Poesia

I adore this restaurant. I live pretty close by so I’ve had the opportunity to eat here on many occasions and I’ve pretty well worked my way through the menu. Everything I’ve had is first rate and in many cases the dishes are inspired. If I was really cheap, I’d just order an appetizer and gorge myself on the bread. (It really is some of the best I’ve had in the City.)
Great service. Charming décor w/​old black and white Italian films projected silently on the back wall. The vibe of the place is cheerful and welcoming.
I’m sure I“ll be back again … And again … And again …

I’ve lived in the Castro for decades, and can remember some pretty awful restaurants in this location. Finally, we have a winner! Excellent food, superb service, not cheap, but worth every penny. Everything we ordered was delicious, but the mussels (appetizer) and squid ink pasta are real stand-​outs. I hope Poesia will succeed and grace our neighborhood with its presence for many, many years.

FABULOUS! Loved every moment at Poesia. It’s so intimate as it was a home…

Came here with my bf the night before Valentine’s Day. It has good reviews, so we were excited to get a reservation on Opentable. Overall, the experience was «okay.» We had:
— Grilled calamari w/​arugula salad: The greens were oily and the calamari was still a little too chewy, but it had a nice flavor so we still enjoyed it.
— Lamb ragu: It was okay. I mean, I’d never order it again and I’m not salivating thinking about it, but it wasn’t bad.
— Eggplant parm: Personally, I liked this dish — but anything made with sauce and a lot of cheese is good. It wasn’t the best parm cheese ever, and it wasn’t the worst.
— Dandelion side dish: Honestly, the worst then we were served. It was supposed to have a garlicky bread crumb topping, but instead it was just a pile of bitter greens and no other flavor.
All this said, it was a cute restaurant and we had a nice time. It happened to be a warm-​ish SF night and it was way too hot in the restaurant. No cross air ventilation.

Please, do not give these people your money. Between being insulted for not having a reservation (they sat us immediately) and the waitresses rude attitude, one of the worst SF experiences I’ve ever had. I watched my friend tell the waitress he was Vegan *she said, yes I get this alot* and then brought his dish out with cheese. Not a big deal, but then she proceeded to lecture him about how the dish had cheese after I witnessed her PROMISE him there would be NO CHEESE. It was really embarrassing for him and we specifically asked them if they could accommodate him. It was like she was trying to shame him in front of all of the other patrons. Not cool. We made his dietary restrictions clear to her from the get go. If they couldn’t handle it we would have gone somewhere else!

4 stars for food, 2 stars for service. Poesia’s food was quite good, but the service was a huge disappointment. The décor is traditional and the prices not cheap.
The service at Poesia was disappointing from beginning to end. We were seated at 7:30pm, but no one came to greet us and take our drink orders until 20 minutes later! They didn’t bring us the menu for wine by the bottle until we asked. Throughout the meal, no one came to bring us more water after ours ran out. Later, we had to ask for the dessert menu ourselves. Our party of three did not wrap up until 10:15pm, and this was not by choice — our dinner took nearly three hours because of the consistently slow service.
The food at Poesia was its saving grace. The gnocchi starter was good, and I quite liked my pasta with pork. My friend really enjoyed her eggplant Parmesan, and my husband really liked his squid ink pasta with seafood. The broccoli side was decent. Finally, the chocolate spuma dessert with salt and spice was tasty (though quite small and not sharing friendly).
The décor was traditional and old fashioned — my dining companions liked it, though I would have preferred a simpler, more modern look.
The food and drinks were not cheap. Consider getting a bottle of wine instead of wines by the glass. We made the mistake of getting multiple glasses of the $ 14/​glass Alicante (quite good) instead of the $ 45 bottle.
Overall, despite the good food and drinks, I can’t get over the slow, disappointing service. Ugh — what a shame.

