In March, Restaurant Critic Soleil Ho ditched the traditional restaurant review and composed a pasta horoscope in honor of the menu at Belotti, an Oakland favorite run by Italian Chef Michele and Joyce Belotti.
Now she’s back to ranking restaurants. Last week, the San Francisco Chronicle published her list of the top 10 Italian restaurants in the Bay Area. (Belotti came in second place!)
Soleil honored a spectrum of Italian cooking and took into account the new dining circumstances by highlighting outdoor seating, prix-fixe menus, and takeaway options. She applauded the Michelin-starred gemelli pasta with duck ragù at Acquerello and Venezuelan-Italian lasagna at Francisca’s restaurant, among others.
By narrowing down to just 10 restaurants in one of the country’s best restaurant cities, Soleil determined what these top Italian restaurants share in common.
“Non-Italian Bay Area chefs and purveyors are just as enamored with Italian ingredients, a fact that has given us numerous new wave pizzerias, charcuterie brands and homegrown wines with Italian grape varieties,” she wrote. “As you can tell, the influence runs deep.”
Cover Photo by Meriç Dağlı on Unsplash