Rec for good Italian food in San Francisco
 

Hello,

My wife and I willl be traveling to SF soon and staying just 2 nights but would like recs for place to book a dinner at an Italian restaurant in the city. Something nice and moderately priced. We will be staying in Civic Center but the restaurant can be anywhere within the city.

Thanks,
John

We liked Fino a lot. It's near Union Square, but not touristy.

We really enjoyed Perbacco http://www.perbaccosf.com/

You need to define price per entree AND what type of Italian food you are looking for - red sauced or fish or northern or trendy....there's quite a range. Being a bit more specific will help with pointing you in the right direction.

How about Delfina, in the Mission? Unpretentious Northern Italian food. Excellent food rating in Zagat.

http://www.delfinasf.com/restaurant/

Capp's Corner is a funky restaurant that is not expensive at all. Meals are family style, with minestrone, salad and pasta built into the dinner price. http://www.cappscorner.com/

I suggest you take MUNI to most restaurants as parking is always limited, to say the least.

Glad to know that Capp's Corner is still around. Ate there in the 70's and liked it so much that we ate there our two nights in SF. After a two week trip up the coast, we revisited on our last night in CA. The third time, we were really treated like locals and it was so much fun.

Yes, to Capps. Great family-style place.

My five favorite Italian Restaurants

Acquerello in Polk Gulch
Incanto in the Noe Valley
Delfina in the Mission
Perbacco in the Financial district
North Beach Restaurant in North Beach

If I had to recommend just one for a tourist I don't know anything about, it would be Perbacco. Easily reached by underground Muni Metro.

If someone else is buying, I would choose Acquerello

If I wanted something different - Incanto

If I wanted something very traditional - North Beach Restaurant

If I wanted hipster vibe & something different - Delfina


The Civic Center can get a little scary at night.

Stu Dudley

Flour and Water
Cotogna
Barbacco (casual sister restaurant to Perbacco)

Stu, funny, but every time I see Delfina in print, I can't help but remember our only experience there. The place was only about 25% filled. Over half the waiters and most of the kitchen staff didn't show up that night. Service was horrible. The food was OK, but they hadn't had all their deliveries and couldn't fix half the stuff on the menu, but it was dead quiet, and just totally disorganized.

OK, should I mention that the date was 9/11/2001?

I've wanted to go back ever since, and not really sure why I haven't!

Patrick

I think there may have been another distraction on that day. It is one of the most popular restaurants in The City. Give it another change. We've found the creativity of the dishes and the service to be excellent.

Stu Dudley

Oh, of course, Stu. I certainly hold nothing against them. It was quite new then and all the rage (we'd found it on a recent Food and Wine, I think). Much actually closed that day, including our scheduled trip to Alcatrez, but they carried on as best they could at Delfina. It was just a memory, and the date was actually my WHOLE point.

As I said, I don't know why I haven't been back -- just kind of off the beaten track, perhaps.

>>just kind of off the beaten track, perhaps.<<

Not really. That section of the Mission is a haven for foodies. BART & the J-Church will get you there. Have a salted caramel ice cream at Bi-Rite after dinner.

Stu Dudley

LOL, sure it may be worth it, and there are other places in that ara, and public transportation may not that difficult, but if you don't think that that area of the Mission is more "kind of off the beaten track" than Union Square or the Embarcadero, well I guess we have different definitions of "beaten track" in SF.

I'm now sorry, I bothered to offer my "light" little story about my 9/11 memory. I didn't mean it to start some sort of controversy. Nor did I mean it in any way to diminish the "value" of going to Delfina.

Patrick

You and I are old travel forum & GTG friends, going back almost 15 years. I had no intention at all of being controversial or "diminish" anything you said - just a "chat" between old friends.

Actually, to many locals Union Square and the Embarcadero are more off the Beaten Track than the Mission. It is for us now, and also when we lived in the Noe Valley. The Mission is infested with Google & other Silicon Valley people who rarely get downtown. That's why I was kinda "provoked" when you mentioned that Delfina & surrounds was off the beaten track - I was thinking more about what it is to me & my local friends, and not to tourists/visitors (which, perhaps, I should have been).

My sincere apologies if I upset/offended you.

Your longtime travel friend
Stu Dudley

Fair enough, Stu, but aren't MOST of the threads on this topic including this one geared for tourists and not locals? I was speaking as a tourist (like the OP) and not someone who happens to live there. As a tourist myself (although I've spent a number of month long stays there) it IS more off the beaten path than the huge wealth of great SF restaurants. So I was only speaking as a tourist who has to make some fairly major concessions to go to Delfina rather than choose from so many other great places so much easier and quicker to get to.

And I guess I was still just registering surprise that you seemed to take my little post about my 9/11 experience as needing to give Delfina another chance and commenting that there was a "distraction" that day. Of course! I felt you missed the whole point of my post.

But no harm done. As mentioned, your information about SF, especially restaurants is legendary and wonderful!

Neo, whether it's off the beaten path (yes for tourists, no for locals :-) ), I highly recommend you visit the area around Delfina and have a meal at the restaurant or the adjacent pizza place next time you're here! Their's is my favorite pizza in the city, and the sides -- short ribs arancini, roasted cauliflower, meatballs, tri-color salad -- are fantastic. The restaurant and pizza place do not "share" however, so you have to pick which one to go to. You need a reservation for the restaurant, the [very small] pizza place is wait-in-line.

>> I felt you missed the whole point of my post. <<

Nope - I didn't miss the 9/11 point at all. It is one of the few dates that "speaks for itself".

Stu Dudley

Try La Ciccia on 30th and Church. Take a look at the menu online to see if it appeals. A nice local experience in the upper Noe Valley.