In the day and age of many choices, there’s beauty in simplicity. Trestle, which offers a three course menu for $35, creates an easy dining experience for its customers. They have an ever-changing menu that highlights and transforms traditional comfort foods with California’s fresh ingredients.

My recommendation is to go with a friend so you can try each dish from each course.

We had the Falafel Salad with crispy lavash, tsatziki, and mint (above) and the English Pea ‘Chowder’ with smoked salmon, melted leeks, mint, and potato (below) to start us offa. Both dishes were good, for different reasons: the falafels were nicely fried, and all the sauces and textures made it tasty and interesting to eat. The chowder was silky smooth, not heavy, and the smoked salmon melded nicely with the subtle flavor of leek – slightly sweet – with a hint of mint and onion.

They give you a choice for one addition to the menu – a pasta course – so we chose Ricotta Gnudi. The dish came with mushroom puree, pecorino, and breadcrumbs. The gnudi was soft, light, and evened out the flavors from the intense mushroom flavor and sharp pecorino.

The main courses were Crispy Skin Branzino and Sausage-Stuffed Roast Chicken. The branzino came with roasted cauliflower, charred spring onions, and salsa verde; the dish was light overall, with some cauliflower and onions to provide some sweetness and salsa verde to highlight fresh ingredients. As for the roast chicken with wild ‘dirty’ rice, braised greens, and chicken jus, the chicken was cooked perfectly – tender and juicy.

Lastly, dessert. Their Warm Chocolate Brownie was comfortingly delicious, and the Blackberry Hand Pie seemed like it was an after-thought. The brownie came with vanilla ice cream, salted caramel, and candied walnuts, which is an easy thumbs up (after all, who can say no to brownie a la mode?) The hand pies with lime sugar glaze, and black pepper cream seemed haphazardly placed together; I couldn’t taste black pepper in the cream, and was placed far away from the pie itself. It made me think, “are these two foods supposed to go together?” Whether the answer was yes or no, the hand pies didn’t seem to need the cream altogether.

Similarly to their sister restaurant Stones Throw (which is one of my favorite restaurants in SF), Trestle is a restaurant that reinvents comfort food whilst elevating California’s ingredients, all for a reasonable price. Definitely worthwhile to check out!

Trestle
531 Jackson St
San Francisco, CA 94111
(415) 772-0922
trestlesf.com