It is one of the hottest restaurants in San Francisco and for good reason. A16 brings authentic Italian fare to the Marina with a great setting for dinner with friends or a nice date. Chef Nate Appleman is one of the top young chefs in the country, recently awarded the distinguished James Beard Award for Rising Star Chef. First off, the Marina District in San Francisco is horrible for trying to find a parking space. Just be prepared if you have reservations. The restaurant has a very hip feel to it and was packed the night we went. We started off with appetizers: the roasted calamari was seasoned with agretti, meyer lemon, chiles, green garlic, basil and toasted pine nuts. Really good flavor. We also got the salumi plate, which featured a prosciutto tasting of Americano and Berkshire.
It was like the plate came straight from the meat market, it tasted that fresh! By the way, our waitress asked us how we wanted our dishes served since we ordered two appetizers, one pasta dish and an entree. It was a nice touch, rather than bringing items out randomly. After finishing the appetizers, we were served our pasta dish, squid ink tornarelli with house-cured baccala, cherry tomatoes, green olives, chiles and garlic. If you've never has squid ink pasta before, it's something you should try. The color may be weird at first, but it is really tasty. The noodles were cooked perfectly and all the other ingredients matched well in the dish.
Our main course was the lamb sausage with carrots, fennel, radishes and herbs. It came with a side and I chose the erbette chard with garlic, anchovy and lemon. I didn't really know what to expect when I ordered the dish, but thought it was great that both the lamb and sausage came out separately. It turned out to be a great choice! I have never had lamb that was that tender and juicy with such wonderful flavor to it. And the sausage was also really wonderful. Everything on the dish fit perfectly together. Even though we were stuffed, we figured we had to complete the dining experience and each had a desert, the sbrisolona and the honey semifreddo. Both topped off a wonderful meal! Thumbs up to the chefs for such a splendid array of dishes. I would definitely come back and try a pizza or some other pasta. I thought the service was shabby at best, as everything seemed to be working in slow motion. But that was my only complaint on a truly wonderful night!
