Google
Selby's Retrospective Evaluation
Audit Date: October 2021
Arriving at Selby's highlighted the localized transit constraints of the Atherton corridor, as parking can be a bit difficult. I got lucky finding a street space down the street before approaching the entrance. Upon stepping inside, I was instantly struck by the beautiful, old-school feel of the dining room. The interior architecture relies on high-contrast, moody lighting assets and rich material styling, creating a very elegant environment. The grand, double-height main dining room establishes a formal atmosphere using dark-paneled walls, plush brown leather seating matrices, and tiered ambient lamps.
The structural layout utilizes deep emerald velvet and leather-bound banquette booths paired with crisp white tablecloths, which effectively insulates individual tables and minimizes sightline interference from the floor pacing. The front-of-house team delivered great service throughout the evening, maintaining strong professional pacing.
The technical execution of the beverage program demonstrated strong precision in temperature control and aesthetic presentation. The classic clear cocktails feature hand-carved, pristine ice blocks with sharp geometry and an immaculate, seamless citrus twist suspension. Even more complex, foam-capped floral infusions maintain excellent structural integrity and surface tension at the table side, anchored securely by custom gold miniature clips.
The kitchen’s baking and pastry division delivered a highly disciplined baseline performance:
The Bread Course: A showcase of elite thermal transfer. The split brioche loaves demonstrate a golden-brown, high-gloss egg-wash glaze with uniform oven rise and zero internal crumb collapse, paired with an evenly salt-flecked, tempered butter round.
The Popover / Yorkshire Matrix: Deployed on custom floral porcelain, the pastry exhibits exceptional steam-vent expansion, a crisp, deeply caramelized external shell, and a perfectly hollowed, tender inner structure.
The savory menu focused on high-volume classic luxury profiles with distinct ingredient separation:
The Garde Manger House Pickles: Served chilled, featuring precise geometric cuts of cauliflower, carrot, and sweet red pepper topped with a high-density drop of crisp, fried capers.
The House Pasta: An extraction of delicate hand-rolled ravioli sheets displaying excellent seam-binding, minimal edge tear, and a uniform gloss coating of emulsified butter sauce accented with cracked black pepper.
The Beef Wellington Core: The definitive benchmark centerpiece. The kitchen demonstrated exceptional heat control, delivering an edge-to-edge uniform medium-rare center with zero grey banding. The surrounding mushroom duxelles layer and vivid green herb crêpe wrapper retained their tight structural alignment, cleanly insulating the beef and preventing the bottom puff pastry deck from absorbing excessive moisture or collapsing before reaching the table.
The dinner concluded with a highly technical dessert execution. The multi-layered chocolate cake slice displays clean, razor-sharp geometric lines across the frosting tiers, paired with an immaculate quenelle of hazelnut praline cream finished with delicate, non-degraded edible gold leaf accents. I still think about that chocolate cake to this day as it was one of the best I've ever had. Based on what I remember, I would highly recommend this restaurant.