La Traviata

I took some dear friends from childhood around the touristy spots in SF on a rainy Monday, and arrived in the Mission to find them their first Mexican dining experience that evening. Failing to find an open non-​vegan nice sit down place, we encountered the gem of an Italian restaurant, La Traviata.
Although my plan thwarted, La Traviata was a delightful restaurant. We enjoyed prawns, pasta cabonara with chicken, lasagna (though it was a bit fallen over, it was delicious), salad, and a tiramisu (similarly fallen over).
The décor was very classic – photos of the opera, and the ambience quite traditional. We enjoyed the meal as well as the company.

I love this place! It’s simple, straightforward, family style Italian. We’ve tried several of the pastas and they’ve all been great. They also have a nice selection of reasonably priced wines by the glass. It’s family run and the staff is super friendly. It’s definitely a gem in a neighborhood that’s filling up with overpriced and mediocre restaurants that cater to hipsters.

This has been our favorite restaurant for over 20 years. John continues Zev’s legacy with the same warmth, class, and superb food.

There are several fancy hipster Italian places in the Mission, but if you’re just looking for good old-​fashioned Italian food in the neighborhood, then La Traviata is a wonderful local option.
I’ve been there twice now, and it always hits the spot. The entrees my wife and I have tried there include the carbonara, the sausage pasta (usually linguini but sometimes spaghetti), and the gnocci with pink sauce.
For appetizers, the fried mozzarella is great. It’s covered in a delicious marinara sauce, and once we finished the mozzarella, we started dipping our bread into the sauce to not let it go to waste.
I have to mention the bread as well — It’s really, really good. It’s always served piping hot like it just came out of the oven, and it’s crispy on the outside but really fluffy and flavorful on the inside. Both times I was at La Traviata, we went through at least two baskets of their bread.
As for the service, it’s always been consistently good when I’ve been there. They were quick to pour us more water when we were almost empty, and they’d proactively bring out more bread when they saw that we were about ²⁄₃ through our original basket.
The interior ambience is quite nice and has a very «family» atmosphere, including a Christmas tree at the front when you first walk in. The owner is supposedly a huge opera fan, and so the walls are literally covered with portraits of different opera singers, and you’ll hear opera music playing in the background as well.
Last but not least, if you still have room for dessert, their Tiramisu is quite good, and big enough for two people. I believe they said it’s homemade.

Good, standard Italian food. Everything is tasty and the service is friendly, but most of the pastas on the menu could be made at home for much cheaper. The hot bread is a nice touch though.

As a lover of cheese and pasta, Italian food is always the best choice for anything ever.
La Traviata is the place my partner and I frequent for special occasions. The Tortellini alla Romana is everything I, as a cheese and pasta fanatic, could ever want. I crave it at least once a day :(I haven’t had anything else there, however, so I can’t comment on other meals.

Good food, good service, very accommodating. Simple italian cuisine — the lasagna was a favorite as well as the carbonara.

The service here is incredible and the food is even better. The delicious hot bread is unique and tasty, and friendly attentive staff remind me of my favorite family Italian establishments back home. The atmosphere is authentic with the photos of opera stars with the owner and the opera music in the background. Fun! I seriously can’t wait to come back here. The tiramisu was exceptional with just a hint of orange citrus. Try the puttanesca, calamari, or the tortellini! Pricing was reasonable. Excellent selection of Italian wines.

I really love La Traviata. It’s got a nice homey feel to it, all the servers are really nice/​friendly, and the manager is seriously awesome.
The food is really good, but my favorite thing is the piping hot bread! OMG, it’s heaven. I could eat loaves and loaves of that delicious bread.
The menu is full of a great selection of dishes, so no matter what you like there’s going to be something for you. I was lucky enough to get to try their lobster pasta special, and it was decadently delicious. Not too rich, not too fishy, just perfect and the sauce with such a great complement to the lobster.
A generous selection of reasonably priced wines. For a little over $ 60 per person (including tax/​tip), I went to dinner with 5 friends (so 6 of us total) and we had 4 appetizers, 6 main dishes, 3 desserts, 3 bottles of wine, and 2 coffees. We all left very happy and full.
If you’re ever in the Mission and looking for a lovely, intimate experience, then you should definitely check out La Traviata.

Cute little restaurant located in the Mission with authentic Italian food! The servers were all extremely nice, and did a fantastic job of making sure our water glass was always full and bread basket never went empty. They came around a few times to check if we wanted more bread until we finally said we had enough. Good to know they aren’t stingy on giving out free bread! We ordered the antipesto appetizer which had different meats and cheeses and olives and peppers that were marinated. We ate that with the bread which came in handy :) We also ordered the gnocci pasta with pink sauce and cheese tortellini in cream sauce. Both of these pastas were really good! It tastes really fresh and authentic, the pasta is really chewy in your mouth and the sauces were really good. Portions were decent enough to have leftovers especially after filling up on bread and appetizers. We finished with the Tiramasu cake for dessert, which I really enjoyed and had a bit of wine to wash down with it. Would deff come back to this place to try more dishes!

