home. While it was a great concept, it definitely led us to believe that caviar should be an at-home treat solely based on the price point and the quality of caviar you can get.
We also got some grilled maitaki mushrooms ($10) which were full of flavor! The za’atar pull-apart bread ($8) was absolutely delicious, and something that I really want to try out at home sometime in the future. The braised oxtail with red beans and kimchi ($18) was a fantastic dish. The kimchi really balanced well with the oxtail, and I always love a fried egg on top of anything! Finally, we had two pieces of fried chicken ($14). The sauce for the chicken was amazing, but the chicken itself was kind of dry. The biscuits were pretty tasty though, so that was nice, but honestly, the chicken was probably the most disappointing part of the meal.
We knew we wanted that bottle of dessert wine, so we had to order dessert. Cheese is one of our favorite desserts (thanks France for hooking me us on that), so we got the cheese plate and the torrijas (a Spanish style french toast) with ice cream. They definitely had a great selection of cheeses, so that was very enjoyable. The torrijas could have been better. The bread itself was very flavorful, but the ice cream was kind of boring, and when eaten with the bread, kind of overpowered the subtle flavors, so it was a bit unbalanced.
I do have to say that overall the food and wine we had at Ungrafted was absolutely brilliant. While the dishes weren’t perfect, there was definitely a lot of love and creativity put into the dishes which is always a winner for me. Throw in a fantastic wine list and you’ve got a winning combination for me. I hope they thrive and grow because I definitely plan on returning many times to see what else they have to offer.
Score: 4/5
Recommendation: Crudo and pull-apart bread!
Ungrafted
2419 3rd Street
San Francisco, CA
