The only choice at Birdsong is the tasting menu which is a three hour dining experience at $275/person + tax & tip. The menu is changing pretty often as Birdsong offers a series of dishes that are inspired by the season and features vegetables, seafood, poultry, meat and desserts.  There is a total of 12 course but there is a course that has 3 different dishes so in total of 14 dishes.  

Course #1: Root Broth, braised wakame, smoked mussels, shrimp

Our waiter pouring the broth on the braised wakame (seaweed).

This dish looks so simple but the broth was creamy, rich, sweet, and has a depth of flavor.  Lots of Umami

Course #2: Shigoku oysters, chicken fat, cauliflower

Presentation is very simple, a bowl with a white foam.

I put my spoon and took a scoop out so you can see the inside of the dish.

Oysters, and a bunch of vegetables with a yummy cauliflower puree with chicken fat. 

Course #3: Creek raised trout

Our waitress starting to plate the 3rd course.

Chef Bleidron, like many other chefs these days uses every part of the animal.  This idea is front and center on the tasting meny as the Mount Lassen trout is aged for five days to intensify its flavor and used in 3 differen coursed you will see below.

3A: Roe, apple cider sabayon, chestnut spaghetti squash

This is the first course using part of the Moutain Lassen trout.

Beautiful presentation of the dish.  It is bright, colorful and I also like the purple leaves that look like a heart.

The sabayon was creamy, unctuous, flavorful and the row just popped in your mouth just like popcorn-so delicious!

As you plunge your spoon deeper into the sabayon, you will discover more row and a the end of the bowl a bunch of strings from the spaghetti squash sticking out of the apple foam, but as you go deeper into the dish, you realize that there is a ton of roe.

3B: Tail end prepared like lox, puffed skin, fresh cheese

Killer presentation!

This is the second dish using Trout.  Here the trout is cured and smoked, topped with a few strands of crispy skin and beautifully decorated.

Another winning dish.

3C: Loin cured in cedar, shisho, pine needle condiment

This is the 3rd dish using Trout and the presentation looks like a piece of art.

Unbelievable tasty small bite and I am savoring every bit of it.

Done with the 3 dishes using tout!  We polished everything on our plate.

Course #4: Dungeness crab, smoked pine nuts, yogurt

Fun presentation of the Dungeness crab.  You lift up the crab shell and underneath is a yummy concoction.

Omg, simply delicious! creamy, The crab meat is sweet, salty with the smell of the ocean and a hint of smoke.

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Course #5 Sea urchin cream puff, fermented shitake, savory butterscotch

Another beautiful presentation.

I love sea urchin and here it is sitting on top of a savory cream puff (choux) with fermented shitake and a savory butterscotch sauce.

What is not to like?  It is a great combination bursting with flavors.

Course #6: Cornbread & Caviar

This is like an orchestrated little dance to serve this dish.  There is a waiter with tray bringing out all the ingredients and the 2 waiters just carefully put all the dishes on the table.

A doll up of cream fraiche is put on top of the corn bread, followed by syrup, and caviar.

Everything is meticulously planned before the corn bread is ready to be served.

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Each person get half of the corn bread.

Oh la la, I am in heaven.  So decadent and so yummy!

Course #7: Quail lacquered & smoked, grilled parker house

Here we have (from left to right): quail jus (in a bowl), lacquered quail breast, Apricot jam, and on top we have grilled parker roll.

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Then a set of legs and wings are served and meant to be shared.

Interestingly this dish is eaten by assembling the parker roll with a bit of Apricot jam, the quail and topped with crunchy pickles  vegetables just like the way you would eat Peking duck but the ingredients are a bit different.

It was lovely, very enjoyable, light, and so tasty.

Check out how the bird shape of the pickles cucumber and carrots.

Course #8: BBQ Carrot

By the time we reach this course, we were pretty full.

Apparently these are not your regular carrots!  They are Chanteny carrots and prepared by dehydrating and rehydrating it daily for a week.

The texture is very interesting, very meaty, sweet, and full of flavors.

Beautiful presentation.

This is one of Birdsong signature dish at Birdsong.

Course #9: Followed deer, grilled endive

This is our final savory dish and unfortunately, we were so full but we still manage to eat a bite and then we had to take it to go.

Deer is pretty difficult to cook as there is barely any fat on the meat but here it is moist, and tender.  I also like the bitter taste of the endive.

Course #10: Chamomile sorbet, Mandarin, mint, honey

The sorbet was served as a palate cleanser after our meat course.

I am not a fan of sorbet so I only took a few bites.

Coffee service

Course #11: Koji nib, dandelion chocolate ice cream

Hot chocolate cookie with Ice cream.  I love it, simple but still super delicious.

Course #12: Hoshigaki

Hoshigaki are peeled persimmons and hung until they shrivel and a natural sugar coating forms on their surface.

I am not sure if Birdsong dried these persimmons in house but in any case they are delicious.

Here they are served with Ice cream.  I really enjoyed their texture, they are tender and chewy at the same time, not overtly sweet, and moist.

Another beautiful presentation.

Our 3 desserts.

Coffee , fork and spoons for our desserts.

They also brought out so many toppings in really cute bird shape containers.

At the end of our meal, Phuc and I we received and very nice birthday card from the staff.

This is the end of our meal and we are ready to leave.  This is our table by the time we left.

One last look at the restaurant before heading out.  By the time we left, the restaurant is pretty emptied out.

Overall we have a very good dinning experience, the food was cooked creatively, each dish was unique and presented to perfection. 

The service is also very good but a bit robotic/mechanic. I think the waiters were so focus on how to serve the food, and they were very precise on how each dish is supposed to be served so it feels like they have a script to follow.  There were no warm in their service but none the less they did a good job but it felt very business like. I wish they just pause a few minutes to talk to us a bit,  maybe exchanging, sharing a few things about the restaurants or anything else, and maybe have a few laughs with us.

Everything is served on custom ceramic plate ware, designed by Chef Bleidorm with Korean ceramic company KwangJuYo (taking a page from Benu's playbook).  The Benu connection does not stop there, Chef Bleidorn's wife and business partner is Aarti Shetty used to be the Director of Operations for Benu.  I also like how much attention they pay to details such as the flatware changes with the course, from chopsticks in the beginning, to delicate dark platinum, highly stylized utensils, which looked too delicate to use but turned out to be much more ergonomically designed that they appeared.  I went home that evening and wanted to replace all my wine glasses just because they are so beautiful here.

 Birdsong do give lots of food so towards the end (especially the last dish) we were so full that we had to take the Deer meat home, whihc is not a bad thing. 

However, I truly enjoyed their food and will definitely be back again on special occasion.

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