I happened to be walking around the mission and started getting hungry. As always, I was craving Italian food so I turned to my good friend Unilocal.Found this place and decided to walk right in. The ambience has a romantic feel to it. I loved it. I ordered the cheese tortellini with cream sauce. Omg! It was the most amazing cream sauce I’ve ever had, no kidding! Soooo good! If you come here, be sure to order it… U will savor and enjoy every bite of it! I’ll definitely be coming back to try another dish and I’ll be taking this one to go

5 stars for service!
4 stars for food!
4 stars for ambiance.
A cool change in the Mission where you are surrounded with good Mexican and Latin food. I was in the mood for Italian and glad I went here for a birthday dinner. We came right before the dinner rush so got good service for the first half of our meal.
The bread is so warm and light– a great way to start your meal. I got the gnocchi with pink (more like orange) sauce and the fillet veal strips.
The gnocchi was out of this world! I wish I had ordered a whole plate and not just a side as I was left wanting more. Definitely recommend! I was afraid I would be too full and it would be too dense but it was so soft, fluffy, melt in your mouth and light. So yummy!
The veal was decent. I don’t eat it much so the texture was a bit gritty– is that normal? Still good, soft and tender.
The price of the meal was worth it for the overall experience! Not too steep– pretty normal SF prices.
Since it was my birthday they turned off the lights and brought out a tiramisu cake while they played a Happy Birthday track on the speakers. Very sweet! This old school family Italian place is a great place to experience. I would come back!

The service was friendly and very efficient. They were able to get our party of 13 seated for a 9:30 PM reservation on a Saturday. Great job! The garlic cream sauce over tortellini is a must try — served hot with fresh pasta. Just delicious. The minestrone soup, bolognese lasagna, fruitti di Mare, profiteroles, and tiramisu were favorites at our table. This restaurant has been here since 1974 and they have a unique collection of photographs and some autographs of famous opera performers gracing their walls.

Well, my friend and I were wanting to find an Italian restaurant that had great food, an Old World, family style restaurant that was elegant and friendly. At La Traviata, we found it. We had lovely wait staff who brought our drinks promptly, brought hot, delicious bread and brought entrees that were sumptuous. We both had chicken dishes. My friend’s was cooked with sherry and mine was cooked with a fabulous sauce with mushrooms, provolone, garlic, wine. It was like a delectable stew. Both dishes came with vegis. I ordered a side of cheese ravioli with Marinara sauce and my friend ordered a side of spinach, both v ery delicious. Also, we had tasty coffee and a wonderful spumoni. We loved the atmosphere, beautiful old world Italian photographs, white tablecloths and opera music. We were very pleased. Don’t hesitate to go, We will be returning

La Traviata is conveniently located outside of the 24^th and Mission BART station. This place feels like what it would dine at in Italy. It’s pretty tight inside and I guess I should consider myself lucky to snag a table on a busy Saturday night. Granted it was just for my friend and me, but she said I was lucky to get a table.
I ordered the gnocci with Aurora sauce which was quite tasty. The serving was pretty decent. My friend ordered the salmon and we split the Spumoni to end the night.
Staff are friendly and they didn’t rush us out the door. There were a couple of birthdays and they got pretty much everyone in the restaurant to sing a long.
Overall, I’d go back here again.

The place looks cute when you enter (they have a lot of older photographs on the wall) BUT if you are thinking about having a party here, think again. I really don’t think they can handle more than 2 people at a time.
My nephew thought this place was special and decided to have his 30^th birthday party here. 30 people were invited (we took up half the restaurant).
THE GOOD:
— The bread and water service was excellent
THE BAD:
— The waiter handled the bread with his hands as he refilled the baskets (gross)
— The waitress told some of us that soup or salad was not included as part of the meal and told others that it was. Well, it wasn’t and we were billed for the soup or salad when we got the check.
— The soup was served in a large bowl but only contained 2 inches of soup.
— The chicken piccata was not breaded or battered; just a couple thin pieces of chicken breast that were overcooked for some of us and undercooked and slimy for others.
— A couple of people in our party received their order after most of us had almost finished our meals.
— The wait staff never smiled
— Coffee was never offered so we walked across the street after dinner and bought coffee at a really cute coffee shop
THE UGLY:
— Somebody was smoking outside of the restaurant and all of us could smell the smoke as we tried to eat our dinner
Never coming back here !!

