La Ciccia Restaurant Review, San Francisco

Reviewer: Foodnut.com La Ciccia 291 30th St. San Francisco, CA 94131 415-550-8114 La Ciccia Website Book Reservation

Excellent food in Noe Valley. La Ciccia is an intimate restaurant located in San Francisco’s Noe Valley that focuses on food from Sardinia, especially seafood. The husband and wife team operate this popular and homey restaurant.
The restaurant was featured on Check please in 2008.

Summary – La Ciccia serves up excellent Italian – Sardinian food at very reasonable prices.
Insider Tip – Make a reservation and arrive early. Get dessert at nearby Mitchell’s ice cream.

Cuisine – Italian, Sardinian
Chef – Massimiliano Conti
Location – Noe Valley, San Francisco
Opened – 2006

Decor, Vibe – La Ciccia is a compact, cozy, narrow restaurant with a green color scheme, artifacts on the walls, and a small bar area to the side. The place was packed with many neighborhood locals and others returning for their excellent food.

La Ciccia Menu

La Ciccia Menu features several daily specials, five appetizers, primusu (pasta or soup), pizzas, segundusu (fish or meat), side orders, and desserts. Desserts are a bit weak.

Signature Dishes – Octopus stew, calamari, spaghetti bottarga

Website La Ciccia Menu

La Ciccia Food Picks:

Calamarusu Arrustiusu ($12) oven roasted Monterey calamari drizzled with basil oil was a beautiful appetizer that showed the purity of the ingredients with a simple cooking style. A large appetizer full of very fresh calamari that was perfectly cooked.

Prupisceddu in Umidu ($12) Octopus stew in a spicy tomato sauce is a signature dish possessing a medium level of spiciness. Lots of chewy octopus, especially tentacles in a tomatoey sauce.

Spaghittusu cun Allu Ollu e Bottariga ($16) Fresh Spaghetti garlic spicy EVOO mullet Bottarga was freshly made pasta, cooked al dente, enough light creamy sauce that showed off how good home made simple pasta could be. A good entree sized portion.

Malloreddus a sa Campidanese ($15) Eggless Semolina Gnochetti with Pork Bagna and 12 Month old Pecorin cheese was also a stellar pasta dish. With small curled up nodules of pasta, they assembled a well-balanced dish with just enough meat. We recently ate at Flour and Water where they over did it with meat.

Pizza Margherita Tradizionale ($12) Tomato sauce Mozzarella and fresh Basil was a solid pizza with very good basil flavors. The crust was a little soft and not super thin, while the tomato sauce a little too bold.

Pani Guttiau ($6) Sardinian Flat Bread baked with Cuor d’Olivo and Pecorino is a fun little appetizer with very thin and crispy flatbread possessing a strong hint of quality cheese.

Birdura Cotta ($6) space vegetable of the day was chard chopped up and cooked perfectly.

OK: (Order if you like this dish)
None

Pans: (We would not reorder these dishes)
None

Service – La Ciccia had reasonable service with waiters and servers running around in the compact restaurant. The service is warm, inviting, knowledgeable, and better than most restaurants.

Value – Prices are very reasonable, considering how good the food is. Having recently even several pastas that cost more and were a lot smaller, La Ciccia is refreshing. This place reminds us of the French bistro Chapeau in San Francisco.

Alternatives – Nearby restaurants that serve Italian food similar to La Ciccia include Incanto, Delfina, Flour and water.

Verdict – La Ciccia serves up excellent food at reasonable prices in an inviting family owned atmosphere. It deserves to be on your shortlist of restaurants when you’re considering Italian food.
Wine spectator award winning wine list with moderate markup, glasses from $9, and bottles from $30.

Restaurant Map: