Sorella [San Francisco, Polk Gulch]

[Mr_Happy]

I had an early dinner at Sorella on Easter Sunday. Sorella (“sister”) is from the same ownership group as two Michelin-starred Acquerello, and is at the former 1760 location on Polk Street about block away from Acquerello.

QUINTESSENTIAL ($15)
bourbon, carpano bianco, amaro nonino, maraschino
A good cocktail, a little herbal and citrusy.

GRILLED RAZOR CLAMS ($21)
green garlic pesto, oreganata
I started with the razor clams, which were very good. The clams were cut up into bite sized pieces on the shell, simply cooked and fresh tasting, with some seasoned bread crumbs on top to add some crunch.

SORELLA’S POTATO LEEK FOCACCIA ($6)
Also an order of focaccia to sop up sauce. Great focaccia, very fluffy inside with a bit of leek flavor.

SPRING PEA CAPPELLACCI ($25)
miso, poppy, pecorino fiore sardo, dill
Next, pasta. A taste of spring! Interesting use of miso in the buttery sauce which didn’t call attention to itself but I think added some umami richness. Nice sweet peas and toothsome pasta stuffed with cheese and maybe some more peas.

LAMB OSSO BUCO ($38)
heirloom polenta, gremolata
For a main I had the lamb osso buco, which seemed appropriate for Easter. A lamb version of Osso Buco, which is usually made with a veal shank. Very tender and flavorful lamb (I think also shank) on top of a creamy polenta with juices/gravy on the bottom. Very nice and comforting, kind of melted in my mouth. With the requisite garlic , parsley, and lemon gremolata on top to add a little bit of acidity and freshness. A little bit of marrow in the bone too.

BOURBON CARAMEL SEMIFREDDO ($15)
amaretti, chocolate
Finally for dessert I had the semifreddo. A very nice almond flavored semifreddo, with some dollops of chocolate sauce and salted caramel.

A very enjoyable spring dinner. Everything was quite good. There were a lot of other interesting pastas on the menu I was eyeing to perhaps try next time, including a squid ink linguine with lobster, a short rib agnolotti, and a lasagna-like timballo.

[digga]

I’d want the pasta course x 3.

[GretchenS]

Sounds and looks delicious!

[Mr_Happy]

Back to Sorella for dinner.

A drink at the bar while waiting for a table:
SORELLA’S SOUR ($17)
rye, averna, lemon, sage syrup, creme de violette, bitters
Nice, a bit tannic from the Averna maybe. The bar has a “Cicchetti” menu along with the main menu, which are apparently small plates, like Venetian tapas, but we didn’t try anything off it.

SORELLA’S POTATO LEEK FOCACCIA ($6), which was as good as it was before and a good sauce sponge.

GRILLED CALAMARI ‘DIAVOLICCHIO’ ($22)
prawn & nduja sausage, zucchini, mint
Calamari stuffed with shrimp and spicy nduja sausage. Very good. Like sausages but the skin is squid.

We split 4 pasta dishes between 2 people and skipped the mains.

SPRING PEA CAPPELLACCI ($25)
miso, poppy, pecorino fiore sardo, dill
Pea pasta again. Delicious again. I really like that miso butter sauce.

SQUID INK LINGUINI ($32)
lobster, spicy brodo, tomato confit
Very good, at $32 is the most expensive pasta on the menu. Perfectly cooked pieces of lobster in a flavorful seafood broth which some of the fresh squid ink pasta soaked up. I kind of wish the pasta were a touch more al dente. The lobster chunks were delicious.

SHORT RIB AGNOLOTTI ($29)
morel mushrooms, fava beans, cultured butter, black garlic
Great! The sauce had a ton of mushroom flavor and some tangy/funky notes from the cultured butter. The short-rib inside the toothsome wrappers had a very beefy taste. This along with the pea cappellacci were the best pastas we had this night.

DRY-AGED BEEF TIMBALLO ($27)
comtè, tomato
This was like a many layered lasagna with aged beef in between and sitting in some tomato sauce. A very impressive looking dish but this was kind of underwhelming taste-wise. The pasta could have had a little more bite I think. The layers kind of just melded with each other. The beef filling was fine but didn’t really have that much flavor. Also, the plain tomato sauce the timballo piece sat on could have used a little more salt.

DARK CHOCOLATE BUDINO ($15)
coconut cream, passion fruit caramel
For dessert we had the budino. A very rich chocolate mousse/pudding, it was like eating bits of the inside of a chocolate truffle. Offset with a pleasantly sour and sweet caramel passionfruit sauce and some crunchy coconut strips.