10 years. It had been 10 years since I last dined at Cotogna. How did I let it be that long? I honestly have no idea. I enjoyed it so much my first visit (particularly, swoon, the tagliolini with dungeness crab & meyer lemon), that I returned as soon as I could get another reservation, just a month later (where the gnocchi with “four lilies,” vin santo & snap peas stole my heart). I declared the place a gem, totally understood why they book up a month in advance, and certainly intended to return, just, seemingly, I never did.
10 years passed. Cotogna seems to still be going strong - when I went to make reservations a couple months ago, when I had visitors in town, for a slot about 2 weeks out, there were no bookings available. When they came back, and I had enough advance notice, I acted fast. This reservation I secured by booking it literally the moment reservations opened up 1 month in advance. 10 years later, and Cotogna is still always full booked.
The parklet setup at Cotogna is made as comfortable as possible, with solid wood walls to block wind and provide privacy, ample greenery, and of course, lots of heat lamps, both above the tables, and along the sides. Each seat is also provided with an extremely cozy warm blanket. Besides the temperature, it really doesn't feel like you are eating on a sidewalk, although it does lack some of the charm of dining inside at Cotogna, with the open kitchen and lovely wood burning oven taking center stage.
Setting
What else has changed at Cotogna? Well, there was this whole pandemic thing, and Cotogna, like many other restaurants, installed parklets to have outdoor dining options. My group was seated at a large parklet table.
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| Parklet. |
Our visit was in July, which, if you've been in SF this past month, you'll know was a bit, uh, unseasonably cold. The wind was legit. Even with the heat lamps, even with the barricades, even wearing a jacket, it was cold. I appreciated that blanket immensely. As the evening wore on, eventually the wind died down, the wine kicked in, and I was plenty warm, but, it was a bit unpleasant at first.
The menu is still broken down in antipasti, pizza e pane, pasta, secondi, and of course, dolci, although the later is not listed on the main menu. The only real difference from prior menus is that bread used to be available free of charge if you asked for it, now it does incur a fee. This is on trend with most SF restaurants over the past few years.
Cuisine
The cuisine at Cotogna remains largely unchanged, although prices have gone up accordingly.
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| Menu. |
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| Feast. |
My visit was with a group of four, and we dined family style, with one vegetarian in the group. We focused primarily on the elements I remembered being the best at Cotogna, namely, the pasta.
We had a nice meal, although I wasn't quite as wowed as I had been on previous visits.
Our other dish to arrive at this time was the wood fire baked focaccia. I actually intended it to go alongside our pasta, to lap up the sauces, but I realize now I should have specified that, as the pizza and bread are generally served as a course before the pasta. In the end, our pasta dishes didn't have that much extra sauce anyway, so it was fine to get it earlier, and we had plenty remaining to use with the pasta if we wanted.
Antipasti / Pizze E Pane
The Cotogna menu begins with some antipasti to share, such as oysters, a gazpacho that sounded great ... if it had been warm weather, and a few other light dishes. We selected one for our group, a signature dish, that I saw nearly every table order. If you weren't familiar with the menu though, it would be easy to pass by, just listed as prosciutto with some garnishes.
Next up is the pizza and bread lineup. We entirely skipped getting pizza (both myself and the other diner who visits regularly agreed it is fine, but, the pasta is better) but did get the house made focaccia, intending it to be used to soak up our pasta sauces.
Our dishes arrived after not too much delay, once we had nicely settled in, and were enjoying our wine.
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| Antipasti: Prosciutto. $22. |
"Prosciutto with gnocco fritto & Lambrusco pickled onions."
I selected the antipasti for the group, but everyone was interested once I shared the details. I knew what to expect - not only would there be the prosciutto obviously, but strangely, not even listed on the menu, is the fact that it comes with gorgonzola dolce, which made it suitable for our vegetarian diner to have part of as well. Plus, if you don't know what gnocco fritto are, it could be easy to pass up the little pillows of crispy goodness.
The idea behind this dish is you crack open the gnocco fritto, and stuff it as you please - as much prosciutto, cheese, onions as you see fit, to craft your perfect bite. I'll admit I didn't do a great job - to much of the red onion that was just too flavorful and overpowered. Of course, you could also just opt to eat the prosciutto as is, and is what we needed to do once we ran out of our single gnocco fritto pocket each.
