A16, San Francisco
Named after the highway that cuts Southern Italy, from Naples to Puglia, A16 aims to recreate the flavorful dishes of Southern Italian descent. Hence, they make a very popular pizza in a wood-burning oven, the way it is made in Naples, make their own sausages (when we were there they were filling the sausage casing, yummy!), and serve an impressive wine list with little-known but delicious wines.
Our lunch started with pork meatball, or polpette, a traditional Southern Italian fare in a seasoned tomato sauce. Polpette are traditionally made with ground meat, spices and bread crumbs, and ours were deliciously soft and tasty. The tomato sauce, in particular, seemed ideal for scarpetta- cleaning the plate with a piece of bread, considered bad table manner in Italy but my friend and I proceeded to shamelessly do!
We could not skip pizza, of course! We ordered one with mushrooms, and it came out shortly after polpette. It wasn’t the best pizza I have ever had, but to their credit I must say that the ingredients used are of the uttermost quality: the tomato sauce was not acidic at all, the mozzarella was delicious, and the mushroom variety was good, although nowhere on the menu was it mentioned that the mushrooms were sauteed in garlic and olive oil, taking away a chunk of the pizza flavor…
Dessert was also good, although not memorable- an apricot green tea granita served over a zabaione custard and apricots.
A16 Restaurant
2355 Chestnut Street
San Francisco, CA 94123
(415) 771-2216
Filed under: Pizzerie, Restaurants, San Francisco
I have to say that it’s a shame. I am always around and never stopped by.
That’s on my to-do list for this year though:-P
[...] highly ranked (by native Italians) restaurants: Perbacco, in the Financial District, and A16, in the [...]
FINALMENTE TI H OTROVATO!!!
VERRO’ A TROVARVI!!!
e ve diche comm e’ a pizz.