LoveItaly

Hi kodi, I wish you could join us too! Maybe you can when Debi comes out. Hope everything is going all right for you and your family.

kodi

HI LoveItaly,, I won't be able to make it in Mar, but will be there , all being well, next Sept.

Doggiesitting is going well. All 4 are behaving.

LoveItaly

Ah Kodi, four well behaved dogs, priceless! And next September..wonderful..September is usually one of the most beautiful months in SF. I and I know I speak for Toedtoes will look forward to seeing you.

easytraveler

OK, I'm going blind reading all about Italian restaurants in San Francisco - of which there are only 625 of them!

Faina, the Puccini and Pinetti is getting a lot of mixed reviews. Seems like there could be indifferent service and big prices for small plates ($17 dollars for 4 raviolis), so I started looking around.

Here's the San Francisco's Michael Bauer list of the 2007 best SF restaurants:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/food/top100/2007cuisine

http://sfgate.com/food/top100/2007/

A16 tops Michael Bauer's list for Italian restaurants. It's got an excellent wine list, the food is "simple" but great, and, if you order a pizza or pasta plus some wine, your tab could be as little as $20-$25. Most of the other top restaurants require about a $40-$50 minimum (wine and tip included).

A more reasonable restaurant is Antica Trattoria, number 3 on his list.

Then there's Delfina, Incanto, Perbacco, and Quince - all in SF, to round out the top Italian restaurants in SF for 2007.

What do you think about selecting either A16 or Antica Trattoria?

FainaAgain

Hey, Starsville, what train station? Don't you know I work only around BUS stations?

Marusja, can we crush your party? Just kidding!

So far, 8 of us:
ArtLover
EasyTraveler
FainaAgain
LoveItaly
LucieV
Paula1470
ThereYet
ToedToes

We need 2 more for a minyan

FainaAgain

Oh, and please start posting about the restaurants! Both menus look good.

I like both A16 and Antica, what is the parking situation on Chestnut vs Polk?

LucieV

The last thing I want to do is throw a wrench in the works, especially in light of the fact that easytraveler has done so much research already. BUT!..did you notice Nopa (under the "California" category)? Looks like it's quiet & reasonably priced also.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/listings/r...007?vid=237278
http://www.nopasf.com/

Note that MB's list is alphabetical -- so the first and last on the list is not indicative of greater or lesser quality.

I'm also going to research the parking situation for A16 and Antica, and will post what I can find out.

FainaAgain

Lucie, sorry I have to disagree with you on Nopa. We need a quiet place. I clicked on the link of sfgate you provided, it has a bomb next to it. It means the highest level of noise.

FainaAgain

Hmmm... I went to the main page of SFgate, food and dining, Italian in SF all areas, clicked on "noise" twice to sort from the quietest to the noisiest, and got a list... trying to copy:

Cuisines Rating Price Noise


Allegro
1701 Jones St.
San Francisco
(415) 928-4002
Italian




Armani Cafe
1 Grant Ave.
San Francisco
(415) 677-9010
Italian




Caffe Puccini
411 Columbus Ave.
San Francisco
(415) 989-7033
Italian




Farina
3560 18th St.
San Francisco
(415) 565-0360
Make a Reservation
Italian




Firewood Cafe
4248 18th St.
San Francisco
(415) 252-0999
Italian




Little Star Pizza
400 Valencia St.
San Francisco
(415) 551-7827
Bargain
Pizza
Italian




Parma Ristorante
3314 Steiner St.
San Francisco
(415) 567-0500
Italian




Pasta Pomodoro
Locations throughout the Bay Area
San Francisco
(415) 399-0300
Italian




Via Veneto
2244 Fillmore St.
San Francisco
(415) 346-9211
Italian




Acquerello
1722 Sacramento St.
San Francisco
(415) 567-5432
Make a Reservation
Italian




Fournou's Ovens
905 California St.
San Francisco
(415) 989-1910
Make a Reservation
Italian

FainaAgain

Oh, it pasted only the names... not good!

LucieV

You're absolutely correct, Faina-- I misinterpreted that "bomb" -- thought it was a single bell.

This is what I've found out about parking for A16 and Antica Trattoria...

A16 has valet parking for $10.
Also has two reasonably close parking lots:
~ Pacific Parking Management
2055 Chestnut (about 3 blocks)
~ Lombard St. Garage
2055 Lombard (about 4 blocks)


Antica Trattoria (which has 4 bells, btw)
~ Priority Parking
1650 Jackson (about 3 blocks)
~ Super Parking 1735 Sacramento (about 5 blocks)

FainaAgain

What about french cuisine? Anybody who can't go there?

http://www.clementinesf.com/home.html

Noise level 2 bells - same as we had at Fino. Maybe the price is a bit too high?
Parking is "difficult". 126 Clement between 2nd and 3rd avenues.

I'll keep searching!

starrsville

What about the Grand Cafe at the Hotel Monaco?

FainaAgain

What about this one:

http://www.osteriasf.com/

3277 Sacramento St. (at Presidio), street parking "easy", menu looks fine. Mixed reviews on TA

FainaAgain

And don't worry, if we don't agree on the place, we can alway go to CPK

By the way, 5 or 6 pm? I propose 5 pm, more time to mingle (gossip LOL)

starrsville

http://www.grandcafe-sf.com/grdmenu/index.html

FainaAgain

Grand Cafe... yeah, we had a GTG there. It's OK, but why not to try something new?

LucieV

A vote for Clementine. Haven't eaten there, but have heard good things. Location is good, too, imo, and parking looks easy-ish.

FainaAgain

First of all, somebody wake up LoveItaly to confirm she can eat French food (she is allergic to some foods).

Second, anybody can NOT go to Clementine for any reason? We don't want to leave you behind, the location can be changed!

Third... everybody, please vote: yes or no.

easytraveler

Lucie: Why are you asking for train stations? Do you need a ride? We could carpool. My only commitment now is to pick up artlover at 2pm. Would you like to ride with us?

For A16, I've parked at the Chestnut Street parking and it's pretty easy to just walk down to the restaurant.

Clementine seems to be a good choice as well.

I'm not certain what the noise level is at the Grand Cafe.

I'll defer to the majority as to choice of restaurant. Just give me food to eat!