Michael Mina’s Bungalow Kitchen in Tiburon hits and misses

As servers paraded one lobster pot pie after another past my table at the new Bungalow Kitchen in Tiburon, the star attraction became pretty clear.

Chef-owner Michael Mina has long been famous for this decadent comfort dish created for San Francisco’s legendary Aqua in the mid-1990s. He brought it to his first restaurant, the eponymous Michael Mina opened in 2004 in San Francisco, then ferried it along to the Michael Mina Restaurant Group that currently manages his nearly 40 operations around the world.

That’s a lot of mileage for a recipe Mina has said was inspired by his wife when she asked him to feed lobster to a large dinner party at his home. He didn’t want to plate up so many entire crustaceans elaborately, so he made pot pie. It was a hit.

And why not? Pot pie is believed to have originated in the Neolithic Age around 9500 B.C. and arrived on American shores with settlers in the late 1700s. Historically, it was a delicious vehicle for leftover meat and vegetables and an excuse to consume gravy — just add biscuit topping and bake. It’s bliss, even if you dive in so fast you blister your tongue.

You can get a frozen Marie Callender chicken pot pie for less than $3 at the grocery store and be happy enough. At Bungalow Kitchen, though, opened in November on the downtown waterfront, you’ll shell out $130 for the dinner dish served in a piping-hot pottery bowl.

Is it worth it? Well, it is a luxurious meal, incorporating the meat of a whole Maine lobster, a treasure load of truffles and lobster bisque so rich and velvety you’ll lick the spoon (note, you also can get it for $115 a Sonoma’s Wit & Wisdom, which Mina opened two years ago).

But here’s a tip if you want to try it for even less — go to Bungalow for weekend brunch, a $49 prix-fixe proposition that includes a choice of an appetizer and an entree. There’s a $27 supplemental charge to make that pie your entree, but even this smaller version delivers a half petite lobster, plenty of portobello mushrooms, shaved truffle, cippolini onions, carrots, chunked fingerling potatoes and crunchy celery, all bathed in a few inches of buttery-cream rich sauce made with slow-cooked lobster shells and brandy.

Your server will deliver the soccer-ball size, soufflé-domed pie to your table; give you a moment to admire its golden pastry glittering with sea salt; then — gasp — cut into it. I’d rather do the cutting myself, all the better to trap the interior’s fragrant steam and keep the dish warm as I slowly savor every last velvety morsel, but I do appreciate the theatrics.

If only the rest of the brunch experience was as memorable. Mina partnered with hospitality veteran Brent Bolthouse for the original Bungalow restaurant in Long Beach’s Belmont Shore. The duo brought on executive chef Joseph Offner to run the Tiburon spot, luring him away from Trident in Sausalito. It’s fine, but it feels like we’re paying more for the Bay views and the Mina brand than for interesting cuisine.

Think generic crowd-pleaser starters like Caesar salad and clam chowder and entrees like eggs Benedict, crème brûlée French toast, steak and eggs and a white cheddar burger. And through nobody’s fault, as Offner acknowledges, pandemic-related staffing shortages have affected all areas, from the kitchen to service to apparently maintenance, as the months-old restaurant sports unkempt restrooms and greasy fingerprint-stained menu covers.

This is a huge space for staffers to cover, by the way, spanning nearly 12,000 square feet across two floors, with 5,000 square feet of outdoor waterfront patios. An extensive bar and most of the dining is downstairs, with the upstairs home to a lounge, speakeasy-style bar and a billiards room open until 2 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

Still, tiny Tiburon is enjoying a moneyed moment right now, welcoming the posh new Squalo Vino Wine Bar, Caviar & Co. caviar and Champagne tasting bar, the coming-later-this-year Malibu Farm organic farm-to-table eatery and Michelin-starred chef Roland Passot’s Petit Left Bank restaurant.

“Tiburon is one of the most affluent communities in America, and Michael and I both recognized that Mill Valley didn't really have a world-class social dining experience,” Bolthouse told me. “Tiburon wasn’t reaching its fullest potential.”

And I guess, what do I know? Bungalow was packed on my two visits, with guests who lacked reservations lined up out to the ferry pier just outside.

People wanting Mina classics will find them at dinner, in reliable staples like sweet miso-marinated broiled sea bass with ginger-mushroom broth ($59) or oak-fired, red-wine-butter-brushed dry-aged New York strip with asiago-stuffed potato and Sausalito Springs watercress ($76).

Brunch patrons can do fine sticking to the limited a la carte selections. That’s how you get standouts like a starter of ahi tartare tumbled with chiles, mint, pine nuts, a shock of garlic and habanero sesame oil ($27). A la carte also gets you pastry delights like a flaky and moist almond croissant ($7), banana bread studded with walnuts ($5) and a blueberry vanilla scone ($5) — all coming, however, from Oakland’s wood-fired Firebrand Artisan Bakery.

The prix fixe choices aren’t up to Mina caliber, though. A shrimp Louie tasted OK, but the tarragon-dusted shrimp was haphazardly plopped on butter lettuce cups with chunks of avocado, capers and bits of hearts of palm under just a smidgen of dressing. A trio of sweet potato cakes were dry, flat-tasting and plated with a few curls of gravlax, a dollop of crème fraîche and a scoop of apple sauce.

Chicken paillard is much better. The amply herbed bird is seared golden and smothered in a colorful salad of tangerine segments, shaved fennel, crisp arugula, avocado, a slab of tangy local goat cheese and basil vinaigrette. With a lovely glass of 2020 Côtes de Provence Payrassol Cuvee des Commandeurs Rosé alongside, this is how pleasing a fancy brunch always should be.

“The Bay Area has so much to offer in terms of culinary and culture, from fresh produce and seafood to premium meat sourcing, and exciting new concepts opening every week,” Mina said in a recent email. “I believe Tiburon was always meant for this type of revitalization. It just needed a little nudge in the right direction.

“With its distinct charm and waterfront location with beautiful views of the Bay, Angel Island and San Francisco, I’m also surprised this evolution took as long as it did,” he added. “But we are honored to be a small part of it.”

We’re ready. So bring on the best. And more of that fantastic pot pie, please.

Carey Sweet is a Sebastopol-based food and restaurant writer. Read her restaurant reviews every other week in Sonoma Life. Contact her at carey@careysweet.com.