Quince

<h2>Jackson Square, Floor-to-Ceiling Light, and a View of the Transamerica Pyramid</h2><p>The 1907 brick building on Pacific Avenue sits on a quiet, tree-lined stretch of Jackson Square, set back from the traffic patterns that define most of downtown San Francisco. Floor-to-ceiling windows flood the dining room with afternoon light, and from the right seat you can place the Transamerica Pyramid directly in your sightline. This is not the compact Russian Hill room where the restaurant began in 2003; the current space, after a full remodel for the 20th anniversary in 2023, includes a purpose-built bar and lounge, an open kitchen visible from the dining room, and a layout that manages to be both spacious and architecturally specific to its early-twentieth-century shell.</p><p>San Francisco's three-star tier is small. Among the city's tasting-menu restaurants holding Michelin's leading designation, Quince operates alongside <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/benu">Benu</a>, <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/atelier-crenn">Atelier Crenn</a>, and <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/saison-san-francisco-restaurant">Saison</a>, each working a distinct culinary identity. Where Benu operates through a French-Chinese lens and Atelier Crenn through a poetic French framework, Quince holds a California-Italian position that is rarer at this level on the West Coast, and rarer still when executed through the depth of a single-farm sourcing program.</p><h2>Where the Produce Comes From — and Why That Changes the Meal</h2><p>The ingredient sourcing at Quince is not a marketing posture. The restaurant maintains a formal partnership with Fresh Run Farm in Bolinas, a coastal town on the western edge of Marin County where the Pacific fog keeps growing conditions distinct from the warmer inland valleys. Over 40 varieties of fruit, vegetables, and flowers are produced exclusively for the restaurant, which means the menu reflects what is actually in the ground on a given week rather than what a broadline distributor has available.</p><p>This kind of single-farm exclusivity is common in Scandinavian tasting-menu culture and has become more frequent at the highest tier of California fine dining, but it carries real implications for what lands on the table. When the season tips from spring to early summer in Marin County, the menu tips with it. A bowl of first-of-season peas in a broth built around guanciale and Tomales Bay clam is only possible because the farm is close enough to harvest at the precise moment of peak sweetness and the kitchen is calibrated to respond within days. The same logic governs the white asparagus that fills the agnolotti when that window opens, and the edible blossoms arranged with local lamb cooked in the fireplace.</p><p>The Michelin Green Star awarded in 2025 formalises what the sourcing model has been doing for years: connecting fine dining to agricultural specificity rather than treating produce as interchangeable raw material. Among the Green Star holders in Northern California, Quince sits alongside <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/single-thread">Single Thread Farm in Healdsburg</a>, another property where the farm-to-table relationship is operational rather than aspirational.</p><h2>The Pasta Argument — Northern California vs. Emilia-Romagna</h2><p>Chef Michael Tusk's pasta work has been the subject of serious critical attention for over a decade. The 2011 James Beard Award for Leading Chef: Pacific acknowledged a body of work that includes handmade forms with a technical foundation traceable to extended study in northern Italy. His tortellini, which has been served in a rolling pin as part of the presentation, draws regular comparisons to the leading available in Emilia-Romagna, a region where tortellini is not a menu item but a civic institution.</p><p>What distinguishes Tusk's approach from the Italian original is the California inflection: the passionfruit risotto built with sea urchin, espelette pepper, Meyer lemon, and sea beans uses Northern California ingredients in a format that is Italian in technique and Pacific in character. The beetroot spaghetti finished in yuzu, vodka, and Tsar Nicoulai caviar sauce operates similarly, taking a pasta form rooted in Italian tradition and pushing it into territory that no kitchen in Bologna would recognise. Whether this constitutes an improvement is a matter of perspective; that it is technically accomplished and conceptually coherent is not seriously disputed. For comparison, the California-Italian conversation also plays out at <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/boia-de-miami-restaurant">Boia De in Miami</a> and, at a different register entirely, at <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/taverna-estia-brusciano-restaurant">Taverna Estia in Brusciano</a> , but Quince operates in a different tier and with a different sourcing infrastructure than either.</p><h2>The Wine Program: 1,700 Selections, 14,000 Bottles</h2><p>The wine program operates at a scale that places it among the more substantial cellars in San Francisco's fine dining circuit. With 1,700 selections and a reported inventory of 14,000 bottles, Wine Director Matthias Cattelin has assembled a list with particular depth in Champagne, Burgundy, Bordeaux, Loire, Rhône, Germany, California, Tuscany, and Italy. Star Wine List placed the program at both #1 and #2 in its 2026 rankings, which reflects the list's consistent critical positioning over several years.</p><p>The format of service reinforces the wine program's ambitions: a Champagne cart arrives early in the meal, moving between luxury négociant labels and grower producers from across the region. A vintage amaro and spirits cart closes the evening. The corkage fee is set at $120 for those arriving with their own bottles, a figure that signals where the house pricing sits. The wine list's pricing tier is noted as $$$, indicating substantial depth in the $100-plus range.