Flour + Water — Restaurant in San Francisco

FULL REVIEW ON YELP

Overall experience: 4.4/10 Food: 6.5/10 Service 7/10 Value: 2/10 Portions: 2/10

Total cost, four pasta tastings and two corkage fees (w/ 20% tip, tax, 1% donation, 6% SF Mandate): $776

My friends and I, a party of four, had our first experience at Flour + Water this past Sunday (7/24/22). We had all been to their Pizzeria offshoot on Valencia, enjoyed it thoroughly, and longly anticipated our visit to their flagship restaurant. We made reservations over a month in advance, which added to our general excitement and anticipation coming into the experience.

Once our wine was open, the first server began giving us an overview of the menu. She began by saying that they are “family style” and recommended two dishes per person to be adequately full. I was a bit puzzled when she said that, given that each dish was around $27. At any other fine dining Italian restaurant in the city (Trattoria Contadina, Seven Hills, Serafina, Etc.), one pasta dish is enough to feed one person, and is typically cheaper than $27. So the expectation was to spend over $50 on two pastas in order to be satisfied. In my opinion, restaurants that tout they are family style are known to charge full price for smaller amounts of food. They expect you to buy more dishes to “share” when one dish isn’t enough for one person.

She then began to explain the tasting menu, mentioned how it is plenty of food, how it’s the best way to try all the options, and that they are known for it. After she left, we discussed as a team and decided to try it! We were excited, it sounded like a great experience ($125 per person, whole table participation required) with a bunch of great food, we would be full and happy walking out. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

We felt like the tasting menu was grossly overpriced for what you received. We are used to and happy to spend at nice restaurants. However, I want to feel as though I get my money’s worth when I do splurge on these types of meals. $125 for what we received was just unacceptable. You’re better off going somewhere else, making your own tasting by ordering three pastas each, spend roughly $80 and get triple the food. Through out the dinner and in the days following, the more and more I think about it, I feel like I was nickeled and dimed.

Each person shared each dish with one other person, meaning for a party of four, they brought out two of each. For the pasta dishes, we had to count each piece to ensure it was evenly split amongst the two of us. This is frustrating, when I’m spending $125, I’d like to not have to ration my pasta with another person. It would be nice if they could just individually serve each person to ensure this wasn’t an issue. About half the dishes were difficult to split, where as the other half were easy, for example the fried risotto or the savory cannolis to start.

Overall the food was good, I can see why the place is in business. The Taleggio Scarpinocc was the favorite of the group! After that, the dishes were less memorable, we felt like the finale dishes (Safron Casoncelli and Cavatelli) were disappointing and nothing special.

The service was the best part of the experience, the servers were very attentive. My friend asked for them to bring us multiple carafe’s of water, which they brought three relatively quickly. They cleaned up the table as there were some occasional wine spills and drips as we’d pour new glasses. Each server was very knowledgeable about the menu and explained the history and origins of the dishes as they came out.

In conclusion, I wouldn’t recommend this restaurant to anyone looking for fine dining Italian in the city. For $194 per person, this was unfulfilling and disappointing. As I mentioned before, spending that kind of money isn’t an issue, I’d happily do it again. The issue is I want to feel like I’m getting enough value for my money. I would rather get an elite meal at one of their competitors mentioned above, spend half the price, and leave satisfied. I hate feeling ripped off, Flour + Water just isn’t...

I had such high hopes for this place, but it did not live up to the hype. In fact, it crashed and burned.

In short, food was mediocre and service was atrocious.

When the waitress asked us if we had any questions about the menu, I asked if she could distinguish the farfalle with braised duck from the tagliarini with braised pork; was one richer than the other, etc. She said "well, they're both braised" and then spelled out what the ingredients listed in the menu were. I said politely, I can see they're both braised and I can see the ingredients but that I was trying to see if they had any general differences to narrow my choice. She seemed flustered by the question and said they were about the same.

Since all the wines were Italian, we asked if she could recommend something akin to a 4 year-old Cab Sauv from Napa, that's a common one that my wife and I both enjoy. She said she only has worked in Italian restaurants so she doesn't know what a Cab Sauv from Napa tastes like. She asked us to describe it in terms of tannins, fruit, and earthiness. I said they are not very earthy and have bold rich flavor, full-bodied, and 4 year's have balanced tannins and acids, and medium fruit flavor. She picked out some Italian wine that she said should match "closely". When they brought it out to taste, it was terrible and didn't even come close to tasting like a Cab Sauv. We told the other woman serving us the wine (who was very polite) what we had asked for originally and she made a face like ("yeah, this is not going to be that") and apologized. They brought us back a much better wine close to what we're looking for, but the waitress never even apologized or acknowledged the mistake.

How is it that she works in a popular SF restaurant and literally has no idea what the regional wines taste like?

When our wood-fired pizza came out, it was scorched for my wife's tastes and pushing the boundary for mine. When she said she really couldn't eat it when it was that burnt, the waitress said "well, that's a wood-fired oven pizza and that's the style" which was her third condescending remark, like we only knew Pizza Hut or something. My wife politely but firmly said she knows what wood-fired pizza was, but that this was burnt on the bottom, turning over a slice to show the abundance of black char.

They took away the pizza and a nicer waitress brought us a complementary budino to try to make up for this disaster of a dining experience. At this point, we were just done and over this place. It's one thing for the food to be mediocre but for the service to be so condescending, forget that. We left the budino on the table untouched and tipped the minimum and we were out.

You can do much better at Deflina, etc. This place was a huge disappointment. Save your money and your...

I've been working my way through the Flour + Water cookbook for some time now and it's one of the best cookbooks I've read so far. So, when I ended up in San Francisco a few weeks ago, I made it a priority to get dinner here. I am an avid eater of Italian food and I make pasta from scratch at least once a week. Needless to say, I was not disappointed.

We started with arancini, a sort of fried risotto ball, and fresh ricotta cheese. Both were absolutely fabulous. The ricotta tasted of summer and the arancini were a crunchy delight.

For our pasta dishes we had a vegetarian rigatoni of some sort (I know it had egg and some sort of acid) and farfalle with duck. The farfalle were beautifully hand-crafted. The two dishes paired well together, too. The farfalle with duck was rich and luscious. The rigatoni was bright, tangy, and honestly awe-inspiring (please put this in the Flour + Water cookbook 2.0). Truly, it left me speechless for a moment.

We typically are not dessert people, but when we saw traditional balsamic straight from Emilia-Romagna being drizzled over gelato, we decided to share a bowl. We were not disappointed. The balsamic with the fruity gelato transported us right back to a romantic night together, roaming the streets of Modena, exhausted from travel and giggling from wine.

Overall, the food is honestly perfect. Nothing is pretentious or over the top, which is a good thing. Nor is there a single thing missing or a single thing out of place. The food just is. It is a complete and perfect expression of Italy meets California. You can taste the love and the passion for the cuisine in every bite. It's the type of food the leaves you glowing for hours after you leave the restaurant.

On top of the food being impeccable, the ambience is excellent. Entering from a relatively quiet street corner in San Francisco, you find yourself in a warm, bustling dining room. The staff are all friendly and caring.

I will definitely eat here again next time I am in San Francisco. Honestly, I might not pass up a good deal on a flight from Seattle specifically...