Destroyer

“At Destroyer, the food are so beautiful you don’t even want to eat it!” Is that a good or a bad thing though? Would you say that a song is so good that you don’t want to listen to it? Either way, each dish Destroyer deserves applause (or Instagram likes) for the quality of its presentation. The menu projected on a wall gives a futuristic look to this zen-slash-compulsive dinette. Jordan Kahn, whose pedigree includes Alinea, French Laundry and Per Se, decided to open Destroyer at breakfast and lunch — to give it a ‘neighborhood joint’ character. It’s certainly an excellent spot for tea or coffee, sourced respectively from Song in San Francisco and in Rosaline in Portland, and delicately presented in Japanese-inspired ceramics. The food itself is adventurous: raw porridge with Icelandic yogurt, English peas and almond milk custard, beef tartar hidden under radish scales… a true R&D laboratory for his next-door restaurant Vespertine. You’ll applaud the refinement of every dish, even though you might not understand everything you’re eating.