</p><p>At the three-star level in Northern California, the wine programs at Quince, <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/the-french-laundry">The French Laundry in Napa</a>, and <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/saison-san-francisco-restaurant">Saison</a> represent different philosophies: The French Laundry remains the benchmark for sheer depth and age, Saison leans into natural and minimal-intervention producers, and Quince holds a classical European position with California integrated alongside Burgundy and Champagne rather than treated as a separate category.</p><h2>Lunch in a City That Rarely Offers It</h2><p>Fine dining lunch service is substantially less common in the United States than in France, Italy, or the United Kingdom, where a midday tasting menu is a standard format at the top tier. Quince operates a Friday lunch service with floor-to-ceiling window light, the Transamerica Pyramid visible outside, and the same kitchen team producing a tasting menu format in a room that reads very differently at noon than it does after dark. For visitors whose itinerary allows it, this represents one of the few opportunities in San Francisco to experience three-star cooking in daylight hours. <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/lazy-bear">Lazy Bear</a>, which holds two stars with a Progressive American identity, does not operate a lunch service; neither does <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/atelier-crenn">Atelier Crenn</a> at the same level. The Friday lunch at Quince is a structural anomaly worth planning around.</p><h2>How Quince Sits in the San Francisco Fine Dining Tier</h2><p>The La Liste ranking placed Quince at 90 points in 2025, moving to 89 in 2026. Opinionated About Dining ranked the restaurant 36th in North America in 2024, climbing from 40th the year prior. These rankings, combined with the three Michelin stars held since 2024 and the Green Star added in 2025, place Quince in a bracket where the peer conversation extends beyond San Francisco to include <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/le-bernardin">Le Bernardin in New York City</a>, <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/alinea">Alinea in Chicago</a>, and <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/providence">Providence in Los Angeles</a>. Within California, the comparison set narrows to The French Laundry and Single Thread at Healdsburg in terms of sustained multi-star recognition combined with meaningful farm provenance.</p><p>The 2023 remodel, undertaken at the restaurant's 20th anniversary, addressed what had become a constraint of the original Jackson Square layout. The addition of a bar and lounge, a shorter format menu option, and à la carte bites alongside the full tasting menu broadened access without diluting the primary dining experience. General Manager Julie Cattelin and Lindsay Tusk lead the front of house, and the service model is designed around anticipation rather than formality: attentive without the stiffness that can characterise European fine dining at this level. Google reviewers rate the experience 4.6 across 712 reviews, a data point that reflects consistent execution rather than occasional brilliance.</p><p>For the wider San Francisco dining picture, EP Club's <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/san-francisco">full San Francisco restaurants guide</a> maps the city by tier and neighbourhood. For those building a trip around Quince, the <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/hotels/san-francisco">San Francisco hotels guide</a>, <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/bars/san-francisco">bars guide</a>, <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/wineries/san-francisco">wineries guide</a>, and <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/experiences/san-francisco">experiences guide</a> provide the full editorial framework. <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/mister-jiu-s-san-francisco-restaurant">Mister Jiu's</a> operates at $$$, offering a Chinese tasting menu format in Chinatown that serves as an interesting comparison point for the city's broader fine dining range.</p><h2>Planning a Visit</h2><p><strong>Address:</strong> 470 Pacific Ave, Jackson Square, San Francisco, CA 94133. <strong>Hours:</strong> Tuesday through Thursday, 5–9 pm; Friday, 12–1 pm lunch and 5–9 pm dinner; Saturday, 5–9 pm; closed Sunday and Monday. <strong>Reservations:</strong> Bookings open approximately two months in advance; securing a table early in that window is advisable, as Friday and Saturday evenings are the tightest. <strong>Budget:</strong> Cuisine pricing at $$$+ (two-course equivalent above $66, with full tasting menu considerably higher); wine list pricing at $$$, with corkage at $120 per bottle. <strong>Getting there:</strong> San Francisco International Airport is approximately 24 km from Jackson Square; Oakland Airport approximately 30 km. The GPS coordinates for the building are 37.7974, -122.4035. Street parking on Pacific Avenue; multiple transit options within walking distance of the Jackson Square district.</p><h2>Frequently Asked Questions</h2><h3>What's the leading thing to order at Quince?</h3><p>The pasta courses are where the kitchen's technical identity is most legible. The tortellini, served in a rolling pin as part of the presentation, draws direct comparisons to the standard in Emilia-Romagna, and the creative pasta formats , beetroot spaghetti finished with yuzu, vodka, and Tsar Nicoulai caviar; passionfruit risotto with sea urchin, espelette pepper, and sea beans , demonstrate the California-Italian argument the menu is making. Beyond pasta, the squab sourced from Philip Paine, paired with black truffle and mirto liqueur, is a dish the restaurant has built a reputation around. The amuse-bouche sequence, which has included a celery root tube with dill and black truffle, sets the register early. If the Friday lunch service fits your schedule, the floor-to-ceiling window light and relative quiet of the room make it a different experience from the dinner service, and one of very few three-star midday options in the United States.</p>

