Let’s keep the San Francisco meal reports moving. When last seen in the city, we were eating dim sum at Yank Sing in the Rincon Center—this after dinner the previous night at State Bird Provisions. I said in my write-up of said dinner at State Bird Provisions that we ate an even better meal the next day at a restaurant not too far away from it. That restaurant is Copra, from a chef with a long history of serving high-end Indian food in the Bay Area. Sri Gopinathan made his name at Taj Campton Place where he spent 15 years and earned two Michelin stars. He left that restaurant in 2020 and opened Copra on Fillmore St. in Japantown in early 2023—he also has another restaurant, Ettan in Palo Alto. I had wanted to eat at Campton Place in its heyday but a trip to San Francisco never materialized. And so it was a done deal that we would eat at Copra on this trip. And I am very glad we did. Halfway into the missus and I looked at each other and wondered when the let-down was going to arrive. It never did. This is, hands down, the best Indian restaurant we’ve eaten at in the United States. Here are the details.

At Campton Place, Gopinathan served a tasting menu in what he calls a Cal-Indian idiom. Ettan continues that approach with dishes that draw from many parts of the Indian map. At Copra, however, the focus is more narrow: on the foods of Kerala and Tamil Nadu in South India and also of Sri Lanka, just across the water from the southern tips of both states. The menu is divided into three broad sections of very small plates, small plates and large plates. My understanding is the menu turns over often. If the one we ate in mid-June is any indication, it doesn’t make any concessions to any expectations that diners may have of Indian restaurants in the US. Not only are the usual North Indian all-stars not on the menu—not even in the “all but in name only” incarnations with which many other high-end Indian restaurants in the country hedge their bets—the menu is replete with Tamil and Malayalam food words that even North Indian diners might need help in translating.

The food itself is a mix of traditional, not-so traditional, and the very not-so traditional. In the first category are things like the Shrimp Vennai, Dindigul Style Chicken Biryani (served with chicken salan and raita) and the Coorgi Pandi Curry. In the second are things like Rasam Poori, which sees rasam with passionfruit served panipuri style, and the Perigord Black Truffle Soft Egg Appam (I’ll leave it to you to guess which of those things is not traditional). And in the third category are things like oysters dressed with fermented chillies, white soy and tamarind and the Oscietra Caviar ($120 an oz if youse a true player) with kalappam etc. We steered clear of the black truffle and the caviar but otherwise ordered across the menu.

We were just the three of us at this dinner. As I mentioned in my Yank Sing write-up, the older boy had come down with transient food poisoning earlier in the day. We set him up with chicken soup and rice in our hotel room and abandoned him, taking the bus down to Japantown. First impressions of the restaurant were not promising as we approached it on Fillmore St. It’s in a big white building with the name Copra emblazoned in large gold letters across the side. I began to worry that it might be a case of more glitz than substance. And these worries were not fully allayed by the interior which is an odd mix of attractive and a bit much. There are two dining rooms. One smaller and relatively darker/enclosed, and another in the larger and brighter open area anchored by the large bar. We were seated in the larger section and quickly got down to bidness.

What did we order? We started with the Gunpowder Goli Vadai from the “First” section. Five to an order, these were perfectly done with no mod jhatkas/flourishes of any kind. The coconut chutney that accompanied the vadai was top class. From the “Second” section we got four things. The aforementioned Rasam Poori and Shrimp Vennai Roast and also the Thattukada Fried Chicken and the Chargrilled Bone Marrow. All were excellent but I’ll give a special shout-out to the rasam poori. I can never resist ordering mod takes on panipuri in mod Indian restaurants and I am almost always disappointed. This, however, was just outstanding. Also outstanding was the Kerala parotta that accompanied the bone marrow.

From the “Third” section we got two dishes. First up was the Dindigul Style Chicken Biryani, which was exactly as it should be and an excellent rendition. But I liked the Coorgi Pandi Curry which sees pork belly cooked in a dry curry with dark spices and fragrant kudampuli (also known as cambodge, a relative of kokum). The pork came with another of those outstanding Kerala parottas. This was a lot of food for three people, one of whom was not yet 13 at the time of the meal (we had been warned by our server) and so we only got one dessert to split between us. There were a few that caught our eye but only one of those did not involve nuts that the younger boy is allergic to: the Mango + Coastal Halwa. It was rather lovely as well.

For a look at the restaurant and what we ate, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down for thoughts on service, the ambience and to see how much it all cost.

Oh yes, I had a beer, a rice lager. The missus and the boy stuck with water. There are a number of cocktails with Indian flavours on the menu but I’m yet to have a good experience in this genre, every entry always seeming to me to be trying too hard. If this was an error, please let me know and I’ll give it a go if I ever make it back. Service was very good. I don’t think our server was desi but he was knowledgeable enough about the food to be able to describe it well; and he was always present when needed. The room itself was buzzing on a Wednesday night. Every table was occupied through the evening and the crowd in the room skewed Asian, with a significant South Asian contingent that featured tables with multi-generational families as well as young, hip professionals. Not very surprising in San Francisco, and in this regard not very unlike the crowd at our meal at Semma in New York last year.

I mention Semma because it’s the natural comparison given the menu focus of both restaurants and given the fact that Semma is so celebrated in the national press. We did enjoy our meal at Semma last year but the missus and I both thought dinner at Copra was clearly superior with no unnecessary emphasis, as at Semma, on robust spicing for its own sake. The cooking here was more subtle and more playful. Indeed, I think Copra could hold its own with the better modern Indian restaurants not only in London but also in Bombay and Delhi. Too high praise? If you’ve been, you tell me. At any rate, if Semma has a Michelin star in New York I can’t imagine what the argument against Copra getting one in San Francisco might be.

Cost was also a pleasant surprise. We were three but ordered for four (we took big portions of the biryani and pork back to the hotel fridge and the recovered older boy enjoyed them for breakfast the next day). There was far more food on the table over the evening than there had been at State Bird Provisions the previous night. But we paid almost a hundred dollars less (with just one less drink). With tax and tip the total came to just about $240. An incredible value for the meal. I think it’s safe to say we will return on our next trip to the city, whenever that might be.

Okay, three more San Francisco reports to come. None of those are from the high end: they’ll feature more dim sum, another casual Chinese meal and pizza. At least one of those will go up next week but the next restaurant report will be from the Twin Cities. That will take in a return to Homi in St. Paul and will go up on Tuesday.