I enjoyed having something "to do" to put together a nice bite, and the prosciutto and gorgonzola dolce were good quality, but I don't think I'd get this again. A slightly novel way to enjoy a classic starter, but not one that really popped for me as much as I hoped. ***+.
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| Pizza E Pane: Focaccia della casa. $10. |
I opted not to try it, as focaccia isn't really my thing, I really had wanted it only for the sauce purposes, and I just used part of a gnocco fritto for that instead.
"with chives & their blossoms."
Pasta
The main attraction for us, like many, at Cotogna was the pasta. We entirely skipped the secondi, even though I'd seem some Instagram glamour shots of pretty lovely squash blossom wrapped salmon. We where there for what Cotogna always shines at: the pasta.
Our group of four picked four to share from the 7 available, including 3 vegetarian items (as we had one vegetarian with us), and one with pork sausage. We skipped the other vegetarian option (minestrone, eh), the signature agnolotti del plin (I hadn't been wowed by it before and the other regular had just had it the week before), and the final option, which I would have picked over the one meat dish we got, a garganelli with porcini mushrooms and prosciutto, but I was happy to go along with the group order. The two items I wanted most were on everyone's list, so, I didn't care as much about the rest.
Three of our pastas arrived at once, but the signature, show stopping, raviolo did not. I'm still not sure if the kitchen forgot it, or if it was deliberate to bring it so much later. I suspect the former, as we were only provided serving utensils for three dishes, and I did inquire about it after about 5-10 minutes of not being mentioned.
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| Corn triangoli. $26. |
This was the dish I was most excited for. Yes, I knew the raviolo was the food porn showstopper, but this one sounded the most to my liking, plus, it sure gets great reviews, even better than the aforementioned raviolo. Plus, I absolutely love corn, and it was peak corn season.
It did not disappoint.
The pasta was perfect - it was thin, delicate, and expertly cooked. No mushy pasta here, and nothing clumped together. The pockets were filled with corn goodness, along with all the visible corn in the simple butter sauce. I wanted corn, and I got corn, every bite just burst with incredible corn flavor. The chives were a nice match.
The sauce was a touch boring, part of me wanted a cream sauce, something with more to it, but I think that would have detracted from the wonderful corn flavors throughout, so I suspect the kitchen made the right call here.
Really, a lovely, corn forward, seasonal dish, perfectly prepared, and a great way to start the meal. I'm still not sure if I preferred this or the raviolo, both were nailed. ****.
"with ricotta salata, tomato & basil."
"with pork sausage sugo & broccoli di ciccio."
And here you have it.
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| Tortelli di Norma. $27. |
The group opted for this vegetarian pasta to round out our menu, to have a third option that was available to all, and, well, wasn't minestrone (we all agreed that was boring).
The tortelli were arranged lovingly, and just barely sauced - enough for each bite to have the sauce, but, certainly not much extra. This was a dish about the beauty of the pasta, accented by the sauce and ricotta salata grated on top, but certainly not dominated by it. It was a not a dish that you'd use your extra bread to soak up all the sauce, although I actually did do that to taste a little.
The sauce was a very simple tomato sauce, but quite vibrant, and rather buttery. It certainly did NOT taste like it came out of a jar. I decided not to try a tortelli, as I loved the corn triangoli so much, and wanted to save space for the hopefully incoming raviolo. I also just wasn't really in the mood for red sauce, even though this was a nice sauce.
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| Mezzi Paccheri. $24. |
The sole meat option we picked was the mezzi paccheri. While I would have opted for the prosciutto pasta, my preference wasn't that strong, as I do like good sausage, and one diner was very interested in having sausage.
This dish was considerably more sauced than the tortelli, as the sugo was a main component, although it certainly wasn't swimming in sauce either. I was surprised at how minimal the tomato component was in it, while there was some mild tomato in the base, the primary ingredient was the ground pork sausage, basically in a meat enriched broth. Roasted red onions and some lightly cooked cherry tomatoes rounded it out, along with the broccoli di ciccio for a touch of green. I found it notable that the salt level was perfect for me - our tables came with no salt nor pepper to add, and, we didn't need anything adjusted, the kitchen nailed the seasoning.
