A16

01/19/08

doesn't warrant the bold claims

by monkies at Citysearch

I've been here a few times now, mainly because my friend lives in the marina. everyone knows it's rated as a great place, so maybe that influences the decision...but i don't get it. it's average. nothing special at all. sure there are some unique items on the menu here and there, but not enough that they are so good i'm blown away or the standards so good it deserves the admiration it gets. it's a trendy hot spot, that's it. food is average, service is average, ambience is average (it's just a crowded little place).

01/19/08

Good place to go with the girls

by jkjenny at Citysearch

My girlfriends and I go here every month. It is a very nice place with good food and good service. Often times need reservations way in advance, but worth it. The menu is great and the wine list is even better.

• Pros: Good food, great ambience
• Cons: Difficult getting a seat!

01/17/08

Fine food in a narrow space

by DinerDan at Citysearch

Had lunch today in this jumping, narrow dining spot. We lucked into nearby neighborhood parking and had a nice short walk in this vibrant area. The open kitchen and woodfired ovens made for a great show. We had the Dine-around SF meal, 3 courses. The beet, radiccio salad was great, with big peels of tangy Romano(?) on top. We both had the salsiccio( fennal sausage) pizza. It was pretty big, with a thin,crunchy/chewy(!) crust. Topped with the house made sausage, that had a bit of picante to it, some broccoli and a green winter leafy vegtable that was also a bit tangy. The pizza teased all your taste buds as it went through the mouth. The gelato desert was small, thankfully. Both the chocolate and pistachio were smooth and yummy.

• Pros: Good service, friendly staff, terrific wine by glass selection
• Cons: Parking, noise level

10/16/07

Average, if anything!!!

by rluerra1 at Citysearch

Had dinner on Friday 10/12 and the place was buzzing, I've heard so many great things about A16 and how if you get a chance to get in to the restaurant do it... Well with that said; I was less than impressed with the food, I ordered the Tri-Tip and it was so over cooked that I felt like I was eating beef jerky. My wife ordered the pasta and she like the family next to us refered to it as "PASTIE", and the sauce that lacked flavor. They mentioned on the menu that the sausage is housemade with fennel, they need to add that it also lacks in flavor too. We won't be back to give this place a another try as we were very disappointed with the food. The service was great, promptly seated and great staff, to bad the food isn't as good as everything else in the restaurant. Sorely disappointed...

• Pros: Staff, Service, Prompt Seating.
• Cons: Food, Lacks Flavor, Pastie Pasta.

10/07/07

Throwing away money for food that's over priced

by foodielover at Citysearch

Sorely disappointed with the inconsistencies at this place. Look at prior reviews ranging from praises to warnings to stay away. It's favored by Yuppies who want to be seen throwing away money for food that's overpriced and not all good. Our server, Hannah, was very nice compared to prior reviews on service, but the bus boy was rushed, thus making it an uncomfortable experience. The sm salumi was very good with a variety of thin slices of meats and one serving of pate on a sm toasted bread slice. The salsiccia pizza came soggy on a thin flour crusted pizza, the sausage (a few pieces) were good but the pie was a disppointment ($15). The roast lamb was tasty as was the chicken meatballs. Both came with a choice of sides - the best was the olive oil roasted sweet corn, everyone raved about it. The romaine salad was passe'. At $20 for the meatballs(with side), you got 5 golf-ball sized meatballs and if you deducted approx $5 for the salad, each meatball would be $3-4 a piece! There was no pasta , just a mound of stewed tomatoes in the middle. The beef tri-tip was the most generous and very good. The large maccheronara ($28) was the smallest portion for the price. This pasta was quite good, like chewy udon but that's all it was, pasta with sauce and not much of it. Our bottle of Casavecchia was really good but expensive at $47/bottle. Dessert didn't fare better. The banana gelato special was very flavorful, but again, the portion ($3) was just larger than a golf ball. The apple crostata was a crunchy flat cookie-like tart, couldn't taste much apple, it came topped with a sm scooop of gelato. The blue cheese plate was most generous, served with slices of bread, plate of honey and sliver of almond cookie. The coffee came in a stainless steel European coffee press which impressed us more than the food! We don't understand how it made it in the SF Chronicle's top 100 restaurants. It's a very noisy restaurant to boot.

