This August, we took a long-awaited trip to San Francisco, where we sampled as many of the city’s myriad types of cuisine as possible in seven days. Here’s part three of a series of capsule reviews about our gustatory experiences in the City by the Bay. Click here for parts one and two.
Dinners
E Tutto Qua is a nice Italian option in touristy North Beach: a cheerful and bustling restaurant featuring waitstaff from Italy and homemade pasta. Its squid ink pasta has a mysterious, oceanic quality, and is accented perfectly by a white wine-tomato sauce. The lamb ragu papardelle is more pedestrian, but still hearty and fulfilling.
Chenery Park Restaurant is a friendly place in Glen Park whose housemade wild mushroom gnocchi are scrumptious little morsels of umami. Its pork belly is on the tough side, though, and its gumbo, while nicely smoky, lacks heat. “Cambazola” (Camembert and gorgonzola) beignets taste exactly like fried brie.
The Oriental Pearl is a mediocre Chinatown restaurant which no Asians seem to frequent (never a good sign). Don’t let the Zagat reviews outside lure you in. Its black bean chicken is pedestrian, though its duck feet casserole has a delicate and appealing flavor.
Sweets
Naia Gelateria in North Beach boasts many unusual flavors, such as whiskey and roasted corn, alongside staples like chocolate hazelnut and stracciatella. Lemongrass gelato has a pleasing herbal quality, while rose tastes just like it sounds, and Earl Grey is sweet and creamy but lacks oomph.
North Beach’s Z. Cioccolato may be a haven for tourists, but its staff is friendly and helpful, and it make a vast variety of fudge flavors, including mojito (strange), pumpkin cheesecake (smooth), and dark chocolate cabernet (sophisticated).
Foodie Mecca . . . Or A Very Fancy Whole Foods?
The Ferry Building is reputed to be a hotspot for foodies, and indeed it is home to the renowned Cowgirl Creamery, several pig-centric delis, and shops specializing in single ingredients like mushrooms and olive oil. But it’s also liberal-crunchy to the point of parody: Organic vegan donuts at $3 apiece? Gluten-free bakeries? Kale chips? The Ferry Building’s basically what Whole Foods wants to be when it grows up–with prices to match.
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