San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
OUR FAVORITE ITALIAN RESTAURANTS IN SAN FRANCISCO.
The places we love, whether for occasions or just a night out
A16
Since opening in 2004, Shelley Lindgren’s Marina restaurant has earned loads of accolades and loyal fans for its Southern Italian-by-way of-Northern California fare. The Neapolitan pizzas are indeed delicious, but really, it’s all about Lindgren’s unparallelled wine list. The award-winning program highlights an impressive collection of esoteric wines, with particular emphasis on indigenous grapes from Southern Italy, but Lindgren and company’s approachable service means that choosing a wine is never intimidating. A16 is that special kind of San Francisco restaurant where one can go for a lovely anniversary dinner, but just as easily simply drop by the bar solo after work for a glass of vino and a perfectly blistered pizza. — Sarah Fritsche
What to get: Any of the Neapolitan-style pizzas; the trippa Napoletana; and, of course, the wine
2355 Chestnut St., 415-771-2216. www.a16pizza.com
Acquerello
Every San Franciscan should have the city’s only true fine-dining Italian restaurant on her bucket list. One of the few remaining local places with a dress code, the formal service is led by watchful coowner Giancarlo Paterlini. It feels of another time, as does the setting inside a former mortuary chapel with beamed ceilings and stuffed banquettes. The menu seems traditional, but chef-owner Suzette Gresham surprises with modern elements like red dulse (seaweed) stirred into a risotto, or panna cotta in the shape of an egg. Ask Paterlini to give you a tour of his wine cellars and the Barolos he has lovingly collected over three decades. —
Tara Duggan
What to get: You can choose from three-, four- or five-course prix fixe menus ($105$150) or a seasonal tasting menu ($195)
1722 Sacramento St., 415-567-5432, www.acquerello.com
Caffe Baonecci
Caffe Baonecci is a North Beach fantasy come to life: Husband and wife move to San Francisco and open a modest trattoria serving the rustic foods of their native Lucca, along with a collection of simple, impeccable thin-crust pizza. It’s the kind of charming family restaurant that would be depicted in a Pixar film, a delightful, anachronistic escape to a small Tuscan village. — Paolo Lucchesi
What to get: Zuppa Garfagnina; pizza
516 Green St., 415-989-1806, www.caffebaonecci.com
Che Fico
Walking into Che Fico, one treks up an eclectic pink-and-red-hued stairway to a dining room imbued with the aroma of fresh pasta and wood-fired pizza as a Mos Def track blares overhead. It’s clear the restaurant isn’t one of the city’s oldschool Italian establishments. But therein lies Che Fico’s beauty. It isn’t just a place for pappardelle al ragu or squash ravioli; it’s an experience. The restaurant is an amalgamation of new and old, a conundrum that deserves to be recognized among the city’s best. — Justin Phillips
What to get: Wood-fired chicken; squash ravioli; San Francisco margherita pizza
838 Divisadero, 415-416-6959, www.chefico.com
Cotogna
Cotogna may not be as formal, or hold as many Michelin stars, as its sister restaurant Quince, but a meal here can still feel like a special occasion, just with fewer tablecloths and suits. The room’s focal point is the wood-fired oven, which turns out a rotating cast of pizza, spit-fired meat (porchetta is a specialty) and two varieties of house-made focaccia, including the paper-thin focaccia di Recco ($24, and it’s enough for the table). Long gone, sadly, are the days of Cotogna’s $40-bottle wine list, but the current list is excellent (albeit pricier), focusing on regional Italy and newer California producers. Still, don’t be shy about asking for the extended wine list; Cotogna shares a cellar with Quince.
— Esther Mobley What to get: Prosciutto with gnocco fritto; focaccia di Recco; tagliatelle alla Bolognese (when available)
490 Pacific Ave., 415-775-8508, www.cotognasf.com
Da Flora
There is nothing in-the-moment about this osteria on a quiet corner near Washington Square Park, but that’s not why you come. And, with its stacked wine bottles and yard-sale paintings of Venice, Da Flora stays above the fray of the many places vying for tourist traffic farther up Columbus Avenue. Longtime chef Jen McMahon and her husband, Darren Lacy, bought the restaurant when founder Flora Gaspar retired in 2016, and the still-handwritten menu highlights seasonal ingredients like Mission figs on a butter lettuce salad with gorgonzola dolce dressing. Lacy, who runs the front of the house, creates a warm atmosphere that seems to account for a lot of regulars. — Tara Duggan
What to get: Thinly sliced roast pork with tonnato and capers; tagliatelle with braised duck leg sugo and radicchio; manicotti with ricotta, chanterelles and arugula-almond pesto.
