Manresa
Original farm-to-table fine dining in the Bay Area
Hundreds of restaurants around the world claim to provide a farm-to-table dining experience, but few of these spots walk the walk quite like Manresa. Considered a pioneer of the now-ubiquitous catchphrase, chef David Kinch focuses his fine-dining restaurant on the terroir of Northern California.
Relationships with nearby farms and gardens provide the kitchen with nearly of all its produce as well as the inspiration for the daily changing tasting menu at the Bay Area establishment.
An exquisite wine list, blending the best of Old World selections with vintages from the Santa Cruz Mountains, rounds out the sublime experience of sitting back and letting the chef, and the farmer, present you with the season’s freshest bites in elevated form.
Our Inspector's Highlights
- Make sure to arrive early to enjoy
a seasonal sip at Manresa’s cocktail lounge. The drinks here follow the same
philosophy as Kinch’s cuisine — only the freshest, highest-quality ingredients
make it into these signature twists on the classics.
- Part of Manresa’s charm is in the
anticipation of waiting for your meal. The menu changes daily based on what produce
the kitchen receives from local farms, so even though the offerings may be a
surprise, you can always count on something spectacular landing on your plate.
- This fine-dining restaurant is
surprisingly unassuming. While you will find white tablecloths here, the
farmhouse-inspired interior (think exposed beams, lots of natural light, wooden
chairs) makes Manresa feel like a very stylish home.
- The food may steal the spotlight,
but the excellent service is just as worthy of praise. The warm, knowledgeable
staff will attend to your every need.
Things to Know
- Keep in mind when making your
dinner plans that Manresa is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.
- The Bay Area restaurant hosts a
wide variety of themed dinners, guest chef experiences and pop-ups throughout
the year. Keep up with the eatery on social media or follow its blog to stay in
the know about upcoming events.
- Manresa accepts reservations up to
90 days in advance, so be sure to plan ahead. Large and private party requests
can be booked up to six months ahead of time.
The Food
- Hyper-seasonal fare is what’s on
the menu at Manresa. Sourced daily from local farms, the produce is always at
the peak of freshness.
- No matter what is served for
dinner, you can be sure that you’ll enjoy some of Manresa’s fantastic housemade
bread. These soft and airy bites come from the same in-house baker who creates
all of Manresa Bread bakery’s goods.
- A daily changing menu ensures that
you’ll almost never taste the same dish twice, though you will receive a
printed menu at the end of your meal as a souvenir.
- The Los Gatos restaurant leans
heavily on Northern California’s bounty, so you can count on having several
seafood courses throughout the meal. Past dishes have included local milk panna
cotta with abalone, raw oyster with Meyer lemon and tarragon gelée, and rings
of squid with fermented plums and carrots.
The Chef
- The driving force behind Manresa’s
farm-to-table ethos, Kinch is inspired by a sense of place. He uses ingredient-driven
cooking and modern techniques to reflect the integrity of each bite.
- Though he was born in
Philadelphia, Kinch fell in love with the kitchen after his family moved to New
Orleans.
- After completing culinary school,
the chef went on to work at heralded restaurants around the world — including France,
Germany, Spain and Japan — before finally settling down in San Francisco.
- In addition to Manresa, Kinch has had
a hand in several other culinary projects, including Manresa Bread, casual New
Orleans-themed eatery The Bywater and his Emmy-winning performance in PBS’ The Mind of a Chef.
Amenities
Dinner
Getting There
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