Please suggest an Italian restaurant in Union Square or North Beach area.

Hi happytrailstoyou, At Union Sq. my favorite restaurant is Scalas. www.scalasbistro.com.

In NorthBeach my favorite is the MonaLisa which is located 353 Columbus, ph no.4-5-989-4917.

Both restaurant's take reservations and accept credit cards. For parking in North Beach around the corner from the MonaLisa is a large parking garage on Vallejo St. It is over the SFPD station. If you park there go to the top floor of the parking lot for a wonderful view.

Have fun in SF. Know you will eat well there are so many great restaurants.

Thanks. I like Scalas, and I will definitely give Mona Lisa a try.

A couple of Italian institution in the North Beach area are La Osteria Del Forno and Tommasso.

Both are good, but don't expect Italian restaurants in SF to be anywhere as good as those in NY/NJ/CT area.

happytrails, We went to the Mona Lisa restaurant on LoveItaly's recommendation and we loved it. We actually went twice because the food was good and the prices were reasonable. Enjoy!

In spite of it being the city's Little Italy area, North Beach is not exactly the hotbed for good Italian restaurants in San Francisco (the same way as Little Italy in New York not really having good Italian, cusisine-wise).

Anyway, since you opted for North Beach and Union Square, Kuletos (a restaurant by, who else, Pat Kuleto)does a decent job in Union Square and I'll go along with the previous suggestion on La Ostreria Forno in the NB as the most decent one in the area.

If I'm not mistaken isn't Osteria Del Forno, the place with no stove, only an oven? It's been a couple years for us, but we found it highly disappointing. There are no pastas (other than baked ones) and my partner ordered the lasagna, finding it one of the most tasteless ones he's ever had. As I recall I had a baked meat (maybe lamb shank(?) and it was equally uninspired. It was homey and a sort of gimmick, but the service (not the cooking) was slow and the wine list was almost non existant -- plus they were out of the only Italian wines we knew and tried to order.

Kuleto's is good also, although I personally prefer Scala's. Have had many lovely evenings at both restaurants.

One is not going to get Italian food as you do in Italy. It is impossible plus restaurants feel they have to modify their receipes for the American taste and expectations. Mangia!!

Patrick.
You're absolutely right that Del Forno has no stove - only ovens.
It's not my favorite Italian restaurant in SF, there are other much much better ones that I can recommend but none of them in North Beach nor Union Square.

I've been to del Forno on a couple of occassions (not enthusiastically) but according to people whose taste I trust, it is better than most in the area. The stuffed baked tomato and the eggplant focaccia sandwich was fine. I had a bite of my wife's pizza, the thin crust kind that can't be held even when folded, and it was decent. Our watress was OK - checked on us after serving the food and not rushed nor slow. None of the people that I know whose been there (probably more often than you nor I) have complained about the service.

Looks like you were there on an off-night for the restaurant.

Oh, and Patrick, just to comment on the wine availability, I'm not sure how much you know about Italian wines (or how many you know) but, at one time (prior to attending a nearby concert) our host ordered 2 bottles of different Italian wines - a Lagrein (can't remember which particular one)and something else that I can't recall.

I remember our host commenting about the interesting choices while mulling over the wine list.

Thanks for the great suggestions. I know the ones named that I've been to are good, and I'm going to try Mona Lisa and Tommasso.

Any other ideas?

Hi happytyrailstoyou (love your nick1). Go to www.mooses.com and see if that restaurant would be of interest to you.

Thanks. The Mooses web site is extremely enticing.