How it compares

• Quince

  Price

  $$$$

  Awards

  Moving from the cozy Russian Hill location to a newer, larger and historic spot in the Jackson Square neighborhood was a brilliant move, as Quince is fresher than ever.; Star Wine List #2 (2026); Star Wine List #1 (2026); San Francisco institution Quince is owned and operated by Chef Michael Tusk and his wife and long-term FOH majordomo, Lindsay Tusk. The menu features Californian cuisine at its finest: inspired daily...; La Liste Top Restaurants (2026): 89pts; Opinionated About Dining Top Restaurants in North America Ranked #89 (2025); HIGHLIGHTS: • 3 MICHELIN STARS & 1 GREEN STAR 2025 • CREATIVE CUISINE • LOCAL ROOTS • FARM-TO-TABLE DIRECTIONS & ACCESS: Directions By plane San Francisco (Intl) 24 km Oakland 30 km GPS coordinates 37.7974 -122.4035; WINE: Wine Strengths: Champagne, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Loire, Rhone, France, Germany, California, Tuscany, Italy Pricing: $$$ i Wine pricing: Based on the list\'s general markup and high and low price points:$ has many bottles < $50;$$ has a range of pricing;$$$ has many $100+ bottles Corkage Fee: $120 Selections: 1,700 Inventory: 14,000 CUISINE: Cuisine Types: Californian, Italian Pricing: $$$ i Cuisine pricing: The cost of a typical two-course meal, not including tip or beverages.$ is < $40;$$ is $40–$65;$$$ is $66+. Meals: Lunch and Dinner STAFF: People Matthias Cattelin:Wine Director Wine Director: Matthias Cattelin Chef: Michael Tusk General Manager: Julie Cattelin Owner: Michael & Lindsay Tusk; A modern celebration of Californian terroir Movin' on up: Quince began in a cosy San Francisco space in 2003 when chef Michael Tusk and his wife, Lindsay, gained a following for his confident cooking of Californian produce and her hospitality mastery. Moving to Jackson Square in 2009, the sleek, multi-room space went through refreshes and ever-increasing awards. During the 20th anniversary in 2023, it underwent a massive remodel, with walls torn down, a romantic bar and lounge added, plus a shorter tasting menu, a la carte bites and cocktails on offer. Pasta master: Tusk's pasta prowess is renowned. His tortellini, historically served in a rolling pin, surpasses even some of the best in Italy's Emilia-Romagna region. But the creative pastas also wow, like his iconic vivid red beetroot spaghetti in yuzu, vodka and Tsar Nicoulai caviar sauce. Likewise, the passionfruit risotto with urchin, espelette pepper, Meyer lemon and sea beans. More than pasta: Heavy on Italy, California and Champagne, the global wine list offers hundreds of world-class labels. Pasta is glorified, but so is everything else on the ever-changing menus. Quince's squab is sourced from legendary Philip Paine, decadent with black truffle and mirto liqueur. Amuse bouches hold some of Quince's most joyous bites, like a celery root tube laced with dill and black truffles, recalling nostalgic Chicken in a Biskit crackers. Thoughtful touches: Showing off northern California bounty from seafood to produce, Quince partners with Fresh Run Farm in the idyllic San Francisco Bay-side town of Bolinas, making the most of over 40 varieties of fruit, vegetables, and flowers produced exclusively for the restaurant. Start right with the champagne cart, ranging from luxury brands to grower labels, a vintage amaro and spirits cart makes a brilliant dessert finish, and you'll still be sent home with a cup of rich hot chocolate or a cool tea on warm days. Lunch time: Unlike Europe, it's rare to find fine-dining restaurants open for lunch in the US. But Quince serves lunch tasting menus on Fridays and Saturdays. Massive floor-to-ceiling windows and effusive light under the gaze of the Transamerica Pyramid makes for an idyllic lunch spot.; **Our