"Michael Mina’s eponymous restaurant and its new Middle Eastern accented menu. Four stars. Michael Mina is an appropriate review to cap my 32-year career writing about food at The Chronicle. The restaurant earned four stars, one of my first such ratings. Now, Mina owns the former Aqua space, and the chef — who operates a whopping 44 restaurants — has returned to his Egyptian roots. To execute the menu, Mina spent six weeks learning from his mother in her kitchen. With chef de cuisine Raj Dixit, the restaurant’s six-course menu (for $155 at dinner) includes 19 spice blends, with opulent spices displayed in boxes like treasures. The interior looks much the same, although they took out a couple of tables to make the room feel even more spacious, and the service continues to be some of the best in the Bay Area. However, the food has transformed the experience, making the restaurant even more exciting and relevant. In particular, the critic praises the chef’s glazed Egyptian mango “poached in spices and caramelized [it] rests on top of a seared lobe of foie gras on a salty sesame cracker with candied ginger and Mina’s proprietary spice blend. It’s one of the best preparations of foie gras I’ve had." - Caleb Pershan
