| :: San Francisco
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Dining >Italian
| Pasta Pomodoro |
Address:
3611 California St.
| San Francisco |
Region:
San Francisco
Rating:
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More Info
Phone: (415) 831-0900
FAX:
Website
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Description and Basic Information ::
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3611 California St. (Laurel Heights) (415) 831-0900
598 Haight St. (Haight-Ashbury) (415) 436-9800
655 Union St. (North Beach) (415) 399-0300
1875 Union St. (Marina District) (415) 771-7900
2027 Chestnut St. (Marina District) (415) 626-5758
Food type: Italian
Average entrée price: $6.95
Credit cards: all major
Famous dish: Spaghetti with mussels, scallops, calamari and roasted garlic; shell pasta with grilled radicchio, Gorgonzola and pine nuts.
Italian Classics for Under $10: Recipe for Success
Milan-born chef Adriano Paganini, 33, had a passion for pasta and the desire to bring some of Italy's tastiest dishes to the masses. He opened the first branch of Pasta Pomodoro on Chestnut St., in the Marina District in 1994 — since then, Pasta Pomodoro has become a small, but vibrant, chain with a total of 13 restaurants in the Bay Area (nine in San Francisco).
Pasta Pomodoro doesn't look, or feel, like a chain. The staff is warm and welcoming, and genuinely cares about the freshness of the ingredients and making customers feel like they're in a neighborhood spot. Best of all, no item on the menu is over $7.75.
Out of 15 pasta dishes to choose from, some good bets are the cavatappi (corkscrew) pasta with chunks of roast chicken, cream sauce, cremini mushrooms and sundried tomatoes; a tangy penne puttanesca, with capers, olives, anchovies and chili flakes; or the frutti di mare, a dish of spaghetti with mussels, scallops and calamari, roasted garlic, tomatoes and white wine.
For starters, the spinach salad with peppered walnuts, ricotta salata, pancetta and red onions, in a mildly sweet dressing, is a stand-out. There's also a tortellini soup, with sliced, braised beef and spinach in a savory meat broth; and the classic caprese with fresh mozzarella.
Starters include polenta with spinach and fontina cheese, broiled in sage and brown butter; steamed mussels; and bruschetta. Their sandwiches come on grilled sourdough, with soup or salad — fillings include homemade sausage meatballs, grilled chicken with fontina, and portobello mushroom with grilled eggplant.
Desserts are simple and good: tiramisu; semifreddo (a wedge-shaped cappuccino ice cream cake with almonds and chocolate sauce); panna cotta, a velvety vanilla bean custard served over red berries and marinated in lemon and grappa; and ricotta and mascarpone cheesecake with toasted pine nuts and a berry puree. |
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