La Ciccia Review

La Ciccia served us homey Sardinian food, by which I mean relatively straightforward stuff a Sardinian mother may make if she were a good cook. Although we were only truly excited by the pastas and the wines, we appreciated the owner's clear commitment to serve distinctive food apparently native to the region, regardless of how it felt to normal diners, and would be willing to come back to try more dishes.

We started with a special: olive oil tasting. This turned out to be a tasting of one olive oil. The oil was subtle, with peppery undertones. It wasn't special to us. We thought the accompanying dense bread might be a good dipping bread in principle, but it was too yeasty in this case and overwhelmed the oil.

We tried two pastas, both which we liked, saying they were simple and satisfying. They turned out have similar, slightly fishy flavors. We appreciated the consistency of the noodles--we think they make them in house.

• Linguine with endive and green onion and with finely diced tuna heart sprinkled on top. This was a special. It looked like this.
• Spaghetti with cauliflower and with bottarga (dried fish eggs) sprinkled on top.

We ordered two meat dishes:

• "Gamberoisi in su Forru." These were baked giant prawns. And when I say giant, I mean it! These prawns we probably eight inches long, encased in shell and even with antennas. Perhaps it's the unexciting taste like lobster, perhaps it's the pain of extracting the meat, but we weren't fans of these prawns.
• "Spezzatinu de Sirboni cun Zaffaranu." Basically a wild boar stew. I found it satisfying, especially with the tender meat, but others complained there were chunks of fat.  The stew came with chard, which was bitter but nevertheless good.

We also ordered the pureed bean special. Although it looked like refried beans, it tasted fresh, especially with the herb (rosemary?). We called this dish awesome.

We tried two desserts:

• "Truta de Arriscottu." Basically, a cake made from ricotta and saffron and topped with raisins (brown and yellow). It was odd, a perplexing combination of flavors. We wouldn't order it again.
• Tartufo special. Basically, something like ice cream coated with powder and nuts. In this case, it was pistachio ice cream, layered with hazelnut, and surrounded by chocolate powder and diced walnuts. Fairly good.

We drank two wines suggested by the waitress. We liked them both.

• Vermentino Chardonnay "Kharisma" G & A Ragnedda 2006. A dry, white, sipping wine.
• Carignano del Sulcis "Is Solus" Cantine Sardus Pater 2005. Red.

The service was attentive. The chef even visited briefly and said hello. Our waitress was a bit quirky and geeky, understanding when I said that we were still "processing" the menu, and later offering the convoluted technical-sounding sentence, "The time of the evening has come when we filter down to fewer staff." Our only complaint was the huge number of specials (eight?). It was impossible to keep them all in mind at once,especially because we had no high-level description of each item. Rather, we received each one, in turn, in incredible detail. A similar situation appeared with the wine list: detailed information about each wines, yet no useful categorizations beyond red/wine.

The restaurant is hard to find, with its very charming and understated brick exterior amid San Francisco townhouses.

The total was $41/person including tax and tip but not including drinks.

Original Announcement

We'll be going to the La Ciccia, a restaurant devoted to Sardinian food. Sardinia is a semi-independent Italian island in the Mediterranean.

http://www.laciccia.com/

Comments from Other Attendees

This restaurant was later reviewed by Check Please Bay Area.  In addition to the items we ordered, the reviewers also liked the stewed octopus, the pasta with lamb ragu, the shrimp in tomato sauce, the cheesecake torte, and the cabbage that came with one dish.

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