Bucatini alla Carbonara at 54 Mint

Restaurant: 54 Mint (San Francisco)
Food description: Durum grain pasta with pork cheek, egg, and parmesan
Food rating: 9 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

This is my new favorite pasta dish, hands down. Yes, I'm aware of the current love affair we all have with the pasta at Incanto, but the bucatini alla carbonara from Mint 54 has completely blown me away. It's one of the tastiest pasta dishes I've had in ages and screams perfection, a carbonara finally done right: tasty bits of pork cheek lardons-style with a touch of smokiness, that stays delightfully crispy until the last bite. Bucatini cooked perfectly al dente coated with a thick eggy-creamy-parmesany carbonara that binds everything together without being overly creamy while refreshingly salty (though some might disagree)--all in a perfectly sized portion. To make things even sweeter, everything else about my dining experience was almost equally impressive, from perfectly crafted focaccia, octopus carpaccio, homemade limonata, and chocolate cake to impeccable service. Ok, so I was slightly unimpressed with the gnocchi, but then again anything would suck next to the bucatini. I predict 54 Mint will go really far, and far exceeded my experience at their sister restaurant Il Buco in NYC. Nicely done, 54 Mint, see you again! See all photos

Pappardelle with faraona sugo

Restaurant: Incanto (San Francisco)
Food description: Pappardelle with faraona sugo (guinea hen), escarole, and grapes
Food rating: 8.5 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

Pasta too thick, hard to fork
Crispy skin awesome and stayed crunchy but very oily and rich (deep fried)
Hen was shredded, tender, but heavy, darker gamier meat but flavorful
Got boring after a while
grapes very sweet but couldn't overcome oilyness
No sauce, just juices from veggies and meat
endive crunchy and added nice flavor to meat
Overall very unique combo of ingredients, but left my mouth too oily

Chitarra al nero with braised octopus

Restaurant: Incanto (San Francisco)
Food description: Chitarra al nero (squid ink pasta) with braised octopus and cherry tomatoes
Food rating: 8.5 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

This dish was the star of the evening

Sauce was thick and just salty enough, seafoody, thick and hearty but light finish, ink not bitter, tomato added just right amount of acid to balance
Octopus tender and fatty (not oily) and copious, delicious!
Tomatoes a little awkward, pushed those aside

and for a nominal $16 bucks, who'd have thunk it?

Food review: Gnocchi bolognese pasta

Restaurant: Stelline (San Francisco)
Food description: Gnocchi (potato pasta) with bolognese meat sauce, pecorino cheese, and garlic bread
Food rating: 7 out of 10
Times ordered: 2

I'm a real sucker for pasta, so I'm really glad that Stelline is next door to keep that steady flow of pasta comin'. They must have realized this and went and raised all the prices on me, humph!! The ossobuco is now $13! Now I have to go back and edit that blog post (a cruel maneuver indeed). Of course this whole price adjustment is simply going to make me more critical of the food, so it goes both ways. I typically order penne bolognese, but the last couple of weeks, I finally tried the gnocchi. Gnocchi is sometimes annoying to eat because it's so dense, the center stays burning hot forever and it's not like you can blow on it to cool it off. So if you wanna eat this dish, just be prepared to lose a layer of skin from your upper palate. I'd say it's probably worth it because it's one of the better pasta dishes that Stelline offers. The gnocchi is decent, but the secret's in the bolognese sauce. It's nice and meaty and thick, with a little cream thrown in to tame the tang. I love it when the pasta sauce isn't overly tangy or sweet. There's some yummy pecorino cheese in the sauce, which adds that finishing touch of cheesy saltiness. Although the sauce is quite good, it's also quite heavy. You can actually see an orange layer of grease oozing out of the sauce, that is, if you care. I know it sure didn't stop me from sopping up every last bit of sauce with my garlic bread! Other than that, the garlic bread is useless. It's all dried out and has no taste. Oh yeah, I almost forgot: the second time I tried this pasta, they garnished it with some raw chopped tomatoes. What were they thinking? I could care less if my pasta looks cute, I just want it to taste good. No tomatoes next time por favor. Other than that, it's a top menu choice for Stelline.