701 Columbus Ave., 415-981-4664, http://daflora.com
Delfina
Trying to explain why Delfina’s spaghetti pomodoro — what should be the world’s simplest pasta — is so irresistible is a bit like capturing what makes Delfina, now 20 years in, so timeless. Anyone who remembers how shocking it was in 1998 when the restaurant opened with its clash of refined food and informal service — the waiters had tattoos! — can also remember a time when that wasn’t yet the norm in Bay Area dining. Founders Craig and Annie Stoll have long since branched out to Locanda, a Roman-theme restaurant around the corner, and a string of local pizzerias, but Delfina is always worth a revisit. Like the spaghetti, with its contrast of silky sauce and springy pasta, sweet tomatoes and spicy pepperoncini, it’s simple yet vibrant.
— Tara Duggan
What to get: Gnocco fritto with lardo; grilled Monterey calamari with warm white bean salad; pansotti with walnut sauce and marjoram; and the spaghetti
3621 18th St., 415-552-4055, www.delfinasf.com
Fiorella
Fiorella is a neighborhood restaurant worth trekking across town for. As Californian as it is Italian, the restaurant features quaint toile wallpaper depicting Bay Area figures including Angela Davis, Joe Montana and Mac Dre. Vegetables pervade the menu, from crispy rings of delicata squash in sage-infused brown butter to the fennel-and-pepper-loaded pork sugo fettuccine. Pizzas, the heart of the menu, are satisfying and uncomplicated, privileging fresh ingredients over novel ones. Coowner Boris Nemchenok, also of Violet’s and Uva Enoteca, stocks a charming wine list, especially strong in Italian white wines and fresh but full-bodied reds. It’s the sort of place you’ll want to go back to every week. — Esther Mobley
What to get: Borlotti beans; Neapolitan pie; pork sugo fettuccine
2339 Clement St., 415-340-3049 or www.fiorella-sf.com
Flour + Water
There’s something a little retro about the ambitions at Flour + Water, not to mention its under-$25 entree prices: a constantly morphing menu that paints a portrait of this week in this place; pastas whose textures, whether satiny or chewy, one tends to marvel over; flavors that take no effort for a first-timer to grok yet hide extra dimensions. What’s more, the food feels relaxed, in a classic California cuisine, pre-$300-tasting-menu-with-caviarbumps way (though there is a pasta tasting menu for $65, if you need more than three courses to feel intellectually stimulated). Under executive chef Ryan Pollnow, is the menu more globally influenced? Perhaps, but it’s still rooted in the same Italian tradition as Oliveto and Delfina. Flour + Water is a restaurant that still stymies every effort to make reservations and, once you’ve waited long enough to get a walk-in seat, makes you feel like you should drop in more often. — Jonathan
Kauffman
What to get: Any of the crudi, fish or meat; filled pastas such as this month’s ricotta and greens pansoti with horseradish and walnut-marjoram pesto; any pasta with a deeply reduced meat stock
2401 Harrison St., 415-826-7000, www.flourandwater.com
La Ciccia
There’s something undeniably familial about La Ciccia in Noe Valley. Be it the cozy interior, one where jovial conversations elevate above the clatter of silverware and wine glasses, or just the homespun heartiness of the food, the restaurant is more gathering place than actual restaurant. It’s a setting cultivated by owners Lorella Degan and Massimiliano Conti, both of whom are no stranger to interacting with patrons in the dining room. La Ciccia feels personal, untethered to familiar restaurant tropes. And as much as La Ciccia’s Sardinian fare makes it one of the best neighborhood Italian shops in the city, it’s the restaurant’s natural ambience that makes it truly special. — Justin
Phillips
What to get: Prupisceddu in umidu cun tomatiga (baby octopus stew); spaghittusu cun allu ollu e bottariga (spaghetti with spicy oil, garlic and cured fish roe); pani guttiau (traditional Sardinian flabread)
291 30th St., San Francisco; 415-550-8114 or www.laciccia.com
Locanda
The energy of Valencia Street seeps into Locanda, pouring through the street-side windows before unspooling across the dining room and bar. Interested in having a raucous night with friends? Grab a spot at the bar or reserve a cluster of tables and explore the cocktails. Leaning toward something quiet and reserved? Sit down in a corner space near the front window as the bustling Mission passes quietly behind
you. — Justin Phillips
What to get: Cacio e pepe; rigatoni alla carbonara
557 Valencia St.; 415-863-6800 or www.locandasf.com
Montesacro Pinseria
As you can surmise from this list, there’s no shortage of Italian restaurants in San Francisco, but to me, none of them captures Italian charm quite like this Romanstyle pinseria. Antique photos and bric-abrac fill the walls, as if an Italian nonna curated a TGI Friday’s. Then there are the pinsas, which are more along the lines of oven-fired flatbreads, topped with cured meats, vegetables and other goodies. They’re reminiscent of pizza, sure, but so much more interesting than anything you’ll find at other pizzerias. — Sarah
Fritsche
What to get: Focaccia der muratore (mortadella-stuffed pinsa); Montesacro pinsa (stracciatella, black kale, calabrian chile, garum); sardella e pane tostato (spicy Calabrian sardine spread)
510 Stevenson St., 415-795-3040, www.montesacrosf.com
