Chez TJ

For my birthday, Mark and I ate at famed French restaurant, Chez TJ. This single story house has been around the corner from our house for many years, but it wasn't until my birthday that we decided to give the restaurant a try.


Course 1: Pumpkin Panna Cotta
with Garlic Chips and
Port and Shallots Marmalade
with a Foie Gras Macaron

Chez TJ has a Michelin 1-star rating. In the foodie world, this is a BIG deal.  To give you an idea of how rare a Michelin star is, there are only 39 other restaurants in the San Francisco Bay area with a single Michelin star. Losing a Michelin star, or gaining a Michelin star, is quite literally a matter of life and death. In 2003, a well-known French chef committed suicide when he learned that his restaurant was to be downgraded from 3 Michelin stars to a mere 2 stars.

Course 2: Pacific Amberjack sashimi
with celery salad, yogurt
and smoked beets

In 2007, Chez TJ itself was the center of gossip when chef, Bruno Chemel was fired for losing a Michelin star, dropping the restaurant from the vaunted 2 star realm, to merely one.  It was in the wake of this scandal that we experienced the food at Chez TJ. In retrospect, I doubt we could have been able to tell the difference between 1 or 2 Michelin stars anyway.  I felt that the food was way above my head.

Course 3: Foie Gras Soup with
Almond Foam with
Brioche Foie Gras topped with
Pomegranate Gelee

Course 4: Chestnut raviolini
topped with sweetbreads
and shaved truffles with
a green pea broth

Course 5: Octopus and Oxtail
with Brussel Sprouts Tempura

Mark and I chose the 8 course tasting menu, but with the "amuse bouches" that were offered, we actually ate 10 courses. Dinner took almost 4 hours to complete, and we were served by at least 4 different people.

Course 6: Pork belly with pickled root vegetables, seaweed gastrique and almond sauce

My favorite dishes were the Pork belly dish (see above), and the Octopus and Oxtail dish (see Course #5).  Mark's favorite dish was the Beef rib-eye (see below).  It was also our first time sampling sweetbreads (see Course #4), i.e. thymus glands, and the verdict is in: we really liked it.

Course 7: Beef rib-eye with Bluefoot mushrooms and black garlic gnocchi

Course 8: Cowgirl Creamery Mt. Tam cheese with Roasted Red Grapes and a Honeycomb and Thyme gastrique

Course 9: Happy Birthday Platter of goodies, including passion fruit chewies\

Course 10: Lemon Crostata with a Date Mousse and Coconut Sorbet with a Deconstructed Lemon Reconstructed with Lemon gelee.

In summary, it was memorable experience, however, I really don't think I have an educated enough palate to appreciate the food properly. The flavor combinations were pretty challenging.  Many of the dishes made my head hurt, they were so intellectual.  To the chef's credit, however, I must say that each dish was an explosion of flavor.  I sometimes find European food kind of bland.

If there were any drawbacks to our experience, it would be the decor and the service.  The decor did not match the level of food we were eating. Also, I did not feel that the service was great. I felt like the two hosts were too ingratiating. And one of the servers, could not speak English well, if at all. I had a hard time understanding the dishes he was describing, which is really a shame, because we were spending so much money on our meal, it would have been nice to understand what we were eating.

After all this, my conclusion is that the Michelin star review system is based on real judgement. However, I simply don't have the palate to appreciate it. I think I would rather spend that same money on a 3 day weekend excursion. Our Sequoia National Park vacation, which we recently took, cost about the same as our meal, and I think I enjoyed it more.