Satisfaction Guaranteed at Isa

When your dear friend, visiting from your sweet hometown, mutters self-consciously, "Yeah, it would be a crime to leave San Francisco and move back to Chicago again," and her chin is ever so slightly smeared with goat cheese and huckleberry sauce--courtesy of Maple Leaf grilled duck breast course--you know you happened to take her to a very good restaurant.
A dazzling array of fresh, local, morning-market produce, seafood and meat is assembled in creative French small plates by the executive chef Luke Sung, who co-owns the place with his wife, Kitty.
"Our chef is a purist," said our polite and efficient server, Dean Leng, explaining the clarity of garnet-colored au jus sauce, which tenderly enhanced the lamb tenderloin dish.
"I've only had marinated artichokes before," admitted the Chicagoan after asking what was that unknown piece of vegetable among the exquisitely grilled eggplants and peppers on her plate.
(Hey, locally grown artichokes--are we spoiled rotten here, or what?)
Dungeness crab salad (finally, local crab fishing ban is lifted after that oil spill), complemented by avocado, mango and grapefruit, and Loch Duart salmon crudo looked like small modern art presentations with their intriguing color scheme, and tasted like... heaven.
Isa is located at 3324 Steiner, SF. For reservations call 415-567-9588.