La Ciccia for me. I am taking a friend from LA next week. The food is Sardinian, which is perhaps fairly unique, and the restaurant has local neighborhood
charm.
Though personally I am not very interested in Lazy Bear and I had a slight issue with Quince so it’s been a while since I’ve been there. Someone with more recent experience may be able to give a more informed opinion.
La ciccia. Nothing at lazy bear or quince really wowed me like the baby octopus stew and the spicy spaghetti bottarga at la ciccia. Plus, it’ll be half the price and you won’t need a burrito after dinner.
I’m still looking for a spaghetti with bottarga as good as la ciccia’s in la.
It makes me so sad any time I read about how good their meal was. Four or five years ago I met a friend in the city (Asian dumpling cooking class). I got us a res for La Ciccia. Her brother joined us and we agreed to share our food. What a mistake. They were/are totally unadventuresome eaters. I no longer remember what we had but it was totally disappointing. MUST make it back some day.
I had one of my favorite meals of late at Quince last March. The food isn’t ground breaking, but it is tasty and executed very well. Together with the service it was an amazing experience.
Three Michelin stars are supposed to guarantee excellent execution and service, as should a price tag of $250 before supplements, wine, water, tax, and tip.
The Michelin / World’s 50 Best stuff is something you can get around here that you can’t in LA, though Vespertine makes Atelier Crenn look like Tadich Grill.
I’ve never been to Quince, it’s not my kind of place. Michelin nonsense aside, I prefer Italian food without French influence.
I love their Italian restaurant, Cotogna, next door, but it’s kind of similar to Osteria Mozza, so not as different from what you can get in LA as La Ciccia.
I can’t find the IG story but I’m pretty sure it was Hangry Diary. She posted a sign on Golden Gate Bakery that they were on vacation for 3 weeks. The story was from this weekend. There were no dates - just said on vacation for 3 weeks. Just in case anybody was planning on going in the near future.
The post on Nov 2 (latest) says they are closed 3 to 5 weeks. I guess that’s your best way to find out in advance.
At this rate, it may not be worth the bother. Last time while I really enjoyed the egg tarts, the 1+ hour wait was not that worthwhile, plus they scaled down a lot of their offerings. But then I did luck out last year when I walked in 30 mins before closing and there were no people, and they still had freshly baked ones out of the oven. At this rate, not worth making a special trip to Chinatown, unless you are on the way to places like Mister Jiu’s, China Live (god forbid), Kusakabe, Quince, Comstock Saloon, Trestle, Roka Akor etc.