Acquerello

Americas - USA West San Francisco Bay Area
1

After how many years, I finally made it for birthday dinner. It proved to be a lovely evening.

In no particular order, things I enjoyed about the experience.

It is nice to have a restaurant that doesn’t require a constant parade of small bites. The 3/4/5 course options OR tasting menu option is excellent. We chose 4 courses each. This also helps with choosing from the immense wine list, as one can actually choose bottles or half bottles that will work for a couple of courses.

It is nice to have a restaurant that keeps it classy, and makes an effort to do so. A restaurant where you can have a conversation at normal speaking voices with great service and the patrons are presentable and well-behaved, without phones constantly flashing - what a concept.

The wine list was really something, and at all price points. There were plenty of excellent options in the $50 to under $100 range to make the restaurant accessible when one doesn’t want to spend $1000 for dinner.

All that said, I ate:
(1) Bufala stracciatella, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, olive bread, pinenuts
(2) Potato ravioli, Caciottina di capra, smoked guanciale, and charred spring onions
(3) Maine lobster with saffron, artichokes, quinoa, Hen of the Woods mushrooms, and parsley
(4) Bourbon-caramel semifreddo, Amaretti crust, chocolate, and caramel sauce

They also brought out a few amuse to start as well as an extra small birthday dessert plate, and then a mignardises cart.

Everything was lovely. It is not a “wow” but just a lovely delicious perfectly-executed meal.

3 Likes
2

Thanks for the report. Are they still serving their foie gras and black truffle pasta?

3

As part of the full tasting menu, si.

4

After nearly two years, came the time for a return visit - a different birthday boy, who had never been, wanted to go. 4 of us had one of the most pleasant lovely meals you could ever hope to have. We each did 5 courses, which was a course too many.

Between the Castello di Verduno, Vino Spumante Rosé Brut ‘S-ciopét’ to start, followed by a fantastic white Italian blend (3 grapes I’ve never heard of, and I don’t recall the wine’s name), then followed by a Giacomo Conterno Vigna Francia Barbera. Then with our desserts, still not quite quenched, we polished off a bottle of Roses de Jeanne de Cédric Bouchard, Blanc de Noirs Brut.

Yum

5

Good stuff. Local shipment just arrived at SF’s The Wine Club.