Seven Hills — Restaurant in San Francisco

We have been traveling in the Napa Valley and San Francisco area for a week and Seven Hills is the best restaurant of our entire trip, and we have enjoyed some pretty amazing places to eat. If you are a local and have not been to Seven Hills, you have to go because you will fall in love with it and have a new favorite spot yourself. The next time I come to San Francisco I am going to make my reservation weeks ahead to make sure I can get a table.

The restaurant is located on the corner of Hyde and Green. Hyde is on the Cable Car line so imagine being able to ride the cable car directly to this amazing Italian restaurant from Ghirardelli square, this would make the ultimate romantic experience. The cable cars were not running so Uber dropped us off at the front door.

When we arrived for an 8:00 reservation Alex, the owner, greeted us at the door. We were a few minutes early so he set us up with a wine list and encouraged us to look it over. We asked a question about an Italian wine that we were not familiar with and Alex told us about the wine and then opened a bottle for us to sample before making a final decision. We loved the wine and purchased the bottle. It was cool that he had faith in the wine and wanted to make sure that we were happy that he would to this.

The food was simply amazing so let's jump into it. For starters we order the Burrata which has been a dish that we have tried multiple time during the trip. The Burrata was made with fresh melon, arugula and almonds toped with a delicious sauce that pulled everything together. Complex flavors came together so nicely, it was a great way to start. We also got the mixed olives which was a generous portion of olives, served slightly warm which enhanced the flavors and elevated the ingredient.

At this point we decided that we were going to eat family style because we wanted to try as many of the flavors and dishes as we could. I would highly recommend this approach because it will expose you to so many great dishes. We chose three different pasta dishes and with the help of our amazing waiter Alex we adventured out of our norm to try something new.

The Truffle Tortelloni is the most unique and delicious pasta dish I have ever had. The key is to eat the entire pillow of goodness at once and just savor the creaminess and bursting flavors. The sauce is buttery and you will want to make sure to get every little bit of it. If I could recommend a single dish this is where I would start.

Our second dish was the one recommended by our wait staff, the Agnolotti. The pasta tubes are filled with sweet corn and ricotta. When you bite into them the corn offers such an amazing natural sweetness to your tastebuds you are going to be amazed. We were a little nervous about the whole corn and pasta combination, but it works so well. Our daughter does not like mushrooms, but there was only happiness as she tried the Chanterelle mushrooms with this dish.

Our third and final pasta dish was just added to the menu and was a braised pork with a wide pasta noodle. I wish I would have made better notes on this one to share about it, but I do not want to describe it incorrectly. Like the others it was fantastic, with the pork being very tender.

To conclude our evening we shared the Chocolate Budino and the special desert of the day an open tart with apricots and blackberries. Both deserts are were amazing. When you look up Budino on your phone it will say that it is a pudding, I would compare it more to a mousse. It had big chocolate flavor with a smooth airy texture. With our desert we splurged and paired it with a port to cap off the evening.

Be sure to go to Seven Hills for an amazing meal and a culinary journey to Italy without...

While Seven Hills had been a highly favored restaurant in years past, our visit on April 28, 2022, was painfully disappointing. My partner had taken me here for a milestone birthday. When presented a very small table, we asked to move just one more table back to the booth, which was accommodated with no problem. But that must have placed outside the active service area.

Once seated, we watched the well-timed, efficient rhythm of the capable, solicitous wait staff buzzing among the tables around us and anticipated the moment they would work us into their flow. But after several uncomfortable minutes passed, the lady from behind the bar came up to our table and introduced herself. We had a couple of questions about the menu, and I asked for help with pairing a glass of wine. She seemed quite knowledgeable and easily helped me navigate the limited wine-by-the-glass selection. And though she was absolutely sufficiently kind, it was obvious that waiting on us was an unwelcomed interruption to her bar-closing efforts. She did not visit much after taking our order.

After several minutes, two servers dropped off the appetizers. We weren't sure what happened to the toasted garlic bread at that point. As they hurried away, I called after one to ask for more water. Several minutes later, a third server brought me water just as the bread and our main course arrived. There was not enough room on the small table for all the dishes. We ate more quickly to finish our appetizers and bread so that there was room to enjoy the entrees. When we finally got to the entrees they had already cooled off and were not appetizing, especially my shrimp squid ink pasta maccheroncelli. I might have mentioned it to someone, but no one stopped by our table to ask if everything was to our liking. I had hoped the dessert would bring a bright note to end our meal on, but unfortunately, the focaccia bread pudding looked like it had been made a while ago, and was altogether forgettable. To appropriately conclude the night's dismal experience, the server who had taken our order at the beginning made the final appearance to bring the check.

It seemed the other diners around us were being well taken care of. For whatever reason, we were the outliers that night. It was my birthday and my first time dining out after the two-year pandemic. We turned to Seven Hills to deliver a great dining experience. But they fell quite short this time, and I felt obliged to share...

Seven Hills is a quaint little boutique restaurant that serves up delicious Italian food that is one of the tops in SF.

We opted to go with 3 Pastas and 1 meat entree to split. The appetizers that tables around us got looked pretty delicious, especially the Foie Gras, but we had already made our order. Our bit of remorse was quickly cured as our first dish came out.

The Ravioli Uovo - Heard a lot of good things about this one, and we were not disappointed. One giant ravioli with an inside...pop into it and watch the yolk ooze out into the light buttery sauce. SO GOOD! DIP YOUR BREAD IN IT!

Rabbit Sugo Pappardelle - More of a traditional pasta with a red sauce, but with rabbit meat. I liked this one a lot. The sugo was seasoned well and well balanced, the acidity cutting into the gaminess of the rabbit. The pappardelle was perfectly chewy!

Octopus Bolognese Spaghetti Neri - How can you not liked this??? The Squid Ink spaghetti paired perfectly with the Octopus Bolognese...you couldn't even tell it was Octopus...you just knew it was delicious.

Note on pastas: Price is for half portions, but you can make it a full portion for an extra $7-8.

The Pork Chop - Okay, it was a good quality pork chop that was cooked extremely well...however, following those amazing pastas doesn't do it justice. Juicy and flavorful it was delicious and enjoyable, but I just wanted to go back to Pastas.

Perfect spot for a date. Sangiovese was on point!

Service was good and make sure you ask for bread...that...