Farina, San Francisco

I’ve always liked Farina, though Hegui never has. We went there last week with a group and dined in the private room. True to our natures: I still liked it and he didn’t.

If you’ve never been before, Farina’s located in 18th Street between Valencia and Guerrero in the Mission District of San Francisco. They’ve al fresco seating out front for clear warm days. The main dining area is on the ground level with the private room on the second floor. The restaurant is really beautiful. There’s a long white marble bar sweeping from the entrance around half the place. In the center between tables is a divider from floor to ceiling filled with sparkling stemware. The restaurant has a modern and spare feel that’s appealing and actually inviting. I like the understated red neon sign out front, all in caps, high up on the side of the building, proclaiming “FARINA.” The color and style is picked up by the mod red chandeliers over the tables inside. Opposite the entrance is a large display of various exciting cheeses and made-on-site breads.

“Farina” means “flour” in Italian. This place really runs with that theme. Aside from the breads, they make the obligatory pasta including a delightful house-made gnocchi and something they call a pansotti, which is a large sheet of pasta, cooked then folded up artfully, served with a walnut pesto. They’ve also an interesting assortment of focacce: some with cheese, some with tomato sauce and a few with ham and prosciutto. It’s easy to get carried away with the starch. I’ve made that mistake several times before! So be careful if you don’t want to fill up by the time the main courses arrive.

As we sat upstairs, we had the opportunity to stroll along the roof-top deck sipping our cocktails and dolcetto. The view across the street is one of those fabulous Mission buildings covered in incredible murals. On another occasion, I attended a friend’s birthday party of about twenty people here. The roof was the perfect venue for the event. You almost felt like you were in Manhattan on a crisp spring evening.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t access Farina’s web site for this story. Some kind of technical difficulty, apparently. The page wasn’t available. Therefore, I cannot comment on the marvelous cocktail that I had or be more specific about the wine. As I recall, they mostly offer Italian wines. One time we were there, we sat in the main dining room and got into a conversation with the couple next to us about valpolicellas. Turns out that the wine savvy gentleman worked for an Italian wine importing company! That was an education.

Since we were in a group, our lovely host ordered several antipasti for the table: seared scallops, braised baby octopus, some of the focacce along with sides of sautéed asparagus and salad. The breads were the biggest hit. Even Hegui, who overall objects to this place, enjoyed the cheese filled focaccia di recco. The salad and asparagus were good though fairly unoriginal. I didn’t care for the octopus. To me the sauce was peculiar, tasting almost like something from a Chinese restaurant rather than an Italian one.

The paper menus put H off a bit. They physically smelled funny, like new ink or something. I liked the way they were printed in red with large letter “F’s” on front. They looked like scary report cards from junior high (I’m never going to get over that seventh grade music class!) Nevertheless, he used the stinky thing to order the pansotti as his main course. I tried the swordfish. Both were good. Unexpectedly Hegui really enjoyed my fish though I found it a bit tough. I tried a friend’s gnocchi stuffed with gorgonzola, mascarpone, crushed walnuts and marjoram and was sold. Next time I go, I will definitely get that.

We had dessert. I hade a glass of a delightful mildly sweet vin santo from Tuscany that matched well with the selection that we tried. I especially enjoyed the panacotta with fresh berries.

The staff is friendly, attentive and, like the facility itself, easy on the eyes. I don’t go to Farina often. Just a block away from Delfina, generally Hegui wants to go there instead. To me, both restaurants have their pros and cons. And they’re both worth exploring.