The Insider’s Guide to 7 Adams in San Francisco

There’s a big fine dining lineage here.

The two chefs met while cooking together in fine dining kitchens in New York. David, who was born and raised in western upstate New York, spent time at the kitchens of Jean Georges and Aldea, while Serena cut her pastry teeth at Eleven Madison Park. The two met while cooking at Pearl & Ash in New York. They fell in love, and eventually moved to Serena’s native Bay Area.

“We were fed up with the hustle and bustle, train rides,” said Fisher. “Serena wanted to get closer to her family in San Mateo. I saw an opportunity to work.”

Fisher became chef de cuisine at Bird Dog in Palo Alto and then cooked at Sorrel before the two decided to start Marlena, which would eventually lead them to 7 Adams, of course.

In addition to the Fishers, the team has a trio of talented sous chefs who each contribute their own thing to the menu and the restaurant, like Cam Schell, who helps forage things like mushrooms, herbs, and seaweed and is super into fermentation. If you see a mushroom miso on the menu, know he had a hand in making that happen.

For the menu, everybody’s got choices.

7 Adams features a tasting menu format that comes in five waves — and for each one, you’re given options. You’ll start with a couple small plates— perhaps you’ll choose from either a cured fish in a spicy fresno and yuzo kusho vinaigrette with cooling yogurt mousse and sweet Asian pear, or a beet tartare with horseradish and butter milk foam.

Next come your pasta courses (celery root ravioli with capers, pesto, and a garlic-parmesan emulsion; or smoked ricotta agnolotti with shaved truffles and parmesan fonduta) and then mains like seared black cod with a smoked trout roe and clam butter sauce poured tableside or roasted pork with cheddar grits and breakfast sausage.

But the real move is to come here with your beloved and order it all: stagger courses, swap plates, and trade bites so you can experience it all. Go wild and crazy and add that extra pasta course or the Wagyu ribeye supplement — you might be rolling home, but it’ll be worth it.

And best of all: the menu is constantly changing and receives a major refresh every month: “For me it starts with the season,” says David about creating new menu items.  “I can pick a certain ingredient, then I start to paint something, think about how it’ll taste in my head, think about how it’ll hit the plate. Then eventually I cook something. Put it on the plate. Eat it to make sure that it’s good.”

Going big? Opt for the Chef’s Counter.

If you want to really see Fisher’s fine-dining finesse and flair in full action, choose to sit at the chef’s counter. There’s only six seats at the bar, and one seating per night at 6:30pm. Here, you can get a long menu of eight to 10 courses where the chefs get super creative and introduce super luxe ingredients into the mix, like shiny briny caviar and super fragrant truffles.

No choices here: Fisher cooks what he wants, how we wants, and really gets to introduce more labor intensive dishes, like the Buffalo Wing, which he carefully debones, stuffs with a sausage, poaches, fries until crispy, then douses in good ole Frank’s RedHot Buffalo sauce and butter. This technique-driven dish is also a nostalgic call back to Fisher’s upbringing in upstate New York, and just might be the best damn “buffalo wing” you’ll ever have in life.

It feels a little like New York in here.

One cool thing about 7 Adams is that you feel like you’re in a New York restaurant. They nail the lighting—the soft glow against the dark space is very much intentional. The space was designed by Kellogg Architects, who also worked on the Marlena redesign and does very vibey, design-forward spaces.

At the same time, if it also feels like you’re in someone’s very modern, very chic house: “The goal was to make it look like you’re coming into our home,” says Serena. “We wanted it to look warm and inviting like you’re coming into a dinner party, hence the mushroom lamps instead of candles and a lot of the décor we chose.”

Some of the décor that lines the back illuminated bar include trinkets and tchotchkes accumulated over the years from trips and vacation; there’s a miniature Stanley Cup, a gift David received from a regular (Fisher plays hockey when he’s not in the kitchen), and plenty of bonsai trees everywhere (Serena is “obsessed,” in her own words).

There’s also a covered back patio that’s heated, so diners can enjoy the outdoor space rain or shine. “It’s a secret oasis in the middle of Japantown,” says Serena, and is the quietest place in the restaurant, which is usually packed and buzzing on the nightly.

But seriously, if you remember one thing: Don’t miss dessert. 

Make sure you save room for dessert — Serena’s are special.

She was named Pastry Chef of the Year in back 2021 in Esquire for a reason: She likes to draw on nostalgia, reimagining classic dishes or flavor profiles in new, technique-driven ways. There’s a spiced chocolate dish on the menu right now, which draws inspiration from a Mexican hot chocolate, with a spiced cinnamon cake, candied ginger, and a fermented fresno chile powder chocolate crumble. Hot chocolate indeed.

She also has an ice cream company named after her dogs, Jack & Remi. She uses the restaurant as a testing ground for flavors, and gives away little scoops for people celebrating birthday and special occasions. Her flavors are inventive as you’d think coming from an EMP alum, and include creative flavor combinations like things like cocoa nib lavender or orange bay leaf.

Omar Mamoon is a San Francisco-based writer & cookie dough professional. Follow him on Instagram. Follow Resy, too.