Jason F.
Yelp
A charming Italian restaurant that reminds me of a similar restaurants located in the slim alleyways of Roma. Located on the corner of Broadway and Jones Street near San Francisco's Russian Hill neighborhood. Serafina literally opened a month before the world came crashing down in early 2020 and not only managed to survive that alerting experience, but managed to come out as a real star on the San Francisco dining scene for foodies looking for a small intimate restaurant serving up hearty Italian cuisine. A friend and I were looking for a restaurant to dine to commemorate the first night of San Francisco's Restaurant Week, in which participating restaurant offered a three course pre-fix meal set at a certain price point, in this case 65 dollars, which gives a reason for diners to enjoy a night out in the town supporting a locally owned and operated restaurant, and it gives that restaurant an opportunity to give diners a sample of their menu. Serafina is so named after one of the owners mother's name, in addition to being named after a famous restaurant in Rome, where this same owner got his start at age fourteen making pizzas. The menu at Serafina is broken up into sections such as Antipasti, which cover their appetizers and salads; Pinse, which covers their pizzas made with a crispy focaccia crust; Primi, which covers the gamut of pastas they serve; Secondi, which are entrées focused on protein, and Dolci which of course were their desserts.
Of course we came for their pre-fix restaurant week menu, and in the case of Serafina, they had one option of three courses. It included their Antipasto course, which was their Carpaccio di Salmone, which was homemade cured-salmon carpaccio served with lemon, dice green onions, pink peppercorn and generous amounts of olive oil. Their Primo course was their Risotto Cremolato con Radicchio, Fontino e Spek, which was creamy Italian Risotto with radicchio, fontina cheese and spek. For the Secondo course we dined on Pesce Spada ai Ferri, which was their grilled swordfish with organic arugula and cherry tomatoes. To accompany our meal, we both decided to split a half bottle of their 2017 Tenuta di Nozzole Chianti Classico Riserva. My fellow diner and I believed that our first course their Salmon Carpaccio was the best of all of their dishes as it provided a unique dining option for the traditional carpaccio dining meal as the green onions, pink peppercorn and olive oil all combined for a delightful meal with every bite especially when combined with the complimentary bread and olive oil that was place on our table. The next two courses were decent but not as exceptional as our first course, as the risotto was a little too runny with the amount of gravy that came with the entire dish, and the swordfish was solid but not as juicy or flavorful as we felt it could have been no matter how much lemon you managed to squeeze on it. The one plus was that there was a lot of food on our Secondo course, which made it nice for me to be able to take over half of my meal home for dinner.
To complete our dinner, we decided to split our dessert course, and although there were many options that intrigued us that we opted for their Profiterole Bianco, which were three homemade cream puffs filled with cream and dark chocolate and drizzled with white chocolate. It was perfect way to end our meal, especially when paired with our final drops of Chianti wine. Overall, our experience was a solid one at Serafina as two out of four courses were exceptional and the other two were decent if at least hearty for the appetite. Each course was delivered in due time, as we would sit there waiting patiently as the restaurant did become swamped with guests after 6 p.m. as we assumed if we could only get reservations via OpenTable at 5:15 p.m. that we would be out of there early, as finding parking in this neighborhood was much easier than expected, but alas since they seemed to have some issues with a lack of waitstaff, it was not to be as it would be a long evening of food and wine, not that we minded. I wouldn't mind returning to actually try one of their signature Pinse and Pasta dishes, as they looked incredible. At Serafina, they have a intimate, I would even say romantic restaurant, located in a neighborhood with only homes surrounding it, serving up rustic homemade Italian cuisine that could easily be shared, may Serafina have a long and fruitful life here in San Francisco.
