Former French Laundry Chef To Open Tasting Menu-Only Korean Restaurant

There’s no shortage of baller tasting menus in this town, but few are all-Asian. Sung Anh is about to change that with the impending opening of Mosu, his reservations-required, tasting menu-only Korean restaurant in the Fillmore District in the former Zoomaak space. Anh has cooked at The French Laundry, Benu, Aziza and Urasawa in Los Angeles, building an elite-SF French technique pedigree over the years. He counts chef Corey Lee as a major influence, having worked under him at both The French Laundry and Benu. “I put all that experience together to try to make the menu more personal, combining the experience and my tradition and my culture,” he told Eater. “But I still have a core of French techniques.” Like Lee at Benu, Anh will mix Korean, Japanese and Chinese influences and use French techniques through which to filter the Asian flavors. That translates to dishes like rice wine bread with foie butter, pine nut and pine-infused rice syrup and steamed quail with almond, citrus zest and pickled and fermented peppers. The kaiseki-style menu will be about 12 to 15 courses and cost around $160.

The space only has 18 seats — “I tried to design the restaurant for guest privacy. A lot of restaurants in San Francisco are very crowded and tables are stuck together and I wanted to give more space to the guest,” Anh explained — spread over two floors with an open kitchen. Mosu, which is named after the Korean pronunciation of the cosmos flower (coso-mosu), will soft open in late December and be open Tuesday through Saturday from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.