• Pros: Salumi, banana gelato, roasted corn side dish, Italian wine selections
• Cons: Parking, Yuppies, overrate/expensive, small portions, noisy

09/26/07

Great food, dismissive service

by sf7730 at Citysearch

Found the starters, pizza, salumi and pasta to be excellent at A16. Entrees were good, although not up to the same level. Unfortunately, the service was way below expectations. Waitress seemed angry with us from the start of the meal, barely tolerating our questions about the menu. She nearly rolled her eyes as she agreed to put a surprise candle in my friend's dessert -- and then didn't even do it! Finally, the main room was broiling hot for most of the time we were there, presumably from the nearby brick oven.

• Pros: Pizza, salumi, starters
• Cons: Service, entrees, hot dining room

06/30/07

pizza, burrata,cannoli & handmade pasta

by zabss at Citysearch

finally able to try this place. Good burrata (I liked the one at Bacco better) and above the average pizza. I don't think this is 100 % authentic Italian cuisine in fact none of the cooks is Italian but they have studied in my country and brought back to San Fran the art of making a good wood oven pizza. I love the desserts, specially the cannoli. I would go back to A16 is even if this is onr of the top of my Italian restaurant. Try the new one FARINA on Mission, all Ligurian specialty and handmade pasta con pesto e focaccia to die for.

• Pros: pasta,pizza, burrata and cannoli
• Cons: parking, reservation (they can be too strict)

05/10/07

A Nightmare! Over rated! A Customer Service Travesty! Worst staff ever! Go to New York and eat at Franny's instead!

by clementine10 at Citysearch

This was our worst dining experience ever! We had a reservation and we still had to wait an hour for a table on a Sunday night without any apology from the staff. The bar was a meat market. People without reservations were seated before us. People who were seated after us were waited on first. The wait staff were zombie-like, and were rude and inattentive. It was so loud we couldn't carry on a conversation. We had to yell out our orders. It was unbearably hot. We waited and waited for our food and we almost walked out! People who ordered after us got their food first. Again, no apologies. How did this restaurant merit a feature article in Food & Wine? They must know someone on staff. I won't trust Food & Wine again. By the time the food finally arrived, we were miserable. We couldn't enjoy anything in that atmosphere. We cancelled our plans to order a bottle of wine just to get out of there quickly. All I remember is really wanting to leave and that the pizza was good, but not as good as Franny's in Brooklyn. At FRANNY'S, the pizza is always excellent and the staff is gracious, knowledgable, professional, and attentive. My advice to the chefs at A16 - LEAVE, open your own place and instead hiring of robotic zombies, programmed to fawn over botoxed Paris Hilton look alikes, hire a new a staff of warm human beings, who are truly knowledgeable and care about the food and the wine that they're serving. Hire a staff that knows how to make all of your customers happy, not just a select few. Look at all the negative reviews on this site, People hate A16! The Lindgrens, the owners who were featured in Food & Wine in April have clearly made more people miserable than happy. They should be ashamed.

• Pros: None
• Cons: A nightmare dining experience.

04/22/07

Worst service. They made us wait over 45 to be seated for a reservation. Rude hostess.

by acampo77 at Citysearch

Rude hostesses. We had our reservation for over 2 months and they completely jerked us around for over 45 minutes.

• Pros: Good location
• Cons: Makes you wait forever to be seated with a reservation.

04/21/07

Why do people love this place???

by blkestin at Citysearch

When we moved to Cow Hollow, everyone told us we had to go to A16. I mean, the number of people who mentioned or recommended this place was overwhelming. We figured it must be a really special place, so we tried it out. We had to make our reservations more than 2 weeks in advance, they seated us in the stairwell at the back of the restaurant, and the food was nothing to write home about. Why in the world do people love this place so much? I struggle to think of a place that is more over-rated and more disappointing. For much better food, atmosphere, and value and for less attitude I recommend you go to Luisa's on Union Street instead.

• Pros: Sorry...can't think of a single one
• Cons: Everything else