Food review: Penne guillamo

Restaurant: Squat and Gobble (Fillmore St., San Francisco)
Food description: Penne with grilled chicken, sun dried tomatoes, onions, and artichokes in a pesto cream sauce topped with shaved parmesan and parsley
Food rating: 7 out of 10
Times ordered: 5

This dish is on my "Great Pasta Under $10" list. It's nothing gourmet, but it hits the spot when I'm in the mood for a simple pasta that's tasty but won't break the bank. This recipe normally includes chicken apple sausage and black olives, but the dish is better off without them. Same with the artichokes (as much as I luv 'em), they over tang-ify the dish when combined with the sun dried tomatoes. I know I've completely butchered the chef's original vision, but it's ok, because I doubt the chef had much of a vision anyway (it's a sidewalk cafe). So the best part of this pasta is the pesto cream sauce. I'm sensitive to garlic, and though it's pretty heavy on the garlic, it's done in a way that enhances, not overpowers. The cream helps mellow out the garlic, and it's not so much cream that you can't get out of your chair afterwards. The sun dried tomatoes add the citrus element that cuts the heaviness of the sauce, and the onions are subtle
and tender. As far as the chicken goes, it's usually pretty good, but sometimes can be bland. This time it was great: fresh off the grill, tender, and marinated nicely. By the way, it's a huge portion (enough for dinner), so be prepared if you're ordering this for lunch because you'll be tempted to eat it all (but trust me, you won't). I haven't tried any of their other pastas, but probably would after my positive experience with this dish. It's a straightforward pasta that's a great alternative to people like me who are sick of having burgers, burritos, and pizza.

Food review: Fusilli pasta

Restaurant: Stelline (San Francisco)
Food description: Fusilli with sun dried tomatoes, arugula, pine nuts, garlic, red pepper flakes, and ricotta cheese
Food rating: 6.5 out of 10
Times ordered: 2

I'll sum up this pasta in 3 words: simple, savory, and SPICY! And thankfully, it's not ridiculously spicy like the farfalle, but a good spicy where I can actually taste the other ingredients. This dish is so simple I could probably make it at home. though I'd still rather be lazy and have them make it for me. There's very little sauce, just a little olive oil and garlic, so the sun dried tomatoes and pine nuts make up the bulk of the flavor. Since I love pine nuts and sun dried tomatoes, this dish worked for me, though it was a little too simple for me. Something seemed missing (aside from the obvious meat), more ricotta? Another vegetable? More sauce? Just as there was nothing glaringly bad about this pasta, there was nothing memorable about it either, thus the 6.5 score. Without meat, it probably won't be enough food for a dinner entree. Though I enjoyed it and wouldn't mind ordering it again, the best things at Stelline are still the ossobuco, lasagna (special), and any pasta with bolognese sauce.

Food review: Manicotti pasta

Restaurant: Mondo Caffe (San Francisco)
Food description: Pasta tubes filled with ricotta cheese topped with mozarella and marinara sauce
Food rating: 6.5 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

I always order the same old panini sandwiches at Mondo Caffe (the bresaola is my fave), but today I was feeling experimental and noticed a little sign with "Manicotti" scribbled on it. Since it's an Italian cafe I figured they might be able to hold their own in terms of pasta. Well overall, the manicotti was just about as good as you can get for a busy lunch spot: nothing amazing, but it beats a sandwich any day. If you look at the photo, you notice that none of the pasta was left exposed for the oven to dry out--something I always watch out for in pasta. Who wants to break their teeth on burnt chewy pasta, you know? Anyway, the pasta ended up being a little overcooked and soft, but still tasted ok, especially with all that cheesy ricotta goodness. It was hearty and rich and just the right portion size. My only gripe was the canned tomato flavor in the sauce. Using canned tomatoes is fine as long as you add enough other stuff to make it work, which was not the case for this dish. This is the second time this week I've complained about this...sigh. If you factor out the tomatoes, there was nothing glaringly wrong with the manicotti, and I definitely enjoyed it more than the ole sandwich-4-lunch routine, so I can see myself ordering this again.