The pasta, mezzi paccheri, was a great shape as it had a bit of bite to it, and held up well against the meat. Like the other dishes, the pasta was perfectly cooked, al dente.
This dish was another fairly simple seeming dish, just tube pasta and a meat sauce, but, it was well executed. My least favorite of the pastas, just because it was a bit boring. ***+.
Behold. The raviolo.
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| Raviolo di ricotta. $28. |
Yes, I know this is one of those dishes that people go nuts over on Instagram. Ok, in its served form it is a touch ugly, but the beauty comes when you cut into it. Yes, I know that egg yolk food porn has kinda had its moment. But, I also know how much skill goes in to making this dish, and, simple put, when done well, the results are stunning.
For the unfamiliar, this is "just" a simple, single giant ravioli patty, as big as a plate. A ricotta filled ravioli. In brown butter sauce. With ... a giant egg yolk right in the center, hopefully ready to ooze out everywhere. Nailing the execution of it - cooking the pasta fully, not actually cooking the yolk, etc is where the skill comes in.
But let's start with the pasta part. Like all our other dishes, the pasta was clearly fresh, the right thickness, as in, fairly thin. And, yes, perfectly cooked - not mushy, not underdone, lightly al dente. The pasta was about as good as simple fresh pasta can get.
Same with the sauce. Just brown butter, and plenty of it. Definitely our most sauced dish, and by far the most delicious of the sauces, the one that I absolutely wanted bread to use to soak up all the goodness. The nutty notes to it were lovely.
I suspect that just fresh pasta, with this brown butter, and a shaving of parmesan over it would be a fairly stunning, albeit very simple, dish. But this one had much more to give, as that raviolo was ready to be cut into.
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| Raviolo: Inside. |
The pasta was well stuffed with creamy, seasoned ricotta, and of course, lots of bright orange egg yolk that did indeed come bursting out as I cut in, and mixed together with everything else to create the "perfect bite". The result was a luxurious mouthfeel, that, even though there was plenty of butter, cheese, and egg yolk involved, didn't feel too rich.
Like the previous dishes, I noted how well seasoned the dish was, again, no additional accents were needed (although I could imagine a more heavy hand with black pepper, or perhaps fresh black pepper cracked on top, could accent it further, or perhaps some fresh sage?).
It might seem crazy to pay $28 for "just a cheese ravioli", but, the skill level was apparent, and it was tied for first place for me for the top dish. ****.
Behold. A tart. A lemon tart. A PINE nut lemon tart. For those who read my blog regularly, you know I don't tend to give tarts very high accolades (their crust is just so often a letdown, and I'd rather have a pie most days), and I also don't tend to go for lemon desserts. And, um, I haven't had ANYTHING with pine nuts in it for at least 10 years since I had pine nut syndrome. To say this was outside my comfort zone is an understatement, and, if there was any other dessert I wanted, I certainly would have just skipped it entirely. But ... the menu was so limited, and I was ready to take a small bite, and hope for the best.
The gelato was good. It melted nicely, and had quite large hunks of honeycomb inside. It complemented the desserts perfectly - the sweet honeycomb went very well with the pine nut tart, and the neutral base helped balance out the very sweet and very overwhelming praline filling from the bomboloni. I was quite glad to have the gelato, and even though we had only one fairly small scoop, the others didn't really seem interested in it, so I got nearly the entire thing, which was the right amount to pair with my portions of the other items.
Dolci
After our mains were finished, the group pondered ordering more pasta, but I was certain to save room for dessert. Of course, I always love dessert, but in this case, I'd looked at the menu online just an hour before to ensure they still had the items I'd been drooling about on Instagram for the past few weeks. I looked forward to the glorious warm and decadent pan dulcis with rum caramel & vanilla bean gelato and the panna cotta with fresh figs.
Our resident wine expert picked us a fairly incredible bottle of dessert wine, that we all quite enjoyed. It actually wasn't on the wine list, but the sommelier found it and recommended it to us, after a lengthy conversation with my guest who certainly knew his wines. It really was a treat.
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| Dessert Menu. |
My heart sank when we received the menu. Not only were the two items I was so excited for gone from the menu, but ... there was literally no dessert I even really was interested in. The lineup was sorbet with fruit (I never think of sorbet as a "real dessert", plus, it wasn't exactly warm outside dining), a pine nut and lemon tart (since having pine nut syndrome about 10 years ago I've not gone near a pine nut, plus I don't generally care for lemon desserts), chocolate bomboloni (ok, possibly good, but I avoid caffeine, even chocolate at night), and gelato (a great component to a dessert, but, not a full dessert in my mind, and again, it wasn't warm out).
