I’ve been dealing with the flu and pneumonia for the last couple weeks so we’ve been laying low, but I was finally up for going out again. We decided to go very low key and just eat at the newest restaurant in our neighborhood, Fiorella, the 4th location of this restaurant in SF and occupying the former Patxi’s space. We’ve ordered pizza to go a few times since they’ve opened, but this was our first to try dining in.
The renovated space is feels more open and better lit than Patxi’s was. Restaurant was pretty full and seemed pretty lively with what looked like pretty much a mix of locals. We were seated straight away and given water, but then it seemed like we were ignored for the next 15 minutes until Andrea asked someone who our waiter was so we could place our order.
We ordered a couple cocktails (nice to have these on a menu in Noe). Andrea ordered the Strawberry Sbagliato and I had the NA (still on medication) Like a Virgin. They don’t have a liquor license yet so drinks are made with prosecco, wine, etc. and were forgettable.
Once we had placed orders, the food came out very promptly. For starters, Andrea went with the baby lettuce salad and I went with the charred pepper and eggplant crostino. Both were flavorful. For my crostino, the sauce was a bit sweeter than I generally prefer, but the bites where I had anchovy did a nice job offsetting it. There was also just a touch of heat to it which was nice.
I think they wanted to make up for the delay in service, so they had also given us the Arancina Al Parmigiano on the house. That was a nice way to make up for the bit of delay. This was another starter I was interested in trying also. It was ok. The rice ball was perfectly fried and not greasy and mozarella was nice and melty, although I didn’t find it particularly flavorful other than the pomodoro sauce.
For our mains, we went with pastas since we’ve had their pizza (to go). Andrea went with the Ricotta Cavatelli with Sausage and Peppers and I went with Octopus Sugo and Squid Ink Mafaldine (pretty adventurous menu item for our neighborhood, lol). Both were flavorful although both a bit oversalted (and we like salty). Both had interesting pastas (cavatelli and mafaldine) with flavorful sauce. Andrea’s was dominated primarily by the sausage and peppers of course. Mine also had a nice bit of heat to it thanks to the calabrian chili butter. I can’t say mine had a strong sense of seafood to it though even though it was octopus and squid ink, but it was flavorful either way.
We were too full to finish both the pastas as it was so we skipped on dessert. All in all, it’s a perfect family-friendly addition to the neighborhood with dishes that are a bit more interesting than more basic Italian dishes.
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