Piacere Restaurant Review, San Carlos

Reviewer: Foodnut.com Piacere 727 Laurel Street (Near Cherry St) San Carlos, CA 94070 650-592-3536 650-592-2040 (Fax) Piacere Website Book Reservation

Piacere means Pleasure, to please, a source delight or joy in Italian. This restaurant is located in San Carlos in the Laurel Street shopping area right across the street from restaurant Town and near Spasso. Piacere focuses on modern California-Italian cuisine using local and organic ingredients. One last visit was in May of 2011, where we sensed food quality slipping.

Decor, Vibe – Modern and elegant main dining room, nice bar area small dining area in the front, and sidewalk seating. Mostly locals, families, couples, casually dressed middle-aged folks having dinner.

Menu (Click to zoom into any picture)

Piacere Menu has a wide variety of items from pizza’s to the entrées to pastas. The menu changes from time to time. Several vegetarian options.

Website Piacere Menu

Picks:

Mojito ($10) was a solid strong drink just a little too much sweetness.

Passion fruit Caipirinha ($10) was fruity and well-balanced.

Nudi- Housemade Ricotta Gnocchi, Fresh Herbs, Creamy Truffle Sauce, Tartufata ($18) was fabulous with tons of ricotta flavor and decadent truffle odors and flavors. A must for fans of these ingredients.

Pizza Margherita, Old Fashioned Mozzarella, Tomato Confit, Basil ($12) had an excellent crust, slightly crispy and not soggy. Not a lot of tomato sauce, only fresh tomatoes on top. All in all a solid pizza much better than most places.

Pepperoni pizza ($13) local Molinari pepperoni, old-fashioned mozzarella, Rosemary was ordered on our last visit in 2011 and came to us very soft and floppy. The flavors were fine though.

Roasted beet salad ($10) was a well-made salad with fresh beets with nice bits of cheese on top, a bit on the small side though.

Roasted Root vegetable side order ($5) was a large portion of various fresh vegetables including daikon.

Asparagus ($5) was grilled and very fresh, a perfect dish.

Kids Spaghetti alla Bolognese ($6) was excellent with a top-notch meat sauce and al dente noodles. It also included a drink and dessert.

Kids pasta with cheese ($5) was also excellent with very good cheese and pasta.

OK:

Hanger steak, wood fire grilled Meyer Natural ($24) with grilled potatoes, green onion, was cooked to a nice medium rare but came lukewarm. The sides had a nice red wine vinaigrette sauce and the meat had good flavor.

Pasta forno ($22) consisted of penne pasta with lots of chicken, some sausage, and tomatoes. This dish was okay and pretty filling, but nothing special.

Corndogs ($7) were battered filled, average corndogs on the small side.

Pans:
None

Piacere had very good service with the friendly waitress offering good recommendations and no worries about refills and the like. Piacere surprised us, we did not expect a lot after looking at the yelp reviews. The food was decent, service was good, and the environment was nice, making this place a solid bet.

San Carlos restaurants reviewed on this block: Piacere, Spasso, Speederia Pizza, Town. Nearby: Mack’s Smoked Barbecue

Restaurant Map: