Thanks! I actually booked it on OpenTable about 3 months in advance. Benu was booked by the StR SF concierge exactly when its 2 month advance window opened.

The more comments I read about "best restaurants in the world," the less I want to eat in one.

I love great food, but "molecular cuisine" and "avante-garde techniques" involving supercritical fluids and apparati better-suited to a chemical engineering unit-operations lab than to a kitchen do not appeal to me in the least. Maison Rhodes in Troyes; the Ralph Lauren restaurant in Chicago; Pittsburgh's Mallorca - these are the places that appeal to me most. Nothing particularly complicated, but everything that's served is cooked extremely, extremely well.

At the end of the day, for me, it's about how good the food tasted, not how far the envelope was stretched.

To each, their own! I don't love experimental food because it is crazy; I love food that tastes great. Atelier Crenn has combinations of tastes and textures that are unusual but which taste fantastic. As do many other highly rated restaurants. There can be great or bad taste in simplicity and great or bad taste in complexity, just as there can be great or bad taste in ordinary types of foodstuffs and great or bad taste in unusual foodstuffs.

Fortunately, there are plenty of restaurants that stick to conventional methods and more approachable foodstuffs to suit us. And an increasing number of restaurants that also apply less conventional methods and more unusual foodstuffs to also suit my and other's interest in eating something delicious but new and different.

Agree completely with you and bhrubin on this one - it isn't about molecular gastronomy or science; it's simply about finding food that tastes great. More often than not, I find that the best restaurants not only provide that - they also inspire me to improve upon my everyday cooking by taking those ideas home.

I couldn't begin to list how many foods I used to not eat (and now do), until I had them in a great restaurant and realized just what can be done with them, particularly with the right sauce. And that doesn't even count the various foods that I never would have tried had I not had them somewhere - just yesterday I made a fruit Pavlova and infused the whipped cream with sea buckthorn juice. Absolutely delicious, and I never would have even gotten the idea but from a great restaurant.

I invariably take the tasting menus with wine pairings and probably 6 or 7 times out of 10 I take something home from the experience. We eat like kings at home, mainly from my experiences out.

I'm in agreement with you.
Have had stupendous meals at roadside restaurants in Italy and Spain using fresh local produce and disappointing,ridiculously expensive food at hifalutin' restaurants disappearing up their own extractor fan in major cities around the world.
There is more nonsense written and spoken about food than practically any other subject except perhaps sex.
There are only so many ways to re-invent the wheel.

We ate at Manresa last month, booked it as soon as I heard they had got their 3rd star. I had been twice before, but it was probably 7 or 8 years ago. I figured it would be impossible to get a reservation, so now was the time to book and try.

It was very good but IMO did not live up to my expectations/hopes, especially for the price. The wine pairings, which we all got, were the biggest let down. It was $180 per person for paired wines, which amounted to rougly 3.5 glasses per person. The menu was heavily seafood/vegetable based, we only ended up with one red. There was a beer, a sake, a dessert wine, multiple whites, and one red - a syrah. For $720 for the 4 of us, we could have bought 3 great bottles of wine.

My favorite, still, in the San Jose are is the Plumed Horse in Saratoga.

You are entitled to your opinion, of course, but the information you shared doesn't support the case you are trying to make.

The price is based partly on demand--higher demand restaurants can charge more for their tasting menus. The price of a wine pairing is similarly set, along with the consideration of the quality/price of wine that is paired. If you thought it too high, then you likely won't return. But too many others gladly will pay that price, including me. While you didn't appear to appreciate the quantity of wine for all your pairings for $180, I am certain that you could never have found a single bottle of wine that would actually pair well with all the various courses you had.

You also don't appear to understand the nature of a wine pairing. It isn't the varietal or color or price of the wine, but the ability of a wine to complement and enhance the flavor of a dish that matters most--that is the point of wine pairing. If the dish happens to pair very well with a white, then so be it. That's the point! As you indicated that the menu was largely seafood/vegetable based, no one who knows wine would be surprised to learn that the wine pairings happened to be mostly white. You seem to believe that red is somehow superior to white; that is an error. The real question is how well did the wines served pair with the food...and you barely commented on that issue.

The Noma lunch that I had was also mostly vegetable/seafood based, and its wine pairings were also mostly white. And they were tremendous pairings.

The Benu dinner I had just a few weeks ago was paired with white wine, red wine, beer, dessert wine, and sake, as well. And they were tremendous pairings.

And both meals and both wine pairings for me were worth every penny. I'm sure the same would be true at Manresa...for the diner who appreciates what a wine pairing is supposed to be from the chef/sommelier's perspective.

It seems to me that you might be best served by not doing future wine pairings unless at steak house or with a tasting menu that is more based on meats--which likely would have red wine pairings. Either way, I think you are missing the point of a wine pairing with a set menu.

This is quite common if the tasting menu only contains one meat dish. If you only want reds you can do a couple of things - tell the sommelier up front that you prefer reds and could he/she please try to select suitable red pairings where possible, or better yet - simply order it by the bottle.

I also use to drink predominantly reds but when I started going with the wine pairings it was like a whole new world opened up for me. Some of the whites I've had have blown me away.

Wine and food pairings is another con perpetuated by the restaurant industry to charge vast amounts of money for over-priced wine.
Almost as bad as the beer and food pairings drivel spouted by the craft beer industry.
It is utter nonsense to suggest that only white wine should be drunk eating seafood and red wine with meat.

Very true. It is best to develop your own taste and then choose your own bottle to go with what you are eating. That said, at some restaurants wine pairings are not overly expensive and offer the novice a chance to easily follow the sommelier's suggestions.

Agreed,but only if the novice works on the presumption that it is the sommelier's primary role to sell the most expensive wine possible.
The reality is apart from the difference in the colour of the grapes and the amount of tannins in red wine there really isn't much difference between the two.
Personally I'm a big fan of Spanish red wine,mainly Tempranillo,and I've yet to find a food it doesn't go well with.

At some restaurants yes they try to upsell to the best wine. But not all are like that. And there is a good bit more to wines than the color of the wine and tannins! The level of sugar, alcohol, and other additives have an effect. And of course the family of the grape has a huge effect and mixing grapes is another thing altogether.

And I too love a good Tempranillo about as much as I love a good Valpolicello. And I drink those in their respective regions. But Burgundy is the top.

Here is a good read about grape colors and how they don't always match the color of the wine. Also some good chemistry talk. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wine_color

You are now drawing a conclusion that is not in evidence. No one, including me and any decent sommelier, thinks that only whites should be had with seafood and only reds with meat. Those are often but not always good pairings. Both reds and whites can be paired with a huge variety of both fish and meat dishes...though more reds tend to pair with more meats on average. You're missing the point.

As for wine and food pairings being a con, you are mistaken. Wines in the old world were ALWAYS about being paired with the food of that region. That is one of the reasons that different regions, with their own particular cuisine, only tended to grow certain types of grape varietals (and vice versa). Over time, those varietal preferences were codified into law in many of the Old World countries in recognition that those types of wines paired well and best with the cuisine offered in that same region. That has been true for hundreds of years. Restaurants didn't con anyone. They just enhanced it.

Hard to call it a con when no restaurant ever requires a wine pairing with a tasting menu....

Tasting menu - another restaurant rip-off.
Serve a lot of very small portions for very big prices.
And in Heston's case while trying not to give the diners food poisoning.

What are some nice restaurants in Paris and Florence that won't break the bank? Say $200-300 dinner for two?