Hello all! I’m looking to fulfill my wife’s craving for lasagna. The lasagna she loves the most comes from a small family spot in Toldeo Ohio (believe it or not).
Image of said lasagna: https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/calvinos-toledo?select=JdAXQLUy8t4O1bb6FFjpPQ
She’s a sauce fiend and the deep, sauce heavy, extra cheesey pasta is what she’s craving. If you know of a fantastic lasagna in the bay area (red sauce, nothing too fancy), I’d love to hear about it.
Thanks in advance!
Has your wife tried Marcella’s Lasagneria in San Francisco? Theirs don’t look as saucy as the ones in your picture, however. Keep in mind they have pretty limited hours.
I would suggest some old school place like Gold Mirror or Il Borgo. I looked at the Gold Mirror lasagna photos and it looks pretty saucy. Or maybe someplace in North Beach.
http://www.sfweekly.com/dining/hayes-valleys-unpretentious-il-borgo-is-full-of-rude-vitality/
That review was a nice read!
Gold Mirror is a good recommendation, they are one of the few left among a dying breed of old school red sauce joints in SF. Italian Homemade Company [now with 3 locations] does great handmade pasta and lasagna but is super casual [think paper plates]. http://www.italianhomemadecompany.com/
It has been many many years but I used to love Ristorante Milano’s lasagna, although it is more of a bechamel sauce. http://www.milanosf.com/
Thanks all for the suggestions! All are appreciated.
There’s a few old-style Italian trattorias holding out in Contra Costa County. One of the best is:
De La Torre’s
6025 W Las Positas Blvd
Pleasanton, CA
b/t Hopyard Rd & Dorman Rd
They have an old-fashioned lasagne, very saucy. I’ve never ordered it, but my DH has ordered several red-sauced pastas and says their sauce is excellent. One time we were there for dinner they had a special of chicken liver spaghetti - something we have not seen in decades, literally.
This is a very retro place. Don’t expect ‘al dente’ pasta or risotto, LOL. Lunch is quieter than dinner but it is very popular so reservations are always a good idea. Not fancy, but a very solid traditional Cal-Italian, shading towards the old Italian-American (today 5/18 one of the specials is Calf’s Liver with Onions in Brown Butter!).
Also: excellent desserts. Berry cobbler was outstanding. Recent raves on their Toffee Cake on Y.
Fiore
5100 Clayton Rd. Ste A-14
Concord, CA
We have not tried the lasagne but DH had the seafood pasta in red sauce and said it was “simple and perfect, just the way it should taste.” The cream sauces are heavy cream, very rich and very tasty.
Fiore makes an excellent boozy tiramisu, albeit lacking in mascarpone. But it’s so rare we can find a decently alcoholic tiramisu, we order it anyway, LOL.
Small place, cute inside; also very popular for parties so again, reservations essential for dinner. Lunch is more mellow.
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As is common out in CCC, both these places are in small strip shopping malls, so parking is not generally an issue - unlike SF!
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Third option:
I don’t think this lasagne is what your DW is looking for (it has Bechamel as well as red sauce) but some of their other pastas might please her. The food is very much in the traditional Cal-Italian - although I would suggest if your DW loves her red sauce, to just ask the kitchen to be generous with it on her dish. This is very much the type of place (as is Fiore and De La Torre’s) where they are willing to please their customers.
I include it because it is a good-sized restaurant, with two dining rooms. One is plain and white-walled and ordinary.
The other is up a few steps and has no windows. But you won’t miss them, because the ceiling is high and all three walls are elaborately muraled as Italian shops complete with bins outside. It is one of the most charming dining rooms in the entire EBay, and very few people outside Hayward seem to know about it:
Aqua e’Farina’s second dining room
Acqua e’Farina
22622 Main St
Hayward, CA
(downtown Hayward, but city parking lots abound)
How do I save this response? Husband loves lasagna, but I don’t love it enough to make it. I touched the flag and the sticky, but I don’t think either was right.
I just remembered La Traviata in the Mission. Another old school red sauce joint.
