italian food recs

[brycol1]

best itallian food in sf. moderatly priced in pac heights or north beach? here for the weekend and would love some help. thatnks so much!

[vulber]

If you're willing to brave the cold at this time of year, you can almost always bypass the usual 1.5 to 2 hour wait at SPQR by requesting to sit at the (now always vacant) outside tables. Went for desserts and (Blue Bottle) coffee the other night; great place to people watch amongst bustling pac heights

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SPQR
1911 Fillmore Street, San Francisco, CA 94115

[Robert Lauriston]

SPQR now takes reservations (online only):

http://www.spqrsf.com/reservations

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SPQR
1911 Fillmore Street, San Francisco, CA 94115

[farmersdaughter]

Capannina on Union Street is another good choice that's fairly close to Pac Heights. Very good food, nice room and warm service.

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Capannina
1809 Union St, San Francisco, CA 94123

[DandySF]

During the past few years I've been enjoying a North Beach Italian restaurant that appears to be full of locals, which is a noteworthy detail for this part of town. It's called Ideale and is located on Grant Ave. The pastas and pizzas are very good. The Italian staff and proprietor create a warm and welcoming environment.

Aaron
http://www.thesluicebox.com

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Ideale
1315 Grant Ave, San Francisco, CA 94133

[baron45]

I had an excellent dinner at SPQR last week. Several atypical dishes that worked well. Try the pork belly appetizer and the skate cheeks, as well as the veal sweetbreads.

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SPQR
1911 Fillmore Street, San Francisco, CA 94115

[whiner]

North Beach: L'Osteria del Forno. No credit cards, no reservations. One oven. Incredible pork roast, my favorite pizza in the city (try the porcini and the salami), awesome appetizers (I love the roasted beets, the grilled radicchio and the speck).

If you are willing to leave Pac Heights and North Beach, my favorite moderately priced (ok, moderately expensive) Italian restaurant in the city is Perbacco. Also, I've been hearing some great things about 54 Mint, but I've not been.

Other good options include:
Delfina (Northern, Mission)
A16 (Southern, Marina, hven't been since founding chef left, but hear it is still good)
SPQR (Roman, Pac Heights, not been, same people as A16)
Incanto (Cal-Italian, offal, Noe Valley)
La Ciccia (Sardinian, Noe Valley)

http://www.losteriadelforno.com/
http://www.perbaccosf.com/
http://54mint.com/54_Mint_Wine_Bar_Vineria_-_Ristorante_-_Alimentari/54_Mint.html
http://www.delfinasf.com/home.html
http://www.a16sf.com/
http://www.spqrsf.com/
http://www.incanto.biz/
http://www.laciccia.com/

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La Ciccia
291 30th Street, San Francisco, CA 94131

Perbacco
230 California St, San Francisco, CA 94111

A16
2355 Chestnut St., San Francisco, CA 94123

L'Osteria del Forno
519 Columbus Ave, San Francisco, CA 94133

Delfina Restaurant
3621 18th St, San Francisco, CA 94110

SPQR
1911 Fillmore Street, San Francisco, CA 94115

54 Mint
54 Mint St, San Francisco, CA 94103

[bobpantzer]

whiner's list is right on and would mirror my own. Perbacco and SPQR would be my favorites on that list.

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Perbacco
230 California St, San Francisco, CA 94111

SPQR
1911 Fillmore Street, San Francisco, CA 94115

[Robert Lauriston]

Good list. I'd call Delfina Cal-Italian. SPQR just had a chef change and a pretty radical menu change, so past reports might be somewhat misleading, though with the same owners and sommelier I expect the quality's still very high.

Between North Beach and Pacific Heights there are also Antica Trattoria and Milano.

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Delfina Restaurant
3621 18th St, San Francisco, CA 94110

Antica Trattoria
2400 Polk St, San Francisco, CA 94109

Ristorante Milano
1448 Pacific, San Francisco, CA 94109

[whiner]

Re: Antica and Milano... both are ok, imo, with Antica the better of the two. Russian Hill actually has a lot of ok Italians. Contadina is pretty decent, but haven't been in over a year, despite it being two blocks from my apartment. Recently, when needing local (ie. within 6 blocks of my apt, which all of these places are) my go-to has been Amarena, which is never mentioned on these boards but which I might defend as currently the best Italian restaurant in Russian Hill. Still, it is not up to the other restaurants on my list, imo.

http://www.amarenarestaurant.com/

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Amarena Restaurant
2162 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA 94109

[Robert Lauriston]

Yeah, your list matches mine.

Note that due to the tiny kitchen L'Osteria does not have pasta except usually one baked dish such as lasagne or cannelloni.

[bobpantzer]

We went to Amarena for the first time last Saturday and liked it a lot. I don't understand why it doesn't get mentioned more often. Maybe I'm glad it doesn't get mentioned more often. Friendly staff and owner and kind of a romantic little place. We'll definitely return.

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Amarena Restaurant
2162 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA 94109