North Beach Deja Vu

mini booths w/ paintings

Back when I was trolling Yelp for a good North Beach place to check out for my bday party, one particular restaurant, Tommaso Ristorante Italiano, kept popping up. I really wanted to go then, but they don't take reservations, and all the reviews said it got really crowded on weekends. I decided to queue it up on my lists, and finally hit it up for my last date night.

It's always fun going over to North Beach because it gives me the whole I'm so cool I freaking live in San Francisco and work at a video game company and life is awesome <:D feeling. Totally irrational, but it happens. This time I was geeking out especially badly because after 15 mins of looking for parking, I finally got a spot (90 degree angle space!!) that had an incredible view of TransAmerica building on one side, and Coit Tower on the other. Such good times

When we got to Tommaso's, I had this crazy flashback deja vu of being there with my dad back on one of my many college trips to Cali. As soon as we opened the door it was totally confirmed as I recognized the mini booths with faux Mediterranean frescoes on the walls. We had to wait a few mins to be seated, and then we got stuck in the middle of the giant communal table.

It was late-ish when we got there (prolly 8:45) and so people were starting to clear out. It was pretty ridiculous because the way the traffic flow went, everyone left the center table except the parties directly on either side of us :P. Truthfully, worse for them because both Carlos and I were still in our many bouts of loud coughing fit sickness. It was kind of annoying though, because it made everything REALLY hard to hear. I have trouble enough trying to understand his accent anyways, so adding on excessive ambient noise did not help at all. It was a whole lot of "QUE?!"ing all night.

lasagna

The food itself was decently tasty. I ended up getting a cheese pizza with garlic, and Carlos got some lasagna. I really liked my pizza and the small was more than enough food for two meals for me (even with someone stealing a couple pieces :P). The lasagna was ok, but not as memorable. There were a bunch of varieties of pizzas, so it would be fun to go back with a group and order several to split. 

Overall the meal was good, but the loudness of the room and crowdedness of our seating kind of put a damper on it. If I went again, I'd try to guarantee getting a mini-booth for privacy. I haven't been very many places in North Beach, but I have a feeling I'd disagree with the many reviews calling Tommaso's the best. It's good, but not omfh amazing.

Finding the Ideal Restaurant

super happy bday sharon <:D

Nothing is more stressful than planning a group dinner in a neighborhood you aren't familiar with. For my bday, the plan was to hit up a North Beach club. Should be easy to find a place to eat, right?? NO! Despite the thousands of Italian places in the 6 block radius, picking the food took me forever. I really wanted to find the perfect place that: was swanky, took reservations, had unique food choices, and had a menu where people could get away with not spending too much money. Thus I ended up with Ristorante Ideale.

Pumpkin Pasta!

The place is small, but has a nice ambiance. Very dark lighting, but it looked like there were cute blue tiles on the walls. There was a bit more Italian on the menu than I like, but it was still readable. For starters they brought out some very yummy bread and oil. It was warm and soft :) 

Tortellini

I had already decided what to order in advance as their specialty was "pumpkin ravioli"... and I'm incapable of not getting pumpkin dishes. Other dishes included some type of tortellni filled with cheese and veal, pasta w/ egg, and gnocchi. I'm bad at describing pasta, but my dish was pretty awesome :). The pumpkin flavor was subtle and not overdone with excessive spicing. The noodles were soft and creamy... mmm. Everyone (besides Ken :p) really enjoyed theirs as well. James said something like "one of the best noodle dishes of his life," crazy!!

Sadly, all of the desserts looked kinda nasty to me. I don't like chocolate or coffee or lemon, and that was it. Everyone tried to get some specialty cake that was gone, so instead the restaurant comped us some free desserts and gave us a sampler platter of the rest :).





There was tiramisu, chocolate ice cream cream ball things, and some profiteroles. Not my stuff, but everyone else enjoyed.

I really liked the waiter. He was a friendly Italian dude who seemed to genuinely care that we enjoyed our meal. I also liked that he gave us the free desserts. Good meal!! I'd check this place out again :)