Bird Dog

“We love simply connecting with our guests, whether it’s via flavors, hospitality, aesthetic, attitude, or all of the above. Hopefully, when you leave Bird Dog you feel as if you know us on a personal level, as if you enjoyed your time meeting someone at a friend’s dinner party.”

Wood-grilled avocado with ponzu, kelp, and wasabi; fried chicken thighs with green curry and smoked uni emulsion; buri crude with horseradish, citron, and dashi.

When Bird Dog opened in Palo Alto, it shook up the local dining scene with its stylish design, and thoroughlymodern take on California cooking.

Raw, sustainable seafood is a highlight of Chef Robbie Wilson’s menu: wild buri is anointed with a dashi vinegar made from the fish’s bones, while kampachi is teamed with coconut, banana, cashew, and puffed rice. Though Wilson knows meat – his fried chicken thighs, soaked in green curry instead of buttermilk, are a must-have – it’s his wood-grilled avocado, teamed with Marin kelp, fresh wasabi, and ponzu, that has become one of Bird Dog’s most celebrated dishes.

Between its exceptional food, welcoming service and well-curated drinks list, Bird Dog is worth sniffing out again and again.

“Not only is Wilson's avocado the Platonic ideal of avocado; it’s also a convincing encapsulation of what good can come when California cuisine is reduced to its essence, and then taught how to fly.” –Rebecca Marx & Josh Sens, San Francisco Magazine