Inspector's Highlights Located at 470 Pacific Ave. (at Montgomery Street) in Jackson Square, Quince is one of San Francisco’s most elegant restaurants. Set away from traffic on a quiet tree-lined street, the 1907 brick building allows for a clear view of the bustling kitchen next to the dining room.The Four-Star restaurant is known for its contemporary Italian cuisine led by chef Michael Tusk, the 2011 James Beard award winner for Best Chef: Pacific.Tusk’s handmade pastas have earned rave reviews, along with the extensive wine list that highlights several varieties from small Northern Italian vineyards.In a city overflowing with fine dining options, Quince provides flawless service from start to finish. The staff seemed to anticipate your every need without being overly intrusive.** **Things to Know Quince is open for dinner Monday through Thursday from 5:30 to 9 p.m. and from 5 until 9:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. The restaurant is closed on Sundays.Reservations, which are strongly recommended, can be made two months in advance by phone or online at Quince’s website. Your best bet for scoring a table is to reserve as early as possible; even a couple of weeks out, you may have to settle for an early-bird reservation at 5:30 p.m.The menu changes nightly based on what’s fresh and in season, so it’s unlikely that you'll ever have the same meal twice.** **Treatments:** The Chef Michael Tusk, the chef at Quince in San Francisco, abides by a farm-to-table ethos in creating his contemporary Northern Italian cuisine. It’s not surprising, considering his past stint at localvore legend Chez Panisse, where Alice Waters pioneered the idea of eating fresh, in-season regional food.At his own restaurant, Tusk works with ingredients from local farmers, ranchers, fishmongers and creameries—building on relationships that, in some cases, reach back 20 years.What’s more, the chef does much of the food shopping himself, often traveling to nearby Marin County for meat, produce and eggs.Tusk’s efforts were rewarded in 2011 with the James Beard award for Best Chef: Pacific. **Amenities:** 470 Pacific Avenue, San Francisco, California 94133; La Liste Top Restaurants (2025): 90pts; Chef: Michael Tusk document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function() { var el = document.getElementById("Achievements_chefs"); if (el && el.parentNode) { el.parentNode.removeChild(el); } });; Pearl Recommended Restaurant (2025); To mark its 20th anniversary, Chef Michael and Lindsay Tusk have given their restaurant a luxe refresh that has reinvigorated the early 1900's Jackson Square setting. The commitment to seasonality and locality is striking, with much of the produce sourced from their partner farm. Dinner here celebrates the season with an array of elegant presentations. A small bowlful of gently cooked first-of-the-season peas are served in a silky broth brimming with flavor from guanciale and Tomales Bay clam. Pasta has always been a highlight here, and the agnolotti filled with white asparagus is no exception. Local lamb cooked in the fireplace is arranged with a springtime melange of fava beans, green garlic, and edible blossoms, and accompanied by freshly baked bread tinted by vegetable ash.; Esquire Martini of the Year (2024); Opinionated About Dining Top Restaurants in North America Ranked #36 (2024); Michelin 3 Stars (2024); Opinionated About Dining Top Restaurants in North America Ranked #40 (2023); Quince is an award-winning fine dining restaurant in San Francisco's historic Jackson Square. It serves California contemporary cuisine with Italian sensibilities, featuring an ever-changing menu with produce from their organic farm in Bolinas.

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