The Progress

General Notes

New American restaurant near Japantown, run by the same group that also owns State Bird Provisions and The Anchovy Bar. The menu is structurally designed in a similar way as the other two -- lots of small plates plus a few larger dishes, great for sharing. Like State Bird, the dishes are really vibrant -- they make great use of acidity to elevate their dishes. Each one specializes in different dishes / ingredients; the flagship here is their duck, which is truly really good, definitely get it when you come. Great place for a date night or a group of friends / work dinner.

Dishes Tasted

• ★★★★ nutmeg rice pudding -- brown butter, toasted hazelnuts, pluots and raspberries. I love the flavor on this -- it's so fragrant. Excellent creamy texture but still pretty light.
• ★★★☆ roasted corn semifreddo -- yuzu-blueberry compote, chile meringue, toasted pecans. I was indifferent at first, but after eating a bit more it really grew on me, I like it quite a lot. The semifreddo has a nice texture that's similar to a marshmallow.
• ★★★☆ cocoa old fashioned donuts -- strawberry ice cream, chocolate balsamic & fennel pollen sugar. The texture is nice, the flavor combination works together pretty well.
• ★★☆☆ "world peace" peanut milk -- it's peanut-flavored milk, it tastes exactly as you expect. Good for peanut fiends, but not for me.
• ★★★★ bbq half duck -- peanut fried rice & smoked chile vinegar. This dish is SO GOOD. I love the smoky flavor on the duck, it's cooked perfectly. The wing portion is a bit difficult to eat, but the leg portion is INCREDIBLE -- definitely gnaw on that and don't throw that away!
• ★★☆☆ roasted lamb -- shishitos, eggplant, thai chili-plum fish sauce. It's also served with some turmeric flatbread, shiso leaf, and cucumber. Plus some kind of sausage. This plate is kind of all over the place. The individual components are good (except the lamb, which was only ok), the flavor is nice, but the dish feels like it lacks coherence.
• ★★☆☆ brown butter seaweed noodles -- oyster mushrooms, tomato-kale dashi, bonito. Good dish but feels a little bit pedestrian, the bonito overwhelms the flavor of the other components a bit.
• ★★★★ olives -- olives, grapes, okra (in the "western additions" section). This was surprisingly incredible, and I feel like I'm not usually a huge fan of olives.
• ★★★☆ fried green tomatoes -- sungold-turmeric curry, holy basil & grapes. I like the flavor of this a lot!
• ★★☆☆ crispy tofu -- I don't remember the ingredients in this dish super well, but I remember the flavor being very good with a somewhat uninteresting texture.
• ★★☆☆ spicy cucumbers -- ginger, celtuce, sesame-sichuan chile crisp. I'm not a huge fan of cooked cucumbers prepared like this, the flavor is a little weird to me. With that being said, the preparation was done very well and the chili crisp adds a great touch to it.
• ★★★☆ whole grain bread -- cider vinegar butter. The butter is INCREDIBLE -- it's super light and I really like the flavor. The bread itself is fine.
• ★★☆☆ smoked chili verde sausage -- buttermilk crema. Excellent flavor, I like how vibrant it is, I'm not a huge fan of sausage cooked in this form overall though.
• ★★★★ pig head -- fennel, apricot, fermented chili-garum. Super vibrant + bright, great as an appetizer. This one is likely to be more controversial, but I enjoyed it a lot.
• ★★★☆ masa dumplings -- toma cheese + huitlacoche crema. Interesting texture, tastes like half-way between an arepa and tamale, nice crispy exterior.