[Working on my restaurant review skills, bon appetit!]
North Beach is overrun with Italian restaurants hoping to lure bamboozled tourists with cardboardy margarita pizzas, limp, greasy pasta, and a disappointing photo opp. In a world of cheap knock-off Italian restaurants, Piazza Pellegrini is a breath of fresh, sauteed-garlic air. Piazza Pellegrini is a restaurant that you can come to with your family, your first date, your grouchy mother-in-law, your picky coworkers, your foodie friends, and (depending on outdoor table availability) your dog. But don’t bring your dieting sister. The riotous staff are as quick to recommend the perfect wine pairing as they are to tease you for taking too long to decide what pasta you want (dammit, Vincenzo, there’s too many choices and they all look so good!). While a few overdone menu items are a little lackluster, the friendly, playful atmosphere enhances the rich flavors of the all-star Italian dishes you will come back for again and again.
- Caprese Salad
Let’s be real here. We do not go to Italian restaurants for salad. While the ingredients in this caprese are fresh and flavorful, we were left with a distinct feeling of culinary “meh.” Bring on the main courses please, Vincenzo!
- Roasted Half Chicken
We will admit–it was difficult not to devour this chicken with both hands like a lost hiker emerging from the mountains after only subsisting on squirrel meat and foliage for three months. The chicken’s skin was golden and perfectly crisped, the meat moist with hints of garlic and herbs. This is what roast chicken is supposed to taste like. The vegetables were well prepared but the flavor that came from the chicken juices were the only reason we gave the veggies the time of day.
- Spaghetti alla Carbonara
We are carbonara snobs. If the word “cream” is in a restaurant’s menu description for the dish, we are known to hiss and recoil like demons flecked with holy pasta water (we’re looking at you, Olive Garden). But Piazza Pellegrini’s carbonara is simply gorgeous. A silky (creamless) cheese and egg sauce, al dente noodles, and perfect salty morsels of pancetta in every bite. A perfect meal for breakfast for dinner-fans. Because if you love breakfast for dinner, why not go for the delicious eggy, bacony, breakfasty pasta?
- Homemade Pappardelle Pellegrini
Bold, seductive, powerful, and utterly comforting. This is the Terry Crews of pastas. The rich slow-cooked short ribs mingle beautifully with the tomato-based sauce. The pappardelle pasta adds a luxuriousness to the dish that would make Henry VIII groan with satisfaction (and maybe have him reconsider all those wife-beheadings). A must-eat after a long day of running around doing errands and forgetting to eat lunch.
- Tiramisu
This tiramisu checks all the essential tiramisu boxes. Creamy? Check. A fluffy sponge cake that’s soaked in espresso without being too soggy? Check. A pleasant dusting of cocoa powder? Duh. But nothing truly stands out about this tiramisu. And really, haven’t we all eaten enough tiramisu?
- Torta Caprese
A powerful finish to an evening of rich flavors. This flourless cake punches you in the mouth mercilessly with its potent cocoa-y goodness. But it’s the good kind of punching! The raspberry sauce adds the tart, fruity bite that balances the density of the cake seamlessly. If you have ordered the pappardelle and plan to get the torta caprese, be prepared to order an Uber XL to take you home.
Our overall recommendation for Piazza Pellegrini? Go grab a table by the window with a view of the nearby church square, get whatever bottle of wine Vincenzo tells you to order, and spend a few hours savoring some wonderful Italian food.
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