Where can I find good Matsutake on a menu in a restaurant in San Francisco (ideally in the city proper)?
I saw an incredible-looking matsutake udon on Rintaro’s restaurant, but I think it was a temporary menu item. It looks like Ernest has a grilled matsutake right now, but I’m looking for something more firmly in the Japanese culinary spirit, if possible.
Help!
You might want to modify your title to specify location so you get relevant responses.
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Highly likely that all matsutake on SF menus are “temporary menu items”. Matsutake are not typically available year-round; they are only forageable in the Pacific Northwest between about September to December. (The Japanese domestic market for them appears to be so voracious that Japan is by far a net importer of matsutake, not an exporter. In other words, these mushrooms from the PNW may be your only option because Japanese matsutake of any decent quality may well never leave Japan, as they have a hard enough time meeting domestic demand.)
Maybe you will be able to still find some on menus here, but I can tell you that I have been to Nijiya Market three times over the last month or so and scoped them out then. In mid and late November they had various grades of matsutake available on a table near the cashiers (the first time they had #1/#3 grades, the second time were #2/#4). I was just at the SF Japantown Nijiya yesterday and the matsutake were gone; I asked the woman stocking the produce shelves (in rudimentary Spanish) if they still had the “big, expensive mushrooms” that were on the table and she gave me the impression that they were no longer available this year. If Nijiya is no longer able to stock them, I suspect that local restaurants won’t be able to source them, either.
I believe the commercial season has ended. The west coast season is relatively short, starting in late August/September, depending on the region. Thus you won’t find any restaurants unless it is a frozen or dried product (there is no cultivation possible).
We just tried the new Wolfsbane and had their winter squash soup with pickled matsutake mushrooms, and when we had the tasting menu at Nisei (about 2 weeks ago) they had another soup with the mushroom, i.e., the Matsutake Suimono.
Past results are not guarantees of future performance. 
How did you like the tasting menu at Wolfsbane - Lord Stanley was an interesting place with ambitious food but Wolfsbane is a significant step up in pricing (which I am not sure would be “justified “ if they cook on the LS level)
I was not impressed.
But I will withhold judgment given its vintage when we visited.
