SF’s Best Restaurants Want to Make Your Holiday Dinner

If you feel like going all out, they’ve got the menu for you

December 18, 2020 9:29 am
Acquerello
Acquerello

Someday hopefully not that long from now, we’ll get back to something that feels like normal — complete with, inshallah, the world-class dining scene we lost nine months ago. 

In this bizarre in-between time, though, the city’s best restaurants are willing to put all of their genius into holiday meals that you can pick up and take home. If you never thought you could eat a Dominique Crenn menu in front of Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, this is your most unlikely year. 

Hustle over to Tock if the options here appeal — supplies, as always, are dwindling. 

Atelier Crenn

Dominique Crenn will design your holiday dinner — that’s it, that’s the rec. On the menu: pumpkin velouté with croutons, pappardelle with Bleu Belle Farm mushrooms, herb-crusted Mt. Lassen trout, pommes purée and roasted winter vegetables. $85 per person, available via Tock

Alexander Steakhouse

An impossible choice for Christmas Eve: Here, you’ll have the option of 7 lbs of prime rib au jus plus horseradish sauce, mashed potatoes, green beans and wine — or a 9-lb roasted turkey with wagyu sausage stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce and a pecan pie. (We’d go for the latter.) $330 for the prime rib, $295 for the turkey, available via Tock

Acquerello

Truth: We specifically retitled this piece to focus on “holiday” rather than “Christmas” meals to be able to include Acquerello, which is sold out for Xmas but not for New Year’s Eve. Included in this absolutely deluxe basket for two: parmesan budino with black truffle perlage; caramelized onion and crème fraîche tart; foie gras mousse; braised beef, spinach and stracchino lasagna with porcini fonduta; Wolfe Ranch quail with brioche and black truffle stuffing — and let’s not forget the option to add one ounce of shaved white truffles (“and your own shaver”) for $225. It’s a hell of a way to say so long to 2020. $350 for two, available via Tock

Angler

Joshua Skenes’s Angler is offering a select menu for pick-up on 12/23 (with orders closing on 12/19). Among the seafood delicacies available: peel ‘n’ eat blue prawns and prawn butter and chili oil; whole Dungeness crab cocktail; and Angler private reserve caviar. Don’t forget the Angler wine club to go ($100), with picks from Hungary, Italy, and right here in California. Available via Tock.

Proper Hotel

There’s a reason the three cakes available here ($65) — a trio of vanilla cakes with lemon curd layers, orange buttercream layers and strawberry buttercream layers ($28) — are all low stock: They’re gorgeous. If your family insists on cookies, add the gingerbread kit — and maybe that “Dreams for Two” cocktail set ($20), just to take the edge off. Order direct.

EMAIL IS THE NEW HAPPY HOUR

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