This is an adorable little Italian restaurant situated in the heart of Mission Street where you except to only find dive bars and burrito shacks. The place is family owned and consists of one small room full of booths and a few tables. The walls are filled from head to toe with old framed photos of the family, previous guests and famous Opera singers. The whole place is based on the Italian opera «La Traviata» therefore all that is played in the background is Italian opera music. Each table is placed with fresh red roses… really overall just a beautiful ambiance!
The fresh warm bread brought at the beginning of your meal is so delicious — and extremely fresh. I brought my roomie here for her birthday so we split a bottle of the Chianti Classico which was light, refreshing and perfect to pair with our meal. She ordered the gnocci with pink sauce and I had the carbonara. Both dishes were good, but I’ve tried better of both dishes elsewhere in the city. We finished the meal off with Tiramisu which was pretty good, nothing extremely special. The food was all good, but just not the best Italian around.
The service was great for the first 75% of our experience. We ordered right away, dishes came out really fast and service was attentive. We had to take our time with dessert because all of our courses were served so quickly after another. At the end however, we had finished our bottle of wine and no plates were left in front of us and it took 25 minutes to get our bill! Literally there were only three groups of people left in the restaurant and nobody even bothered to check in with us. That was the most disappointing part. Ambiance 5/​5, Food 3/​5, Service ³⁄₅.

Wonderful authentic Italian meal. Cioppino is just what I was hoping for. The only reason I give it 4 starts instead of 5 is because I was hoping for a $ 24.00 plate I’d get a salad with my meal or a bigger portion, although it was enough and I am full. I’m from fresno, and fresno does everything big!
The wine selection is pretty good and reasonably priced. The bread is AMAZING and they give you plenty of it. I tried each of my girlfriend’s meals and they were equally delicious. It is consistent and comfortable. The owner is a hoot, the servers were delightful and prompt. The food didn’t take long to come out, but it tastes like they spent hours making it. Great place to dine!

Solid, traditional dishes with rich, delicious flavors and reasonable, unpretentious prices!
My partner took me here for a romantic dinner about 14 years ago, and we hadn’t been back since for one reason or another, none of which had to do with the food. And over the years, we forgot this place existed… until last night I was DYING for some good, solid Italian food in the Mission, which is overrun by overpriced gastropubs featuring «New American cuisine» (read: stuff you could easily make at home, like mac’n’cheese or chicken pâté or a burger, but with tiny portions for massively-​inflated prices to reflect their degree of «foodie-​ness»!), but runs rather painfully light in the good-​solid-​Italian-​food department (sorry, Beretta, you just don’t serve the big plate of pasta my soul and stomach both desire!)!
And then I remembered La Traviata! Now, I was already in my pj’s and therefore not about to leave the house… so the spouse ran to get take-​out for us (what a mensch!). Therefore, my review is based solely on the quality of the food, and NOT with the actual experience one might have of dining-​in.
I ordered the Lasagna, which was absolutely DELICIOUS!!! Very heavy on the meat and bechamel, it was a very reasonably-​sized portion, and I was also pleased to find that the pasta wasn’t overcooked.
I also ordered a side of Cheese Tortellini in Cream Sauce, just to see what their cream sauce is like… Mama Mia, it was absolutely fantastico!!! Next time I dine there (which will be soon!), I’ll probably be getting a full dinner portion of this dish!
We split a Caesar Salad, because, you know, vegetables. this may have been the one sort of «eh» part of the meal. While the lettuce was the appropriate romaine, the dressing was not the creamy style I prefer; rather, it was more like a vinaigrette with sizable chunks of anchovies (this part I didn’t mind at all!)…and because the lettuce leaves were drenched in dressing, they were a bit on the soggy side. Also, there didn’t seem to be any croutons or shaved/​shredded parmesan on top… so if those are essentials for you in enjoying a Caesar salad, that’s something to note.
I haven’t tried it yet (I was too full last night), but the restaurant very sweetly gave us a complimentary order of Tiramisu with our order… what a generous gesture! Hmmm, maybe that’s what I should have for a mid-​afternoon snack?!
Overall, I really enjoyed this meal and will definitely either dine-​in or take-​out from La Traviata again. While it isn’t the best Italian food in San Francisco (seriously, try Mona Lisa! Just do it!!!), it was definitely very tasty, and given the dearth of good Italian food in the Mission, I’d say there’s a reason this restaurant has been around as long as it has!

Note that the menu you see on Unilocal is outdated. Everything is about 2 – 3 dollars more expensive now. It gets pretty busy on weekend nights so I would recommend calling in for a reservation. Very cozy atmosphere, clearly the restaurant has a lot of history.
I had the Alla Carreras (sausage pasta) which was delicious. One of us got the tinta (calamari pasta w/​squid ink sauce) though he didn’t think it was that great. Another one of us got the Salmone Alla Wixell which was very delicious. The service was great, and I would definitely come back again.