Peach (left) and Nikko, dine at Dogue in San Francisco.

UPDATE: The news of a restaurant for dogs opening in San Francisco was met with impassioned reaction from both critics and enthusiasts.

Nikko, a San Francisco resident, is a picky, sensitive eater. But on Sunday, he struck gold at a trendy new Mission District restaurant, where he dined on hand-cut filet mignon tartare topped with a poached quail egg. The chef, who crafts the seasonal menu based on what’s available at local organic farms, even came to his table to say hello after the meal was over.

Nikko, by the way, is a 4.5-year-old Shiba Inu. He went with his best friend, Peach, also a Shiba Inu, to try Dogue, which may be serving the country’s first-ever tasting menu for dogs.

Dogue opened last week at 988 Valencia St. with pastries and “dogguccinos” served during the day and a $75, three-course tasting menu on Sundays. Passersby could easily confuse this for San Francisco’s hottest new all-day cafe. A glass case is filled with elegant pastries, like a rose-shaped cake filled with wild venison heart and a doggy petit gâteau modeled after the creations of acclaimed French pastry chef Cédric Grolet. (Dogue’s version swaps butter and sugar for grass-fed cream and braised chicken.) On Sundays, Dogue transitions into Bone Appetit Cafe, where chicken-mushroom soup is poured tableside — and then promptly licked up by the eager diners.

Everything is made by owner Rahmi Massarweh, a trained chef who has been feeding his four dogs fresh and raw food since they were puppies. Dogue is part of a growing movement to serve dogs fresh-cooked, nutritious meals rather than packaged kibble rife with fillers. In Florida, a chef started a dog food company after his restaurant closed during the pandemic. A Sacramento chef behind one of the city’s top sushi restaurants also feeds canines professionally. 

It’s unsurprising that what is likely the country’s first dog restaurant opened in San Francisco, where dogs reportedly recently outnumbered children, and pet owners can join members-only vet clinics with high-end perks like genetic testing.

A burned-out Massarweh left the restaurant industry years ago and started a doggy day-care center in 2015. He soon offered the same food he prepared for his dogs to his clients’ pets. Dogue now sells this same dog food, with ingredients like wild antelope, duck and tripe, as well as raw meats in a refrigerator. (Raw food diets for dogs remain controversial.)

A rose-shaped pastry from Dogue in S.F., made from wild venison heart and organic beet root.

Massarweh tests recipes obsessively, often on his four dogs, who give him exclusively good feedback like any supportive family member would. There’s Grizzly, a 12-year-old English mastiff; Luna, a hyperactive 10-year-old rescue; Achilles, a 200-pound English mastiff; and Sir Wellington, a young Lhasa apso, a highly regarded breed used as sentinels at monasteries in Tibet. Massarweh worked with an integrative, holistic veterinarian to develop dog-safe food.

For the most recent menu, Massarweh simmered chicken bones for eight hours to make a rich, nutritious broth, served with slices of braised chicken breast and infused with chaga mushrooms. The second course: a chicken-skin waffle perched on a globe-shaped coconut charcoal custard served on a striking charcoal plate. Other dishes he’s come up with include a pastured egg yolk nestled in a stunningly green spirulina meringue “cloud,” decorated with wild flower petals. 

“My approach is to treat this as if it was a human restaurant,” Massarweh said.

Nikko and Peach were among the restaurant’s first customers, along with Captain and Tony, two corgi brothers with more than 24,000 Instagram followers. Nikko’s owner, Sasa Dang, said she was intrigued when Dogue recently popped up on her Instagram feed.

“I was like, ‘Oh, wow. This is omakase for dogs?’”

She was worried because Nikko is on a doctor-ordered low-fat diet and has a sensitive stomach. He refuses to eat Starbucks’ “puppuccinos” (a secret-menu espresso cup of whipped cream). But he’s a fan of the elaborate cakes at Mishka, a high-end dog bakery with two San Francisco locations.

Wearing a striped bow tie and sitting alongside Peach at a white marble table, Nikko politely licked the plate of steak tartare clean. (He’s trained to eat from a table, Dang said.) He then enjoyed an after-dinner dogguccino, and took a pastry home to enjoy the next day.

Happily, “he processed it very well, as measured by his poop,” Dang said.

Thyme, a 2-year-old Yorkshire terrier, was too nervous to eat his first course but dove nose first into his spirulina-infused dogguccino, owner June Raos said. She drove from Sunnyvale to try Dogue to help Thyme adjust to being around new people and trying new food.

“Taking him somewhere where everything is focused on making the most presentable dog treats that look like they should be for people — that whole concept was definitely something we were excited about,” she said.

Massarweh is aware of the inevitable criticisms of opening a dog fine-dining restaurant (over-the-top bougie, exclusive, borderline satirical). But he’s a firm believer in the benefits of fresh and raw food for dogs.

“Eating fresh food is the whole point, whether or not we dress it up and garnish it or plate it,” he said. “For me and my wife, there’s nothing we wouldn’t do for our family, for our dogs. They give us so much. The most I can do is make them a meal that looks good.”

Elena Kadvany (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: elena.kadvany@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ekadvany

Elena Kadvany joined The San Francisco Chronicle as a food reporter in 2021. Previously, she was a staff writer at the Palo Alto Weekly and its sister publications, where she covered restaurants and education and also founded the Peninsula Foodist restaurant column and newsletter.