AMBITIOUS THAI TASTING MENUS FROM A CHEF WITH MICHELIN CHOPS LAND IN JAPANTOWN

An 11-course fine dining restaurant with Michelin aspirations is about to open on an unsuspecting street corner in Japantown. Well, not that unsuspecting: Naruephon “Billie” Wannajaro, who opened Hed Very Thai on Hardie Place in early 2023, and chef Piriya “Saint” Boonprasan are writing a testament to Thai elegance inside the former Mums location. The two will throw open the doors to Wannajaro’s new restaurant Hed 11 on Friday, May 3, unveiling an elegant new restaurant across the street from Japantown’s main drag. The new tasting menu restaurant opens inside the Kimpton Hotel Enso on Sutter Street. Boonprasan, his arms full of animal tattoos and a spiky beard on his chin, says he’d like to get a Michelin star for the restaurant. “Yeah, sure,” Boonprasan says. “It’s a cool city.”

Boonprasan, known for his time at Bangkok’s formerly Michelin-starred Thai restaurant Saawaan and now-closed Bo.Lan., will be delving into seafood and the flavors of Southern Thailand. It’s hard to encapsulate the full scope of Hed 11’s menu though, as there’s a lot of dishes most San Francisco diners may be seeing for the first time: Think young coconut caviar sticky rice pancakes, passionfruit Thai custard cheesecake, spicy shrimp with some seven spicy movements in just one bite, and more. Wannajaro points to khanom jeen sao nam with scallops as one of the restaurant’s must-try dishes; it’s one of Boonprasan’s signatures. It’s a traditional Thai summer dish in his mind, elevated to fine dining heights with scallops.

The menu will rotate each season, first rolling over in July 2024, but for now, it’s clear the main stars of this debut menu are courses four to nine. They arrive at the same time as a huge ensemble of food including hardy banana chicken curry, an unstoppable crab salad dip, cabbage salad with tiny fried shrimp, delicately fried catfish, and more. Wildly enough, about 90 percent of the menu is gluten- and dairy-free thanks to Wannajaro’s time at Hed Very Thai in Union Square. She realized that in San Francisco it’s a big deal for diners and said swapping coconut milk for animal dairy was easy; most everything was already gluten-free.

The decor is upscale and handsome, with modern and ornate light fixtures giving a Denis Villeneuve vibe. Plateware comes in from Thailand, handmade and thoughtful. Behind the bar, Wannajaro is still tightening the screws on the final menu, but guests can expect a full bar with Thai-ingredient-infused spirits. There’s an infused whiskey, for instance, with a light honey and herbaceous profile. (Expect highballs.) There’ll be plenty of Thai and Japanese liquors, too. The tasting menu comes in at $169 per person, and a wine pairing will also be available.

The opening is major for the city and the neighborhood, but for Wannajaro this is business as usual. The restaurateur owns three restaurants in Thailand including an American-style brunch spot and quickly gained a following in San Francisco’s Union Square. Wannajaro says coming to the new neighborhood is a full circle moment; when she originally scouted United States cities for her first restaurant, she looked at a space in Japantown just across the street.

She now has a singular perspective on the city’s busyness as she runs a restaurant in what she calls two malls: Union Square and Japantown. The latter, she says, is likely the most popular for tourists at the moment, crowds of people flitting through like they’ve never heard of a doom loop. She was under construction during the Sakura Festival, pink flowers swirling through the big crowds. “It’s good energy here,” Wannajaro says.

Hed 11 (1800 Sutter Street) will open on Friday, May 3 serving dinner from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday before adding brunch later in 2024. Reservations can be made through OpenTable.

2024-04-26T17:35:27Z dg43tfdfdgfd