Lumière.
A signature plate — a beet sphere wrapped in nasturtium, dotted with horseradish cream and a flake of edible gold, dramatically side-lit on near-black.

Est. 2018 · San Francisco

A seasonal tasting menu, told in twelve moments.

Chef Élise Marchand serves a single menu, written by the season and the morning’s arrivals. One service. Twenty-eight seats.

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IOn Restraint

Cooking, for us, is an act of attention. A menu is the slow arrangement of a single afternoon, told one ingredient at a time.

— Élise Marchand, Chef

The Tasting Menu

Twelve courses, told slowly.

  1. A pale, frozen oyster-cream course dotted with finger lime, side-lit on near-black.
    I

    Neige

    Snow

    GF

    Frozen oyster cream, finger lime, a whisper of dashi. Served on a stone kept beneath the river for one season.

  2. A plate of heritage vegetables in their own broth, dressed with herbs, on a matte dark plate.
    II

    Le Jardin, avant l'aube

    Garden, just before dawn

    V · GF

    Twenty-one heritage vegetables from Caldwell Farm, their own broth, fermented kohlrabi, smoked sea salt.

  3. Beetroot prepared three ways with sheep's-milk yogurt and horseradish snow, plated on near-black.
    III

    Betterave

    Beetroot, in three forms

    V · GF

    Roasted under salt, distilled into glass, ribboned raw. Sheep's milk yogurt, walnut oil, horseradish snow.

  4. A Kumamoto oyster with green plum granité and nasturtium in a shallow bowl, dramatically lit.
    IV

    Huître

    Oyster, plum and the sea

    GF

    Kumamoto oyster, green plum granité, cucumber consommé poured tableside, nasturtium.

  5. A single raviolo in clarified brown butter with shaved black truffle on a dark plate.
    V

    Raviolo

    Raviolo of brown butter

    A single hand-rolled raviolo, ricotta from Bellwether, sage brûlée, black winter truffle shaved at the table.

  6. A fillet of hay-smoked halibut in pale beurre blanc with sea lettuce on a black plate.
    VI

    Flétan

    Halibut, hay-smoked

    GF

    Local halibut smoked over heritage hay, beurre blanc clarified with rye, salt-cured lemon, sea lettuce.

  7. A small clear cup of fennel and pine consommé beside a warm madeleine, softly lit.
    VII

    Entracte

    Pause — palate, palette

    V

    A small clear cup of fennel and pine consommé, served with a single warm madeleine still in its mold.

  8. Roasted duck breast plated with black mission fig and charred shallot on a dark plate.
    VIII

    Canard

    Duck, fig, embers

    Liberty Farms duck, breast roasted on the bone, leg confit folded into a tartlet, black mission fig, charred shallot.

  9. A small cheese course with house brioche and honeycomb, warmly lit on near-black.
    IX

    Fromages

    Cheese, slowly

    V

    A small selection from Cowgirl Creamery and Andante Dairy, our own brioche, honeycomb from the rooftop hives.

  10. A Sauternes-poached pear with frozen yogurt and brown-butter crumb, plated on an ivory plate.
    X

    Poire

    Pear, cold and warm

    V

    Williams pear poached in Sauternes, frozen pear yogurt, brown butter crumb, a single sprig of bronze fennel.

  11. An architectural chocolate dessert with a cacao tuile and gold leaf, lit low on near-black.
    XI

    Chocolat

    Chocolate, the room

    V

    Single-estate Madagascan ganache, smoked cacao tuile, raspberry gel, a leaf of edible gold. Served with the lights lowered.

  12. A small plate of mignardises — pâte de fruit, praline and shortbread — beside a house tisane.
    XII

    Mignardises

    A small farewell

    V

    Bergamot pâte de fruit, salted caramel praline, lavender shortbread. Served with our house tisane of verbena and rose.

IIThe Menu

Twelve courses, told slowly.

A new menu is written every six weeks, drawn from the small farms within ninety miles of the room. We list only four signatures here — the rest, you will meet at the table.

A small porcelain plate holds a beet sphere wrapped in nasturtium, dotted with horseradish cream and gold leaf.
01Amuse

Beet, nasturtium, and gold.The opening gesture.

A single sphere of salt-roasted beet wrapped in a young nasturtium leaf, dotted with horseradish cream and a flake of edible gold. It arrives a few minutes after you are seated — a quiet promise of what follows.

A single raviolo with truffle shavings in brown butter sauce on a matte black plate.
02Pasta

A single raviolo.Brown butter, sage, winter truffle.

One handmade raviolo of Bellwether ricotta in a clarified brown butter sauce, finished with crisp sage and black truffle shaved at the table. The course is intentionally small — one bite, perfectly held.

A duck breast plated with pumpkin purée, fig compote and charred shallot petals on a black plate.
03Main

Duck, fig, and embers.A long autumn in one plate.

Liberty Farms duck, breast cooked slowly on the bone, served over pumpkin purée with a quenelle of fig compote and charred shallot petals. A small jus made from yesterday's bones and today's last roast.

An architectural dessert of dark chocolate ganache with a tuile shard, raspberry gel and gold leaf on an ivory plate.
04Dessert

Chocolate, the room.Served with the lights lowered.

A quenelle of single-estate Madagascan ganache with a smoked cacao tuile, a few drops of raspberry gel, and a single leaf of edible gold. The room is dimmed for ninety seconds. The point of the dish is the quiet.

The Full Menu
Chef Élise Marchand in a white double-breasted jacket, holding a spoon above a plate in a low-lit kitchen.
IIIChef’s Note

“Every menu begins at the farm at six in the morning. By the time the first guest arrives, the dish is already a kind of memory of what the day was.”

Before Lumière, Élise spent four years at Maison Pic in Valence and two at Mirazur. She returned to California in 2017 with one ambition — to cook a menu that could only be cooked here, in this fog, in this season.

Chef · Proprietor
VRecognition
A restaurant of extraordinary quietness. Marchand cooks the way someone might write a letter to a place they love.
— The New York Times · 2025
Twelve courses that feel less like a menu and more like a single, beautifully held breath.
— Financial Times · 2024
Among the most generous dining rooms in America. Restraint, here, is a form of abundance.
— Eater · 2024
Lumière has become a destination — not for spectacle, but for an almost devotional attention to season and place.
— Condé Nast Traveler · 2023

Guide Rouge

Three Stars · 2023, 2024, 2025

World's 50 Best

No. 14 · 2024

James Beard Foundation

Outstanding Chef Finalist · 2023

Relais & Châteaux

Member House · since 2022

Wine Spectator

Grand Award · 2024

A refined dining room with round tables, ivory tablecloths, tall candles, and warm pendant lighting.
VIThe Room

Twenty-eight seats, one service a night.

The room was designed by Atelier Devereaux in 2018 — eight round tables, candle-light, walls in a deep green. There is no music. There is, instead, a slow attention to your evening.

VIIReservations

A table for the evening.

Reservations open thirty days in advance, on the first of each month, at nine in the morning Pacific time. Dinner is served Wednesday through Sunday.

Hours

Wed – Thu · 6:00 — 10:00 pm

Fri – Sat · 5:30 — 11:00 pm

Sunday · 5:30 — 9:30 pm

Address

412 Caldwell Lane

San Francisco, CA 94107

Reach Us

+1 (415) 555-0142

reservations@lumiere.restaurant

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