I've been eying the Commonwealth at the Mission for the past few months now, and when I learned that my fellow food blogger, sssourabh, from NYC would be in town, I immediately got us a reservation. Commonwealth has an impressive line-up of pescatarian (apt for me) and vegetarian (apt for co-blogger who is a vegan) tasting menu and commendable service.

A Hit or Miss
I wasn't quite sure what was missing in the 6-course tasting menu, but there were some that missed the mark by a huge mile. A few dishes didn't taste as good as it sounded on paper, while the rest I can sing praises for.

A complimentary amuse-bouche that set the (high) tone for the Commonwealth experience.

Seaweed chips to munch on while waiting. Both bloggers were not a fond of the beer sauce.

I am a huge fan of any seafood that is smoked so I devoured this smoked rainbow trout with trout roe, sea beans, horseradish-buttermilk snow in a matter of seconds. This is the dish I loved the most on the pescatarian tasting menu. The flavors of the buttermilk and salty trout were well balanced.

A bit on the bland side even though the presentation and mix of ingredients look and sound astounding. I thought that the herring would give it a salty kick just like on the previous trout dish but failed to do so. Asparagus and eggs, sea urchin, egg mousse, herring roe, seaweed brioche.

Green strawberries, fennel, goat cheese, bee and fennel pollens, black radish. This salad reminded me of a salad, which had edible dirt, I ate at Michelin-star Manresa in Los Gatos. Again, this dish was on the bland side albeit well presented. But then again after witnessing the most beautiful salad in Lasarte, Barcelona, this salad needs to be revamped to give it more oomph.

Part of the vegetarian menu, which my co-blogger went gaga for, specifically the fried chickpeas. Before I could even ask to taste it, the whole plate was empty. It is that good.

The soft and succulent monkfish with asparagus, black sesame cake, spinach, meyer lemon and potato puree. My second favorite dish of the night came out with a unique twist on sponge cake. I have never had cake on a main entree before with savory food. Thumbs up for creativity and flavor!

Celery sorbet. I've tasted too many sorbets that I have become a sorbet snob of sorts (Is there such a thing?)- part of having a pastry chef sister who makes ice cream for a living. The sorbet acted as a palette cleanser to get us ready for the final heavier, chocolate dessert.

You can tell that this dinner took awhile since the sun started to set and thus ruining the perfect window lighting we had at the start of the meal. Sad to say, the peanut butter semifreddo was a big disappointment.  The caramel was a bit burnt. The frozen popcorn reminded me of fresh curd but with an intense taste of butter. I could not even force myself to finish this dessert- so unlikely of me.

Despite the hits and misses at Commonwealth, I had the best and funniest dining experience. Due to our paparazzi skills for food photography taking shot after shot with a dslr and then an iPhone for Instagramming, patrons on both sides started interviewing sssourabh and I on what we were doing, our respective food blogs and our favorite restaurants in San Francisco. It always amuses me when my life as a food blogger gets grilled (yes, grilled on a griller!), especially in an upscale restaurant.