Barbacco, San Francisco

Reviewer: Foodnut.com Barbacco 220 California St (between Front St & Battery St) San Francisco, CA 94111 (415) 955-1919 Barbacco Website Book Reservation

Barbacco Eno Trattoria is an Italian restaurant in San Francisco’s financial district that opened in early 2010. It is a lower-cost sister restaurant to next-door and well-regarded restaurant Perbacco. The focus is on food from all regions of Italy unlike Perbacco, which is focus on northern Italian. Michael Bauer initially gave Barbacco three stars or an excellent rating. Our last visit was in early 2015.

Decor, Vibe – Barbacco has elegant modern decor, with a long row of counter seating. We went for lunch and found the place packed to the rafters with the nearby Financial district crowd. It was very loud.

Barbacco Menu (Click to zoom into any picture)

Barbacco’s Menu has a wide variety of salads, sandwiches, and small plate appetizers for lunch. Prices are pretty reasonable for a Financial district restaurant.

Website Barbacco Menu

Barbacco Picks:

Roasted beets salad / citrus / fennel / rucola / olive vinaigrette ($6 for small) is a good sized refreshing salad with a couple slices of fresh beets and some blood oranges.

Kale salad / pomegranate seeds / golden raisins honey vinaigrette / almonds /pecorino ($8) was a nice trendy salad. Fruity contrast and lite dressing.

Cannellini bean minestra / kale / sofritto parmigiano reggiano Soup ($6) was a thick vegetable soup that hit the mark.

Quick braised squid / tomato / chili / garlic / spicy pan grattato ($8) had just a couple of pieces of squid and was mostly tangy tomato sauce for spreading on toasted bread.

Paccheri – large pasta tubes / rustic pork ragu ($13) is an eggless pasta with a fantastic ragu. Large chunks of pork along with massive pasta tubes.  We like the orecchiette over this one.

Orecchiette – “little ears” / cavolo nero fennel sausage / pecorino cheese ($13) is a signature dish. Really well done small nodules with a pesto like sauce. Tasty pork chunks. It was even better the next day as the sauce had really sank into the pasta.

Chitarra – hand cut pasta / Sicilian meat balls pine nuts / raisins / chard / spicy tomato sugo ($14) is another popular dish. Very spicy, so beware.

Lunch: slow roasted shoulder porchetta /radicchio / grape agro-dolce ($10) was a very tasty sandwich with tender meat in a strong sweet component but not as good as Roli Roti’s version.

braised chicken thighs / escarole / Castelvetrano olives garlic confit / almonds ($11) had two tender chunks of flavorful chicken in a strongly flavored escaroles.

Barbacco OK:

fried Brussels sprouts / capers / anchovy /shallot-red wine vinaigrette ($4) are not as heavily deep fried as we anticipated. The anchovy marinade was a bit overwhelming.

Pans:
None

Barbacco had reasonable service that started strong with good recommendations but faded as a place became full. Prices are reasonable for such very good quality food, no wonder they were so crowded. If you’re in the San Francisco Financial district and want reasonably priced Italian food, be sure to give this place try. Make reservations, or come early to avoid waiting. We still like their sister restaurant Perbacco better.

Barbacco has extensive wine list with glasses from $9 and bottles from $35. 3oz, 6oz, 250ml, 500ml, 750ml portions available.