Aphotic in San Francisco

Phenomenal restaurant with even better service. All seafood but definitely a lot of creative preparations.I actually ordered two of the bread/crab dish. It was so good.Cool table side martini preparation, though they didnt give me the option to pick vodka or gin.Super cool space, really feels like youre somewhere unique and not just another nice restaurant in SF.Highly recommend if you love seafood. There was oyster ice cream. Its worth trying.

Fantastic staff and ambience and some really interesting dishes. The oyster ice cream was an unexpected standout. However, some dishes were muddled with a variety of tastes which dont necessarily mesh as a whole. Although Im not a drinker, the other five people in my party were and they reported the mixed drinks to be a mixed bag. Not sure if the overall dinner was worth the expense.

Very glad that we get to come here towards the end of our trip in SF. We really enjoyed the beautiful space and ambience.The tasting menu is very well put together. All the dishes were amazing and perfectly done. Several extremely unique signature dishes that we never forgot their flavors. The risotto dish and oyster ice cream really stand out for me. The cocktail menu is also nicely crafted and unique.

Went as part of a wedding party and had the tasting menu with 10 courses. It was an amazing culinary adventure with the sea. Everything has an ocean element, from oyster ice cream (unexpectedly delicious) to a seaweed martini (interesting but odd.) The service is perfectly timed and coordinated by a wait staff that must have been trained as ninjas 🥷! They explained each dish and the wine pairings. High dining with the high seas!

Food is pretty good, highly recommend include wine pairing.The only part that can be improved is service. One server put utensils on wrong side, gave me empty wine glass when the next dishes don’t have wines, and also plans to take the dishes when I was still working on it… never experienced those things in other MichelinBesides that I would say this is a nice place, might come next time for cocktails.

Aphotic is a restaurant shooting for the stars, with conceptually amazing food and drink, anchored by an in-depth fish aging program and an in-house distillation facility for entirely custom spirits. No one else in the city is doing this. And yet the results are simply good, occasionally great, but rarely as amazing as I expected given the tools at their disposal.Dont get me wrong, I certainly enjoyed my visit: the staff and service are excellent and accommodating, the food is very good and well balanced, and the cocktails were as a whole also tasty. But having tried 8 drinks with their cocktail tasting menu (I love that they do this), and evaluating their cocktail program on that basis, Id say that - while it has some great drinks and a lot of promise - it ultimately falls short of the incredible possibilities their in-house distillates provide.Although they use some of these distillates (essentially strongly and uniquely flavored spirits made in-house) in their drinks, I found the flavors they added to be too subtle to be of major note in many cases. Perhaps its just a matter of preference, but if were going to have nori or citrus marigold in a cocktail, I want that flavor to stand out a bit more. As it is some of the drinks, like a Penicillin variation, dont taste different enough from the standard you might get at another quality bar (and for a lower price, albeit with less cool glassware). They were uniformly good, but mostly lacked enough uniqueness or a wow factor (with a couple exceptions). It feels like a somewhat wasted opportunity.That said everything is certainly quite good. As a restaurant and bar program they are also very new, some 6 months from opening I believe, so there is plenty of room to grow into their potential and I have high hopes that they will do just that. So I will certainly be returning to see how things evolve in the future and I hope their innovative approach brings them years of success! We need more places blazing trails like this, even if the results are not always as spectacular in practice as they have the potential of being. Shoot for the stars and land on the moon? Ill take it.

Wow. What an incredible meal! Exquisitely prepared coastal Californian cuisine. The sommelier did a fantastic job marrying unique and delicious wines with the array of beautiful seafood focused dishes. The service was impeccable. All the staff were kind, friendly and incredibly knowledgeable about each dish. You better book your reservation here before it becomes impossible! Michelin stars on the way!

An amazing & unique experience during our Cocktail Tasting w/ Michael N. Can’t forget about our wonderful host, Nathan too! We were treated like royalty in this gorgeous environment with the most creative ingredients and stories. Unbelievable. Wow.

I would 100% rate this fanciable restaurant as a 20/5. It was that wondrous!Its taken me a moment to even have accurate diction to describe our incredible experience.First, the restaurant is beautiful, with absolutely no detail overlooked.The service was pure perfection and expertly executed. They even immediately noticed I was left handed and moved all of my place setting and subsequent re-setting throughout the 10 courses to reflect this. Ive NEVER had this experience and this small attention to detail impressed me beyond measure.The food- wow- Im a bit lost for words.We went with the 10 course tasting menu with wine pairing. Every. Single. Bite was otherworldly. The creativity and use of ingredients, plating, and over all execution of each dish was truly mind blowing. Especially since it was all fresh Seafood!The Sommelier is definitely an expert and the wine choices were unique, delightful, and perfect for each course. We especially appreciated his visit with each pour and detailed description of each wine.Im sure the menu changes frequently with availability of ingredients, but there should never be a hesitation to just do the tasting menu here.This restaurant and its allure are sure to change the fine dining game in the city, in my opinion, as theyve set the bar in this new venture in the old Palette space.Sprint here before word gets out of how incredible this restaurant is!

There is definitely a lot of thought put into every course. Everything was special/had its own twist but not everything tasted good. I felt for some of the courses, the ingredients didn’t integrate well. Like for this sashimi fish, I could barely taste the fish…instead there was this very distinct, overpowering herb flavor that just didn’t work with the fish (btw it’s not shiso or anything I’ve tasted in sushi). It could just be me though. Service and atmosphere were amazing!