Mescolanza

03/29/09

Great Italian Food in the Richmond district!

by Vivienne

Mescolanza is a small, intimate, little, neighborhood, mom-and-pop restaurant that serves Italian food located on Clement Street between 23rd and 24th Avenues. It's discreetly tucked under a small pink awning. It's my favorite restaurant in my neighborhood and I've been going there for 20 years!

Please note, parking on the Clement Street corridor is difficult (almost as bad as North Beach) but there is a parking lot directly across the street from the restaurant (as Martha Stewart would say, "It's a good thing!").

This restaurant is small and seats only 49 patrons at one time so be sure to make reservations.

My favorite appetizers are the Carpaccio and Bruschetta. The plate of Carpaccio is presented with extremely thinly sliced beef draped on the plate. There are small mounds of capers, chopped red onions, shaved Parmesan cheese, and mustard paste. Mix all the ingredients and enjoy!

The Bruschetta is toasted french bread topped with a delicious sprinkling of chopped Roma tomatoes mixed with fresh basil, garlic, olive oil, and sea salt. In this day and age of almost tasteless tomatoes (inbreeding is never a good thing), the tomatoes in this dish are ripe, packed full of flavor, and fill your mouth with a burst of flavor.

The Pear Pizza (Yeah, I know, it sounds kind of strange but darling, it's divine intervention on a plate.) You have got to try this!

The Osso Bucco was excellent. The meat was very tender and flavorful in its rich burgundy-like sauce. I loved the vegetables and that's saying something for a meat eater like me. The vegetables were carrots, zucchini, and yellow squash done just right in that perfect combination of buttery, tender and crunchy at the same time.

We had a veal chop off the "Specials Menu" that was sautéd in its own juices with a blend of slow-cooked root vegetables surrounding it. It came with silky, creamy mashed potatoes that had a hint of garlic flavor and a serving of the vegetable combination I spoke of earlier. Once again, excellent!

We had the crème caramel, the tiramisu and the chocolate flan with amaretto and crushed amaretti cookies. The tiramisu and crème caramel were as expected, delicious. That chocolate flan was EXCEPTIONAL! Sinfully, silky smooth texture on a bed of crushed cookies with the hint of amaretto flavors. While we ate all the desserts, the chocolate flan won hands down.

• Pros: Best Carpaccio and Gnocci in town
• Cons: Seats only 49 people

11/26/08

A favorite

by daytona900

Parking is difficult at times, but this restaurant is worth the effort. Family run and good comfort Italian food. I never miss an opportunity to dine at Mescolanza whenever I am in the area. Service is efficient and friendly, all the pasta dishes are superb. My favorite is to share a home made ravoli special as a first course.

12/24/07

Good Italian food, but bad service.

by writerevie

I have been to this restaurant several times, and the food has consistently been very good. The service, however, leaves much to be desired. I understand that the server is unable to check on all tables all the time when it's busy, but to be snappish when asking customers if they're ready to order is not acceptable. Ignoring customers when they walk in the door is NOT acceptable, regardless of how busy it is. I've walked in here twice on two different nights and was completely ignored by 3 different people, although I made eye contact with each one of them. The last straw came about two months ago when I went to the restaurant with a friend on a Thursday night. The place was crowded, and there were two parties ahead of us. I went inside and left my name with the hostess, was told the wait would be about 20 minutes, which I was fine with, so I went back outside and prepared to wait. We waited for 30 minutes, checked with the hostess, who apologized and said that she was waiting for a particular table to pay their bill. Makes sense, so we go back outside and wait again. 15 minutes later, she comes outside and tells a couple who arrived AFTER US and put their names down AFTER us that their table is ready. At this point, we'd waited 45 minutes, and incensed, I walked in and asked why they were being seated first. "They were here first," was the answer. The other couple was aware that they came in after me and kindly offered the table to us, but I thanked them, declined, turned and walked out.

The food is very good here, and I live in the neighborhood, but the repeated instances of bad service has discouraged me from ever patronizing this restaurant again.

• Pros: Good food, great ambience
• Cons: Service