Trattoria Contadina — Restaurant in San Francisco

The venerable server Federico said I should become a food blogger so this will be my attempt to honor his wish.

(This is going to sound like a lot of flexing, but it's all in an effort to qualify how great this place is)

At an odd point in my life I was concepting out a Italian place with my movie director cousin. It was going to be named after her Grandmother that she adored, and was deeply inspired by. I felt qualified because I had helped this hidden gem of an Italian spot restaurant Casa Nostra concept and build out their aperitivo menu. I also had a deeply inspiring ex business partner from Ischia that is a world renown Amari expert. Lastly, I knew that the Nonna's recipe is the crown jewel of italian cuisine and food in general.

Trattoria Contadina not only does right by the legacy of Nonna's that worked tirelessly to bring Italian food to where it is today. It's fine tuning the classic deeply fresh and relevant. Something near impossible to do in a culture that clashes between deep tradition and futurism.

Vince it's host is peak. The guy is warm, friendly, comfortably formal, knowledgeable, and quick to offer seamless help between the his coworkers and the restaurant floor.

Esteban the bartender has a commanding presence that allows one to find deep ease while dining. He's confident, proficient, and works diligently to make sure guests have the best time possible.

Federico has definitively lended the best of his experiences to this place. He's unimposing, eager to make adjustments if he can subtly detect any lack of enjoyment, and knows his shit deeply without needing to share that he does.

Their Caprese is the best I've ever had. I literally had to just pause and savor the flavors in a almost cheese/strawberry "ratatouille" moment (movie reference). Their Aperol spritz also has the best ratios I've ever tasted.

I truly enjoyed their Pesce Picata with it's lovely acidity that's balanced between the Beurre Blanc like sauce and salty capers.

The spumoni dessert was ridiculously good

All the salads are deeply solid, flavorful, and super worth

The Mama Fratelli with additions of freshly grated cheese, black pepper, salt, and red pepper flakes was simply the best italian dish I've ever had. As I told Federico, it's easy to stick to the tradition and paint with the same tired old colors available within the cuisine. It's entirely something else to make food that's seeking to be as dynamic as Thai or high end Korean like Benu. I can safely say the chefs there accomplished this feat.

Shoutout to the unnamed staff that I haven't met yet. You all have made my dining experiences so sleek, comfortable, and awesome. I deeply appreciate how you all lend your talents to such a...

Really just not good at all honestly. I’m not that picky, even about Italian food, but it was just incredibly mediocre. Pasta tastes like it came from a grocery store box and not the good brands. Over-all just cheap ingredients and service was brutally meh. They brought out the wrong food for me and it was honestly terrible the couple bites I had of it before they realized and came to get it back and get me the right thing. Then when they brought out my $31 Diavolo it wasn’t much better. Sawdusty texture, nasty dry garnish that gets into everything, cold mozzarella-ish cheese that concerningly doesn’t melt in the warm food dish. They also brought out the ‘Alfredo’ with added chicken my wife ordered and it was basically just pesto sauce with nothing Alfredo about it and no chicken she ordered in it. Biasco al Lampone drink has maybe 3 drops of actual alcohol in it. They brought out vanilla ice cream because it was our anniversary and I’ve never had ice cream that I had to compare to cheese before but unfortunately it was more like eating bread dough from the texture. Clearly just a cheap ice cream that uses a lot of gelatin instead of actual decent ingredients and process. Overall I couldn’t recommend to anyone unfortunately even though the staff seemed nice (except the open-view kitchen where the chef was visibly throwing a fit - literally tossing plates - when the waiter grabbed the wrong food and he had to remake - again, boxed pasta which he wasn’t even cooking right. Also paid $6 for a coke ordered right when I sat down and they never refilled or offered to...

Super annoying experience

Have been hearing great things about this place for ages and finally decided to give it a try. Patiently waited 20 mins for a table to open up on a Sunday night. Food is all it’s hyped up to be (we had the stuffed pepper appetizer, spaghetti/meatball entree and seafood raviolis entree) - amazing as far as SF Italian goes

Would I recommend to other? NO - service was horrendous. We were extremely rushed through the entire meal. 30 seconds after we sat down - “what do you want to drink?” - hadn’t even received the drink list or menu yet. Another 30 seconds later menus arrive and waiter comes straight over to ask for drinks and food order. I had barely said hello to my friend and we clearly had not opened the menus yet. App and side plates were basically thrown on the table and our water glasses were never refilled during the entire meal. Our entrees were placed in front of the incorrect person (there’s 2 of us and only ~10 tables in the whole restaurant so that shouldn’t be difficult to remember). At the end our check was brought without asking if we wanted anything else and I just got home to eat my leftovers and they gave me the wrong box.

For this to be a true Italian 5 star, just as much care has to go into the service and presentation as goes into the...