SFReview
photo credit: Emily Greene
Trattoria Contadina
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San Francisco loves a high-end Italian restaurant. A lot of the best places in the city serve upscale versions of pasta with ingredients like lovage or huitlacoche, and while many of them are delicious, sometimes you want to go to an Italian place where you can get a big bowl of pasta that requires no explanation. Trattoria Contadina is a restaurant in Russian Hill that’s great when you just want some solid classic Italian American food.
photo credit: Emily Greene
Trattoria Contadina is only a five-minute walk from Little Italy, and could not feel more different. There are a few red and green lamp shades, and the walls are covered in sports memorabilia and headshots of the celebrities who ate there in the ’80s and ’90s. When it comes to the menu, you’ll find heavy pasta dishes like saltimbocca, all well-executed. And no matter what you order, the portions here are gigantic. You’ll definitely share whatever you get with another person or two. Not because you want to, but because you absolutely need to.
And sharing with people won’t be an issue because Trattoria Contadina is the kind of restaurant you come to with three of your closest friends or relatives. The place is always packed with people seemingly celebrating one thing or another. You don’t come here to analyze the seasonality of ingredients in the food. You come to Trattoria Contadina when you want a big, simple bowl of pasta.
Food Rundown
Complimentary Bread
photo credit: Emily Greene
Cesare Salad
Burrata & 24 Month Black Label Prosciutto
photo credit: Emily Greene
Il Diavolo
photo credit: Emily Greene
Pavarotti
photo credit: Emily Greene
Gnocchi
photo credit: Emily Greene