Newest review - found this place totally worthy of posting here.
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I loved seeing a pescatarian and veggie-leaning review. I wanted each and everything you and your sister ate. There was a time when I was in SF at least a couple of times a year…oh well. Thank you for sharing.
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Thanks for ;this! Your reviews and pics are so vivid that I feel that I’m sitting with you…minus the actual plates. I want this food! MANY thanks.
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Sounds fantastic - thanks!
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thank you all, very nice of you!
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It all looks and sounds amazing – probably you need to do some follow-up reporting. 
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Upon reading @mariacarmen’s writeup of Itria, the food sounded immediately appealing, and when @LulusMom1 was in town this weekend, I knew the seafood-and-vegetable-centered menu would be perfect for our mutual tastes. We had a really nice dinner there on Saturday.
We started with the chef’s assortment of three crudos. These are done by weight, and the larger portion (3 ounces of each fish) proved the perfect amount. We had thinly sliced Hokkaido scallops topped with crisp fingerling potato chips, amberjack with pesto rosso and panzanella, and bluefin tuna tartare with capers and corn (topped with tiniest popped corn kernels I’ve ever seen), all served on a beautiful ceramic platter. The scallops were perfectly fresh and sweet, but the other two preparations blew them away. The rich tomato flavor of the pesto rosso complemented rather than overwhelming the delicate fish, and the crunch of the croutons within made a nice textural contrast. Initially, I couldn’t really see corn with tuna tartare, but the sweet and juicy fresh corn proved to be a nice foil to the rich fish, and it all worked surprisingly well.
Next, we had a dish of burrata with beautiful cherry and Early Girl tomatoes, with small pieces pickled eggplant and smoked vinegar, topped with microgreens. Of course, you can never go wrong with burrata and ripe tomatoes, and I’m glad LLM got the opportunity to have some of our stellar dry-farmed Early Girls, since they’re a uniquely California thing, as far as I know. The smoked vinegar was very subtle, which was a good thing, since we both feel a little smoky flavor often goes a long way.
Our pasta course was a creamy and delicious dish of agnolotti with hen-of-the-woods mushrooms and corn, which had a supple texture and wasn’t overly rich.
Our final savory dish was the sea bass fillets for two with squash agrodolce, saffron aioli, and mizuna. The fish was cooked correctly, moist with crispy skin, and the accompaniments all worked well. It was perfectly tasty, but similar to what I’d expect to find on any number of local Cal-Mediterranean menus. For me personally, I think I’d just as soon we had another vegetable starter and pasta as the fish.
We finished with a chocolate budino topped with crunchy hazelnuts and salted whipped cream. This was a rich and smooth semisweet chocolate pudding, and the crunch of nuts and touch of salt were well-balanced complements. I found the idea of salted cream interesting, as I’d more often expect the nuts to carry the salt element, and while I wouldn’t want to taste the cream on its own, everything taken in a single bite worked.
We each had a couple of glasses of a lovely Moroccan rosé that a server appropriately described as similar to typical Provençal rosés.
The waitstaff was friendly and knowledgeable about the wine list, and happy to pour us tastes before we settled on our choices. They were pretty intent on pushing us through our courses initially, but ultimately we were able to linger a bit over wine and dessert.
Overall, it was an excellent meal, and I’d happily return when in the mood for a splurge.
Photos of our first two courses (the lights were subsequently dimmed a bit too much for decent photos, but the rest was less photogenic, anyway).
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nice report! glad you guys enjoyed it too!
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Went last night and had a tasty, but generally too salty tasting menu. The pasta itself was wonderful in every shape, especially the cencioni.
Will add commentary post flights.
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I had a really nice dinner at Itria last week. I’d been a couple times before, including once when they first opened, but didn’t get around to writing about it. They had a chef’s tasting menu for $90/pp of mostly crudo and pasta dishes with dessert, but we just ordered a la carte. Our waiter suggested 5-6 dishes for 2 people and that was pretty much a perfect amount of food.
We started with some of the crudo dishes.
Hokkaido scallops, preserved lemon, sea beans ($15)
Scallops all the way from Japan with potato chips for crunch and a citrus-y preserved lemon sauce, which I see in several of the reports above. Very good. Fresh scallops and the zingy acidic citrus sauce didn’t overpower the seafood.
Norwegian trout, citrus, celery, pickled red onion ($14)
Crudo of trout all the way from Norway. Also good, lightly dressed.
Next one of the starters.
Razor clam sottaceto, crispy potato, smoked potato espuma ($19)
Good. The razor clams were cut into thin strips and were scattered about the dish, which had some vegetables in a slightly acidic sauce. I think there was some fennel in there, and some tangerine slices. This was the sottaceto I believe, Italian for pickles? Along with a savory smoky and slightly garlicky espuma / foam and crispy fried potatoes.
Then we had 3 of the pastas.
Casoncelli, ricotta, green garlic pesto, toasted pistachio ($26)
Some fat cheese filled dumpling-like casoncelli in a smooth pesto topped with some pistachio bits for crunch. Delicious. Nice wrappers on the casoncelli.
Pappardelle, braised duck, pickled tart cherries ($28)
This was great! Toothsome pappardelle. Sweet and sour pickled cherries. A gravy like sauce with tender braised duck. The best pasta dish of the night for me.
Spaghetti, sea urchin, chile, mollica nero ($33)
The spaghetti was nicely al dente. The “mollica nero” were bread crumbs tinted black with squid ink and added some crunchy texture. The sauce was nice and creamy and did have a good bit of uni flavor.
Chocolate budino, hazelnut crunch, salted cream ($12)
For dessert we shared the chocolate budino, which was a nice chocolate pudding with crunchy bits and a slightly salty whipped cream. Salty + sweet = win.
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There are no words to explain how jealous I am…for the delicious meal and for the opportunity for you and Lulusmom to meet in person…and for those early girl tomatoes, which I’ve read so much about and have longed to try!
I moved from SFBA back to Boston back in 1988…a very long time ago…and I still yearn for the produce.
I’m so glad you had such a great time together, and such a great meal!
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those are beautiful dishes! thanks for the write-up…
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