Daniel Patterson has earned local love and national laurels for the high-wire tasting menus at this elegantly understated spot in North Beach.

Want a taste without committing to the $125 prix fixe?  Any tasting-menu dish– plus more, on a separate streamlined menu– can be ordered à la carte at the swanky front lounge.  Even if you’re just there for a casual bite (say, a stew of organic chicken, wheatberry and matsutake mushrooms), you might be seduced into trying at least one fish from the fine-dining menu.  If so, make it the stunner called Oysters Under Glass: plump mollusks beneath a transparent veil of yuzu gelée.