By The Editors By The Editors | February 13, 2023 | Food & Drink Feature Guides
There's no shortage of delicious Italian restaurants in San Francisco. Here, we've rounded up the best Italian joints you don't want to miss out on.
Opened in 2004, this bustling Italian eatery serves up Neapolitan slices, housemade pasta and more alongside an award-winning wine list. Expect seasonal menus rich with decadent dishes like braised meatballs, creamy burrata, pizzas made according to Vera Pizza Naploletana requirements and fresh seafood. 2355 Chestnut St.
Boasting “Italian fare with California flair,” the menu at this lauded hot spot is rife with local, mostly seasonal ingredients. Pasta lovers will appreciate the truffle ravioli, black pepper bucatini and beef shank agnolotti; while carnivores can opt for chicken Milanese or the pork shank with celery root puree and mashed potatoes. Desserts are crafted in-house daily and include DIY smores, cannoli, gelato and tiramisu. 3521 Pierce St.
Refined luxury comes with a side of traditional countryside charm at this 30-year-plus fine dining experience. Two Michelin stars and a few generations later, the contemporary Italian hot spot is still a must for romantics and food lovers alike. 1722 Sacramento St.
Authentic Tuscan cuisine is on tap at the family-owned Nob Hill Cafe, located just minutes from the iconic Cable Car Museum. Nosh on fresh pasta and pizza at the no-fuss eatery. Pro tip: The outdoor patio is perfect for people watching. 1152 Taylor St.
Pasta is the star at Sorella, a casual Italian spot by the team behind Acquerello. Standout dishes include squid ink linguini with lobster, potato gnocchi with duck bolognese and short rib agnolotti. Fancy an aperitif? Head to the bar for craft cocktails and cicchetti (Venetian bar snacks) like cacio e pepe potato chips, oysters, anchovy toast and more. 1760 Polk St.
Traditional Italian meets a modern vibe at Penny Roma in the Mission District. Look for homemade pastas (definitely early favorites among gourmands) and a selection of fish crudi, veggie-driven antipasti and contorni, and wood-fired primi. 3000 20th St.
The Tailor’s Son opened in March 2021 with a savory menu of northern Italian classic like risotto, fresh pastas, crostini, antipasti and verdure. Located in The Fillmore neighborhood, the restaurant also features an extensive wine list highlighting the best biodynamic and organic wines from Italy, and world-class cocktails from the bar. 2049 Fillmore St.
This offshoot of Quince is casual and homespun, but well-bred. From pizza to pappardelle to roasts, the food is a match for its surroundings, and at its best makes you wonder why you ever eat any other way. 490 Pacific Ave.
Michael Tusk’s fine-dining shrine breathes refinement but also a hospitality that’s as unforced as it is flawless. The same could be said of the food, where an eight- to 10-course tasting menu runs $360 per person with wine pairings from $320. Ingredients are sourced from Fresh Run Farm in Marin. 470 Pacific Ave.
Chef Massimiliano Conti, a native of Sardinia, Italy, seeks to create flavors that are exactly what you’d find in a Sardinian restaurant, not California-ized approximations thereof. Order the tender baby octopus stew in spicy tomato sauce or the fresh-made arrizonis, heady with sea urchin and shaved tuna heart, and ask your waiter to pair it all with something unusual from the all-Italian wine list. 291 30th St.
In the many years since Delfina opened, Italian food in San Francisco has moved from Americanized red-sauce outposts to someplace closer to Italy. Dishes at Craig and Anne Stoll’s beloved Mission district restaurant still sparkle, such as grilled calamari emerging from a shallow sea of savory white beans. 3621 18th St
The brick-and-mortar outpost of Jon Darsky’s popular pizza truck centers on a wood-burning oven that turns out extravagantly charred Neapolitan-style pies with crusts as puffy as a baby’s thigh and topped with ingredients such as anchovies and ricotta salata. Though the pizzas are the main draw, don’t skip the vegetable-forward appetizers, which are seasonal and fabulous. 855 Bush St.
Che Fico Alimentari brings old Italy to California. More intimate and casual than its upstairs sibling Che Fico, Alimentari offers no pretension in its rustic dishes, including bucatini cacio e pepe, spaghetti ragu alla Napoletana and rigatoni amatriciana—all classic pasta dishes using Pastificio Gentile, an imported dried pasta from Italy. 834 Divisadero St.
Opened in 1999, Francis Ford Coppola created Cafe Zoetrope with much thought. Many of the items on the menu are his own recipes and the European ambience is something he cultivated. The cafe functions as a wine bar and a restaurant in the style of a Roman trattoria, also offering a full bar. 916 Kearny St.
You’re not going to find reclaimed wood or an artisanal cocktail program at this North Beach stalwart. A fixture in the neighborhood since 1970, it trades on Italian classics and an old-school vibe. The menu is a massive list of Tuscan dishes: two dozen pastas and nine—yes, nine—kinds of veal, from sweetbreads to piccata. The pastas, though, come out on top, particularly the pasta della casa, a creamy combination of prosciutto, mushrooms and veal. 1512 Stockton St.
Photography by: COURTESY OF ISTOCK
