Restaurant Naides: Dinner for 3 [Pre-payment required]

Restaurant description courtesy of Google Gemini. Please read through the entire description for the Important Stuff at the end.

Restaurant Naides is one of the most exciting and rapidly rising stars in San Francisco’s fine dining scene. Located in a cozy "jewel box" space in Union Square (the former Sons & Daughters location), it offers a highly creative, modern interpretation of Filipino cuisine.

The restaurant is a deeply personal labor of love helmed by Chef Patrick Gabon (who named the restaurant after his mother) and his partner, Celine Wuu, who deftly commands the front-of-house. Chef Gabon, born and raised in the Philippines, brings a world-class pedigree to the kitchen with past stints at Sons & Daughters and the Alpine-influenced Restaurant Milka in Slovenia. Gabon intricately blends high-level fine dining precision with traditional Filipino fermenting and preservation techniques, even using wild ingredients that the duo hand-forages near Lake Tahoe.

Naides serves an expansive, artfully composed 11-to-13-course tasting menu ($235 per person) that leans boldly into salty, savory, tangy, and sweet flavor profiles. Gabon masterfully takes rustic Filipino staples and elevates them with Californian ingredients. Outstanding highlights include:
• Elevated Street Food: Whimsical opening bites like a fluffy puto (steamed rice cake) topped with pork rillette and lardo, and okoy fritters dressed with prawn tartare and pickled wild roses.
• The Bread Service: An ethereal, warm brioche-style pandesal paired with a rich chicken sisig, savory chicken liver pâté, and bright atchara pickles.
• Mains & Desserts: Impeccably executed 14-day dry-aged duck breast adobo with soy jus and horseradish, followed by a complex dessert tart utilizing rare, finely grated pili nuts imported from the Philippines.
• The restaurant is also highly celebrated for its brilliant, mind-blowing housemade non-alcoholic beverage pairings, featuring complex elixirs like smoked pomegranate juice with cascara and black pepper.

Despite only being open for a matter of months, Naides has captured intense critical acclaim:
• One Michelin Star (June 2026): In a remarkably swift ascent, Naides was awarded its first Michelin star in the summer of 2026 for its high-quality cooking and groundbreaking culinary boundary-pushing.
• Critical Buzz: Local culinary authorities, including 7x7 and the San Francisco Chronicle, have widely hailed it as the best new restaurant opening of the year in the Bay Area.

The restaurant is unable to make any modifications to the menu. For allergies, please email the restaurant directly to check if it affects the current tasting menu.

Important Stuff
So why am I calling this a theoretical dinner? I do not have a reservation yet, and I may not get one. I will make my best efforts to secure a reservation for August 22 when August reservations open up on July 15. The restaurant only accommodates groups of 2 to 4. If we don’t get at least 3 people committed, we won’t go forward. If I can’t get a reservation, I will update the group and cancel the event.

But if I can get a reservation, I will be required to prepay the meal cost ($235 or thereabouts), a 20% service charge, and a $5 order fee per person, for a total of $287 person, at the time of reservation. That means that if I do secure the reservation, I will expect pre-payment from the three people in the Going group on July 16. Please don’t sign up if you are not able to pre-pay on July 16.

If you pre-pay and your plans are forced to change, you can transfer your spot to someone on the wait list. Alternatively, we can amend the reservation if it’s more than 48 hours before the event and seek a refund. No refunds are possible within 48 hours of the event.

Costs
I accept Venmo, Zelle, or Apple Cash. You will prepay your meal and service charge ahead of time. At the restaurant, you may have to pay sales tax (though I assume this is already included) and for any beverages you order. I will pay for all of the additional charges, and you can reimburse me via cash, Venmo, Zelle, or Apple Cash.

Parking and Transportation
Powell cable car to Bush Street
Muni 2 to Sutter & Powell; 8, 30, 45 to Stockton & Sutter
BART to Powell Street
Street parking is theoretically possible. There are many paid garages/lots in the vicinity.