Cotogna
490 Pacific Ave
San Francisco, CA 94133
Yelp

Out of the handful of very high end ($200+) dinners I’ve eaten in SF, I’d rank Quince near the top.  I was excited to hear the chef/owners of Quince recently opened up Cotogna, as a more casual sister restaurant next door.  Italian, pizzas, and pastas is the name of the game.  San Francisco definitely has its fair share of Italian restaurants like this.  Delfina was the last one we visited, which did not disappoint.

Young Kale maitake mushrooms, almonds
I was craving something light and vegetal.  I enjoyed the varying textures in the salad.  The dressing wasn’t anything too inventive (probably just olive oil and vinegar/lemon juice).  The nuts and cheese are always nice touches.  I liked it, but you can probably skip it.

Burrata pickled green garlic & olives
I like olives the way Tom Colicchio likes okra.  When it’s good, it’s good, but otherwise I can live without it.  It certainly spruced up this plain, albeit it fresh and creamy, burrata.  It went well with the crusty rustic Italian bread.  It made for one too many appetizers between the 2 of us, but the waiter recommended it.

Agnolotti del Plin
The stars of the show are definitely the pastas here.  The agnolotti is a signature dish at Cotogna.  Each delicately shaped pasta was stuffed with combination of roasted veal and rabbit.  The flavors were rustic and light.  It went wonderfully with a glass of red wine.  YUMS!

Casoncelli di Fegato hedgehog mushrooms, vin santo
I couldn’t resist ordering another stuffed pasta.  It sounded uniquely decadent.  Fegato translates to “liver.”  The offal taste was just subtle, but added great depth to the dish.  The sauce was kept brothy and light.  Another excellent pasta, but hard to eat a lot of it.  

Tagliatelle al Ragout Modenese
I try so hard to resist order ragouts because they all are generally great, but usually taste pretty similar.  I was so stuffed from the previous dishes that I only had a little bit of this.  It was solid, but nothing special.

Mandarin & Creme Fraiche Sorbet
I opted for a lighter dessert here.  The combo of creamy tang from creme fraiche, complemented the citrus sweetness of the mandarin orange very well.  Delicious.

I was pleased with Cotogna, but The Annoyer didn’t seem all that impressed.  He preferred Delfina.  I suppose Delfina did a better job with the appetizers, but the stuffed pastas here have a little bit of an edge over the pastas at Delfina.  You probably can’t go wrong with either place.  Quince is obviously above and beyond a more delicious dining experience, but for this price point, Cotogna delivers a solid Italian meal.

10 – You NEED to eat here.
9 – Awesome
8 – Very good
7 – Good
6 – OK
5 – Average
4 – Not bad
3 – Not good
2 – Terrible
1 – Do NOT eat here