Ristorante Bar San Francesco — Restaurant in Assisi

The food of the Greek gods, meant to confer immortality, probably involves truffles, olives, and hopefully some variety of fried cheese.

This will make sense in exactly 508 words.

You know how difficult it was to find this restaurant on Yelp or Trip Advisor; it kept trying to autocorrect it to restaurants in San Francisco. No, it’s San Francesco, across from the Basilica sharing the name. What a prime location, across a green field and in view of the greatest church in town. It’s hard not to notice it; of all the patches of real estate, this one must be the most expensive. The hotel atop it doesn’t cost that much, so why was I stuck outside of town at the Windsor Savoia? When dinner rolled around, my tour group all shuffled back to the hotel for an included meal. I can’t stress how depressing that meal was, unseasoned minestrone, rubber potatoes, and oily lasagna. This was the fourth such meal on this tour, and I had enough. It wasn’t restaurant food; it was cafeteria slop. I pushed away from the table and quoted Howard Beal from Network, “I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!” I walked back into town and scaled up the hill until I found that restaurant which had sparked my attention earlier….Ristorante San Francesco.

Externally, without taking the rest of the commune into account, San Francesco looks like a restaurant one would find in The Shire. Old stones are enshrouded by plants and vines. The green furniture (with flower patterns, FLOWER PATTERNS I TELL YOU) looks pulled from a Crate & Barrel that had been locked in a time machine since 1955. Shelves are topped with old dishes and giant carved roosters. What I loved was that you’d never see this kind of décor in Canada. The walls would be taupe with beige chairs and chocolate carpets. The tabletops would be coated in resin to prevent staining; flat screen TVs would hang from at least two walls; everyone would sit in booths. San Francesco looks amazing in ways which cannot be designed by committee. Modern trends insist on mirrors to expand the space, those nifty cubical wine racks behind glass that no one ever drinks, and lamps dangling two feet over your plate. In revolt, San Francesco has lit candles on each table.

I sat nearly alone in the restaurant, and I insisted on eating like a king, which meant fried cheese with black truffles, duck in orange sauce, with a side order of chips made to order. My bread basket was filled twice, and I wasn’t charged for either. The food was fantastic, reaffirming my faith that Italians could cook. Be eating the included food on the Globus tour, I was in fact being robbed of one of the true high points of visiting Italy, the food.

I won’t say that San Francesco is the best or even one of the best restaurants in Assisi. It’s not even close to the top ten restaurants in town according to review sites. But one thing I do know is that after suffering through included tour meals, eating at San Francesco was close to feasting on ambrosia. Assisi will always be remembered as the point where I began to dislike the Globus tour I had been on, for it had nearly robbed me of one the best parts of the trip, meals like that at San Francesco.

Food: 4.5/5 Service: 3.5/5 Presentation: 5/5 Value:...

We had dinner here as a group. The food was excellent but the service is subpar. The servers seemed rattled at the number of people they had to serve. We let it slide. The next day we decided to eat here again. Same kind of service. My order came incomplete. Tortelloni was supposed to be served with roasted pork cheek according to the menu. I thought it was stuffed inside the pasta. It wasn't. We called the waiter's attention and his response was skeptic until we pointed out what was described in the menu. They just gave us a little bowl of toated bacon after almost finishing our food. No apologies included. Italians are really...

Very nice location right near the basilica of St. FRANCIS. On the day we were there it was a Saturday and the tour buses were out of control busy. Almost ruins the experience. Restaurant extremely busy. We managed to get a table in doors. Sandwiches were we're very tasty. No condiments on the sandwiches, pickles, catsup, mustard or mayo... Not sure they are offered. The poor staff was running their butts off to accommodate the crush of people, but still it was an enjoyable lunch. I would go back, the view...