This was my first time at one market. We arrive at 8 p.m. First I was amazed by the size of that place! Wow, this is a huge restaurant and they have capacity for banquets. We got directed to a booth by the window which I really appreciated since I was on a date with my honey. We had space to eat and space to talk, we felt away from everyone in that big booth, it was perfect. The lighting in the restaurant was my first turn off, it is a very deep orangy-yellow light, it’s great from the outside and great for the ambiance but what a catastrophe for the food!!!! Everything was orange, yellow and brown! I saw the color of my food only when I took the pictures with the flash, that is so sad, since for me at 30% of the dish is visual. Chef Dommen, please do something about that. It’s killing your food!!

Our waiter, Steven, was a 3 star waiter, his service was impeccable, when I will be back I will ask for him again and I recommend you to do the same.

Chef Dommen’s menu is inspiring, and my boyfriend and I decided to taste it all, or pretty much.

We started with an amuse bouche of oyster gratiné, topped with caviar, that was a foodgasm! It was perfect, not cooked just warmed up, the flavors were very intense and delicate at the same time.

Then we shared the rest of the menu:

Beef Barley soup, the consommé was delicate, an excellent dish.

Sautéed Gulf shrimp, with cucumber, daikon, green chile vinaigrette. The shrimp were a little over cooked for me, it killed a bit the dish for us.

Dungeness crab salad with pink grapefruit, micro cilantro and olive oil sorbet. The dish was beautiful, fresh, the sorbet was to die for, the crab meat in the middle was over dressed and watery, it left a pool of water in the plate it was a bit disappointing. This was such a solid dish, it’s too bad the crab was so watery.

Pan-seared Foie Gras, this dish was a thumb down for me, served with a concord grape purée and peanut crackle, and a peanut foam. First, I don’t like foams, doesn’t do anything for me. When I tried to cut the foie, I got a big vein, and that was a second turn off. Then the peanut “brittle” plus the purée was like biting into a spoon of caramel and sugar, at that point I lost the taste of the Foie gras, I liked that the Chef try to have different textures on his plate but it was way too sweet. I didn’t like it!

Then we had the Smoked Trout on a potato roti, poached egg and pancetta vinaigrette. That was Fantastic!! I will go back to One Market just for this dish. The egg was perfect and the whole dish was flavorful, nicely balanced, perfect.

Pancetta wrapped scallops with chanterelles mushroom, spinach and smoke onion foam. Again, why the foam, it covers the food, doesn’t make it look better. The scallops were over done, and the pancetta too salty. William choose this dish because of the chanterelles, they were so over cooked that chocked me. That was not a Michelin one star dish. I am not even sure if it’s worth mentioning it!

I had the Roasted duck breast, with duck leg confit, turnip vanilla and huckleberry sauce. The duck breast was well cooked, but the fat not rendered making a thick fatty skin, I had to work my knife around it. What happened to crispy fat? The rest of the dish was so-so, nothing impressive. I didn’t like again the very sweet taste. I am a savory girl.

The wine list was great but it’s such a turn off to live in California and not being able to find a bottle of wine under $68!! I know that people who come to One Market are expected to pay the bill but what if I don’t want to have a $200 bottle with my meal?

Summary: The service was excellent, thanks to Steven our waiter. I will recommend to ask for him. The food, though, we had some mind blowing dish, most of them were lacking of the basics: over dressed, over cooked, too sweet, Foie Gras not de-veined. A bit disappointing for this establishment and I want to think that we were there on a bad night. It was a good meal, but I was expecting more from One Market. Is it time to make that Star shine again? Bill for 2: $243 (Not including the tip)