A16

San Francisco, CA

I first heard about A16 a year ago when Nate Appleman gained his claim to fame, won the James Beard best chef award, competed on the next Iron Chef and then promptly fled to New York. Nevertheless, A16 remains a popular Marina dining destination with food centric to the Campania region of Italy. Liza Shaw is at the helm and on a Tuesday night in the city accompanied by my friend LoKo, the place was filled. By the time we left at 9, it was even more busy with a crowd of about 15 awaiting a table. The entry bar dining area is very dimly lit and intimate, but terrible for picture taking. Thankfully we were seated back of the surprisingly long restaurant with good view of the open aired kitchen and pizza stove. 


The menu is fairly small, offering just a handful of appetizer, pizza and pasta/entrées options. We started with two appetizers, the Roasted calamari panzanella with cherry tomatoes, Sicilian cucunci, fennel and herbs and a special of the night, local Campania peppers that were roasted and tossed in red pepper, olive oil and lemon. We were told this pepper plant was smuggled into the US and planted in the chef's backyard.

Roasted Calamari Panzanella 

The Panzanella or "bread and leftover" salad was the dish of the night, with thinly sliced fennel acting as the lettuce to a classic salad, tender roasted calamari and a mixture of cherry tomatoes olive oil and herbs. The large bread pieces were excellent, not too hard or overcooked like traditional croûtons, but just crunchy enough on the outside and soft on the inside. It was a unique and refreshing start to the meal.

Roasted Campania peppers

The surprisingly overabundance of peppers was simply presented, roasted tossed with red pepper flakes and olive oil. The peppers themselves did not have any distinct flavor from a normal mild pepper with a slight bitter finish. Not one of my favs though. 

Our next course was a shared Salsiccia pizza with fennel sausage, gypsy peppers, mozzarella, grana, garlic, onions, chiles and olive oil.

Salsiccia pizza

Admittedly I'm a tough critic of pizza, mainly because it's one of my favorite foods, but this one was really disappointing. Maybe I'm just not a fan of Neapolitan pizza? It was soggy in the middle, the fennel sausage was pedestrian and the toppings unmemorable with too much onion. The crust was pretty good, but otherwise, it's not going to crack the top 50. 

We ended with two pasta dishes, the Maccaronara with ragu napoletana and house-made ricotta salata and the ricotta gnocchi with braised Watson Farms lamb and friarielli peppers. We were hoping the freshly made pasta would save the meal.

Ricotta Gnocchi

It did not. That's not a zoomed in picture above, it was just gigantic gnocchi. The gnocchi was actually well made, just over sized with an lackluster sauce. The lamb left like it could have been any braised meat pulled from a home pressure cooker. 

Maccaronara with ragu napoletana

The great picture of the Maccaronara was the best part about it. LoKo didn't mind thick chewy noodles, but to me they were worst than the ones at Noodle Loft. Gummy, chewy and not appealing at all. Many have claimed this was their best dish at A16, but I couldn't disagree more. The ragu itself was typical and I suppose fine, but could not overcome the pasta.

The group I sat by at Dopo last Saturday was right, it was definitely better than the food at A16. I just had to see for myself and unfortunately it was indeed a mediocre disappointment.

Rating 4.5/10

August 17, 2010