Perbacco, San Francisco

This is the restaurant that I chose for my birthday dinner. It wasn't the fanciest, or the one with the most Michelin stars (it has one), but it was the most Italian. I had such a great food experience in Florence that I wanted to recapture some of that enjoyment.

The restaurant itself is loud and on a weeknight it was packed--we were close enough to our neighbors that you could hear them talk--which my spouse finds to be an irressistable plus, but it is not for everyone.  

So keep that in mind--if the ambiance is terribly important to you, this might not be the place for you. I can see that. For us, the food is absolutely the biggest factor, and we can be forgiving about the service and the physical plant. And the food was delicious--my only complaint is that we weren't really hungry enough to try a full array of what the menu had to offer (which is one of the few things that makes me wish I could spend more time in a city that had a dining option like this--where I could go to a restaurant more than once and really try out various options).

Here were the two highlights. The salumi plate was impressive--my spouse has startd to think about making these sorts of fermented meats (it must be something about having a basement that has a stone, and in some parts, a dirt foundation that brings one back to the idea that you could hang meat there. You certainly can't clean it up, so all that contact with subterranian nature must have a purpose). Lots of delicious options to aspire to making. But my favorite was the agnolotti--a stuffed pasta that was midway between a ravioli and a tortellini in size--and delicious. I do love handmade pasta that is stuffed and served in a hearty sauce.