Food review: Farfalle pasta

Restaurant: Caffe Museo (San Francisco)
Food description: Bowtie pasta with smoked chicken, tomatoes, caramelized red onions, and red pepper flakes topped with grated parmesan and toasted bread crumbs
Food rating: 6.5 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

The only thing I remember about this pasta is that my mouth was on fire for a good 10 minutes after eating it. When the menu description casually mentioned red pepper flakes, what it meant to say was that someone was going to put an entire red chile pepper into your pasta. Ok, so maybe I exaggerate a bit, but it was on the heat level more akin to Mexican or Thai spicy, which in pasta terms translates to spicy-as-hell. What's weird is that at first it wasn't all that hot, but it was like a slow burn that crept up on you and then hit you good after a few minutes. Then your nose starts running and eyes start tearing and you're constantly dabbing it with a napkin while trying to have a conversation. This makes it not only uncomfortable to eat, but unpleasant for whomever happens to be watching you attempt to eat it. But I've digressed...Spiciness and all aside, I actually enjoyed the dish for what it was. There were a few areas that needed improvement, particularly the canned tomato factor. I know, what do you expect from a museum cafe, but they were noticeably canned. Aluminum cans = Alzheimer's disease, last time I checked. Anyway, as far as the smoked chicken goes, it was a little over-cured if you know what I mean. You know, when the texture starts to resemble ham and is overly salty (even for me). I also don't really care for caramelized red onions so much, but I guess it added some flavor. I did eat all of the pasta, which is typically a good sign, but it was painful with all the spiciness in the end. I might order it again some day if I'm feeling masochistic.

Food review: Goat cheese ravioli

Restaurant: Gordon Biersch (San Francisco)
Food description: Ravioli stuffed with goat cheese and ricotta, topped with sauteed mushrooms, pine nuts, spinach, shaved parmesan, and rosemary, in a brown butter sauce
Food rating: 7 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

This is a rare moment for me that I can actually review a vegetarian dish that I liked enough to order again. Of course whenever there's cheese involved, I'm willing to make some compromises on the meat factor, but only if it sounds really enticing. Plus, I'd already had the wings and wasn't all that hungry, so it was the perfect opportunity to try something a little lighter. When the pasta arrived it had very little sauce and looked a little on the dry side. Surely enough, when I tasted it, the ravioli without any mushrooms or spinach on top were too dried out. However, the ones that were not dry were delicious. The sauteed mushrooms were buttery and had a rich steak-like flavor. The spinach wasn't overcooked and was sauteed in just the right amount of garlic to bring out the spinach flavor, not overpower it. The pine nuts added some texture and complemented the spinach and goat cheese nicely. I didn't really taste the rosemary at all, which was fine, it didn't really need it anyway. I liked how they didn't want to drown the ravioli in the butter sauce, but it could have used just a tad more to prevent them from drying up. So aside from some minor details, I thought they did a pretty good job, particularly for a vegetarian dish.

Food review: Firenze pasta

Restaurant: Crepevine (Church St, San Francisco)
Food description: Penne with grilled chicken, eggplant, bell peppers, zucchini, red onions
Food rating: 6 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

It might sound a little weird to order pasta at a creperie, but I've actually had a few of their pasta dishes (couldn't resist). Their pastas are ok if you're looking for something quick, cheap, and basic. It's more of a lunch/takeout style thing. This was my first time trying the firenze pasta, and the overall experience was pleasant. I'd consider ordering it again for lunch or dinner on-the-go. In terms of flavor, it's definitely better than the Roma or Palermo pastas. The downsides? The sauce wasn't really a sauce at all, just some leftover juice from the vegetables. It was too watery and splashed around when I stirred it. The penne and eggplant were overcooked and the zucchini was undercooked, creating a feeling of both crunchiness and sogginess in your mouth at once. But, if you're not a stickler for texture, the flavor's not half bad, especially after adding some grilled chicken to the mix. And unless you really really love garlic, I'd avoid the garlic bread.