I quickly thought through other neighborhood options, but, nothing really came to mind, plus, we'd just ordered an excellent bottle of dessert wine. And thus, with zero enthusiasm, I ordered the two "real" desserts for the group, a long with a scoop of gelato to pair with them.
The good news? I survived not getting pine nut syndrome again, and perhaps can move forward in life without avoiding it quite so much. And the desserts were "fine", but not particularly my style, and I really was sad not to get what I had been eyeing ... the woes of scoping a place out in advance! Had I never known what desserts they were serving just a day prior, I'd feel much less disappointment most likely.
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| Sicilian Pine Nut & Meyer Lemon Tart. $12. |
I was pleasantly surprised. Not only did I survive my pine nut experience unscathed, I did actually enjoy the tart. The shortcrust was soft, sweet, and buttery, really nicely done. For once, a tart that doesn't have a "throwaway" shell. The meyer lemon was lightly sweet and tart, and really a nice flavor to compliment the pine nuts. It was a quite balanced dish, in both flavor and texture, with soft crust, gooey filling, and crunchy nuts. It ate well, if you know what I mean. The simple garnish of a small dollop of cream and lightly candied lemon worked well, but, you know me, I'd love more cream (and, the gelato I ordered also worked great with it).
I actually enjoyed this, and would consider getting it again. One of the better tarts I've had, even if not flavors and ingredients I normally go for. ****.
The bomboloni weren't quite what I was expecting. I did expect large filled donuts of course, but I thought they'd all be filled with chocolate of some form, and that there might be praline (like, candied nuts) on the plate. Instead, our order included two of the donuts stuffed with chocolate filling and one stuffed with "praline". This was actually a good thing for me, as it meant I could mostly skip the chocolate (caffeine), although there was chocolate sauce on the plate as well, it was minimal.
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| Chocolate & Praline Bomboloni. $14. |
There was also just a small dollop of cream, and a few cocoa nibs, to finish off the plating. As no one else went for it, I quickly snatched up the cream, which was needed to balance the filling of the bomboloni (as was the gelato, keep reading). I felt the dish lacked any crunchy textural element, and was surprised there was no praline on the plate.
I did not try the chocolate filled ones, but I did taste a little of the chocolate from the plate, which I think was the same. It was ... chocolate?
I opted just for a praline bomboloni.
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| Praline Bomboloni: Inside. |
The donut was mildly warm, and coated in sugar. Nothing remarkable, on par with any donut shop really. Sometimes restaurant donuts can be fairly mind blowing as they are freshly made, but these didn't seem particularly noteworthy.
Inside was generous filling, in this case, "praline", which to me tasted like hazelnut. It was very sweet, and very strong, and entirely overpowered the donut. It, like the donut shell, was mildly warm. I found it fairly cloying, and didn't really enjoy it. I needed to use equal parts gelato to attempt to balance it out, which really just meant I missed out on the subtuitlties of the lovely flavor of the gelato. I wonder if the chocolate filling was better, or, if you needed to use a little of each to make a nice bite? That doesn't seem particularly practical though, as they were seperate.
I didn't care for anything about this dish, and wouldn't recommend. *+. The $14 price also felt a bit high, I know it was restaurant dessert prices, but, these sort of donuts would be <$3 each at a donut shop.
Gelato was available in 4 flavors, 3 of which were caffeinated: mint stracciatella, vanilla & honeycomb, espresso & fudge, and cioccolato. Since I was avoiding caffeine as much as possible, if I wanted gelato to pair with our desserts, I had one choice: vanilla & honeycomb.
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| Jenn's Gelato: Vanilla & Honeycomb. $8. |
The gelato is served by the scoop for $8, and comes with a crispy wafer cookie. The wafer cookie was not anything special, just basically a sugar cone but in round cookie form. No one else wanted t, so I used it to scoop up some of the bomboloni filling and ice cream.
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| Honeycomb! |
I definitely recommend adding gelato to pair with desserts, if that is your thing of course. ***+.
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