Italian Food While Someone Plays Actual Music

My friend Chris took a date to this restaurant in North Beach last year that advertised “live music nights.” Sounded romantic – Italian food, live music, good vibe. What he got was a guy with an acoustic guitar playing Ed Sheeran covers so loud they couldn’t hear each other talk. They left after the main…

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Italian Food for When It Actually Matters

My brother tried to do his anniversary dinner at some trendy spot in the Mission last year, and it was a disaster. The restaurant was packed, the noise level was insane, the waiter forgot they were celebrating anything, and the food came out at the same rushed pace as every other night. His wife spent…

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Italian Food That Actually Changes With The Seasons

My friend Rachel went to this Italian restaurant in Nob Hill last December and ordered the caprese salad because she loves tomatoes and mozzarella. What came out was sad – pale pink tomatoes that tasted like water, mozzarella that was fine, basil that looked tired. She ate maybe three bites and gave up. “Why would…

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Southern Italian Food That Tastes Like Sicily

My coworker Maria grew up in Palermo, and she spent her first two years in San Francisco complaining that nobody here knew how to make real Sicilian food. “It’s all northern Italian,” she’d say. “Where’s the caponata? Where’s the arancini that doesn’t taste like cafeteria food? Where’s pasta with sardines?” Then someone from her Italian…

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Italian Dining Where They Actually Come to Your Table

My friend Marcus took a client to some supposedly fancy Italian restaurant in Union Square last year, trying to impress them. He ordered the Caesar salad because the menu said it was “prepared tableside,” which sounded elegant. The waiter wheeled out a cart, tossed some lettuce with pre-made dressing from a squeeze bottle, and that…

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Online Ordering San Francisco That Actually Works Without Making You Want to Scream

My friend Tom tried ordering Italian food online from a restaurant in North Beach. The website loaded slowly on his phone. The menu photos were missing. Customization options were confusing or didn’t work. The checkout process crashed twice. After 20 frustrating minutes, he gave up and called instead. “Why do restaurants bother with online ordering…

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