Original Joe’s
I have a theory that subpar touristy restaurants, especially in Fisherman’s Wharf, killed Italian American cuisine in San Francisco. So when Joe’s reopened in North Beach in 2012, it was significant, because it resurrected the best possible versions of those classic Italian American dishes, from shrimp scampi to eggplant parm. Everyone has his or her Joe’s order. My friend Tyler, for example, always gets a char-broiled burger with a side of ravioli. I’m partial to the chicken piccata on most visits to Joe’s (and its Daly City sister). —
Paolo Lucchesi
What to get: Chopped salad; eggplant Parmigiana; chicken piccata
601 Union St., 415-775-4877, www.originaljoes.com
Perbacco
Though over a decade old, Staffan Terje and Umberto Gibin’s Piemontese restaurant still feels as relevant as it did in its early days. The Cass Calder Smith-designed space is elegant, and the food — especially the pastas — seals the deal. Terje’s masterful cooking satisfies the taste buds, while Gibin’s warmth and hospitality suffuse the dining room. This is date-night Italian at its finest. — Sarah
Fritsche
What to get: Agnolotti dal plin; pappardelle with lamb shoulder ragu; tajarin with pork and porcini sugo
230 California St.; 415-955-0663, www.perbaccosf.com
Ragazza
Writers don’t get to be regulars, do we? Aren’t we supposed to maintain a certain emotional distance from the restaurants we go to, for fear of compromising our objectivity? Can we ever go out to dinner without feeling the need to chronicle our meal? The only place where my husband and I dine often enough for the host to recognize our faces is Ragazza, where we roll in on random Friday nights and celebrate modest victories like finished book drafts and signed contracts. The tables are pushed together tightly enough in the narrow dining room to conduct unpremeditated eavesdropping, yet the noise doesn’t crowd out our own conversation. The food is exactly what we like to eat: massive salads, always with a little cheese or toasted nuts to keep them from being too acidic or austere, followed by Sharon Ardiana’s light, crisp, seasonally responsive pizzas. There are entrees and desserts on the menu, too, and perhaps I should order them. But here I claim a regular’s prerogative, and stick to my favorites. —
Jonathan Kauffman
What to get: Baby kale salad with farro and green goddess dressing; Amatriciana pizza (with egg); pizza bianca with onion crema, preserved lemon and arugula
311 Divisadero St.; 415-255-1133, www.ragazzasf.com
SPQR
You will go to SPQR, and you will have a meal you cannot have anywhere else in America. You may look at the pasta prices — $32 per plate for most — with a quizzical eye. But then you will try one of Matthew Accarrino’s pasta dishes, hopefully more than one, and begin to understand why that price is fair. These are not comparable to the careless pastas of the Wharf — which, for the record, are already inching into the high $20 range — that toss together a bunch of shellfish with a day-old red sauce. SPQR’s finished plates are a closer analogue to the kinds of composed dishes you’ll see at a four-star tasting menu restaurant that charges triple-digits. Throw in the hours of painstaking work and skill it takes to make the pasta by hand (see cover image), and you’ll soon understand that he’s probably
undercharging you. — Paolo Lucchesi
What to get: Any pasta, but especially the smoked fettucini with uni and bacon. Get wine recommendations from the welleducated staff.
1911 Fillmore St., 415-771-7779, www.spqrsf.com
Trattoria Contadina
For those moments when you just want a hot plate of Italian food, darn it — no foam, no microgreens, no uni — Trattoria Contadina will always deliver. Few spaces in San Francisco feel as comforting as this warm, wood-paneled room, dotted with old photos and illuminated by pendant Christmas lights. Kevin Correnti operates the restaurant with his wife, Gina, and has kept alive the spirit that his father and grandfather fostered since opening Contadina in 1984. You come here for clams in lemon and white wine, saucy veal saltimbocca with garlicky mashed potatoes, bottles of Chianti and Barbera. Contadina’s pasta entrees are so large and rich that you’ll be hard-pressed not to ask for a to-go box, but dishes like the carlesimo (rigatoncelli in a creamy sauce of sundried tomatoes, pancetta and porcini) taste just as good the next day. Insider’s tip: Correnti is a negroni nut and loves to serve creative variations on the classic bitter cocktail — but you have to ask. —
Esther Mobley
What to get: Saltimbocca; carlesimo; clams and ‘nduja
1800 Mason St., 415-982-5728, www.trattoriacontadina.com
Trattoria da Vittorio
My definition of a favorite Italian restaurant includes the attributes of fairly easy parking, casual familiarity and a plate of pillow-y gnocchi. This neighborhood trattoria opened six years ago in West Portal and quickly became a spot for special dinners for my family of four — whether celebrating a birthday or simply a Friday night out. With swift yet warm service, this cozy restaurant welcomes with classic Southern Italian fare such as eggplant parmigiana, which is rich with smoky eggplant bathed in a fresh and simple tomato sauce. — Bernadette Fay
What to get: Eggplant parmigiana Mamma Francesca’s special recipe; handmade gnocchi
150 West Portal Ave., 415-742-0300, www.trattoriadavittorio.com.