The service was good, the food was «hit and miss» with precious few dishes hitting the Yum zone and the others the BICKY (bad — icky) zone. 18^th & Castro once again proving itself a better intersection for the cruising crowd than the educated palate. Sitting in a window table with an uninterrupted view of the Midnight Sun, providing free entertainment of the comings and goings of the Castro bar dwellers. Mr. Server (with his multitude of bangle bracelets) was good, The food @ Poesia:
Bread and olive oil & balsamic vinegar — GOOD freshish Italianesque bread, ok/​average olive oil & vinegar
Carpaccio — GREAT: 3 Mini towers of carpaccio wrapped around greens with erect enoki mushrooms spouting out of the top, a culinary construction in deference to the locale ?
Dandelion greens — BICKY (see above): overcooked — mushy with less flavor than a boiled stick. Shoulda sent it back but didn’t want an Italian retribution appearing the subsequent dishes
Fried Calamari: OK: mostly a salad mound with a few (maybe 6) smallish pieces of calamari. This was a surprise since many pic’s of this dish show a mound of Calamari.
Filet Mignon — GOOD: Tasty & properly cooked medium rare, sliced with plenty of the omnipresent small greens
Lamb shank pasta — OK: Pasta properly cooked, meat was shredded on top. Wondered where the other 80% of the shank was. Tasty but skimpy. Maybe this lamb shank was from a very, very skinny lamb
Fish (Branzino?) cooked in parchment — BICKY: Overcooked — mushy, it was obvious that the parchment was more a gimmick than integral to how the fish was cooked. It was deboned which helped with picking the mushy meat.
Desert: GOOD —: Ice cream w/​a shot of espresso, with the serving embellishment of having the espresso poured on the ice cream at our table.
TL;DR:
The environment is a Victorian or Edwardian house converted to its present restaurant scheme. Its vibe is (as many have) described is homey. While «homey», the only resemblance to its architectural heritage is the peaked ceiling. Any other recognizable interior que of the buildings heritage was erased with sheet rock decades ago. Its kind of like the guy who fills in his lawn area with cement and paints it green. A «chandelier» near our table, appearing to be a hand moulded creation that looked as if it was made out of reddish playdough by someone with too much contact with lead. Maybe the dough part is meant to carry forward the Poetic culinary theme? It takes more than Italian names for dishes to make them delicious. The cocktail attraction & promotion & deals certainly contribute to the Positive Poesia experience for many of LOCAL Castro fawning fans. Bartenders are a natural FAV in this neighborhood. I would guess this joint in its current incarnation won’t draw many folks that would seek out a solid Italian food joints beyond the intersection of «18^th & Castro» such as:
Bacco:
Manzoni (name has that Castro appeal)
Zero Zero: (farther afield a solid and vibrant joint)

Love this place! Have been there twice in one week and LOVED my meal, and especially loved the service from Chris and the crew. Every bite is wonderful, each sip of wine is great. Had this short rib pasta dish which was killer. This is a neighborhood gem and i can’t wait until the next time I go back.

Che romantico. Of course my young amante added to the seductive ambiance of a lovely Christmas Eve late dinner at this smart and sophisticated osteria Italiano. Ha!
A lot of charm here. The no fuss man in charge found us a table (no reservation) and the food is really good. Burrata with charcuterie: heaven; lamb shank fettucine: yum; filet mignon and arugula salad: so nice. Service attentive. Ambiance very comfortable.
When in the Castro with your main squeeze …

Mixed experience.
Great value happy hour.
Cozy and homey ambiance.
Really great service. Loved our waiter!
Food was hit or miss.
Sweet potato gnocchi was the highlight.
Oh and not deep fried eggplant parm.
Raining and marble stairs are treacherous. I wiped out and am in a lot of pain!

We came here for dinner based on a unanimously strong review on check please Bay Area. It was a good restaurant but not worth going out of your way for and didn’t didn’t live up to the raving reviews.
Appetizer:
we had a crostini with mozzarella cheese, olives and salami. This was a tasty dish (super fresh and best olives I have ever had) but better suited for an afternoon snack than a starter for dinner.
Mains:
1. Salted cod ravioli — 2 stars. Too strong on the spice and salt. Didn’t seem like a balanced dish in term so of floors.
2 Seabass: wow, super light, fresh and tasty leveraging natural flavors rather than through additives. However, felt like a dish that is better suited for an afternoon day at the beach lunch. Can’t go wrong ordering none the less — 5 stars for a lunch dish.
Dessert:
1. Tiramisu: 3 stars. Good solid tiramisu but nothing special
Drinks:
Got 2 cocktails — nothing special. Can’t recommend it
Tawny Port — 4 stars. Highly recommend.

Two girl friends and I decided to have a girl’s dinner date and Poesia seemed like a pretty promising Italian restaurant. This restaurant is quite small but surely popular because almost all the tables were filled up by 6:30pm.
Complementary bread is served (it was average) with olive oil and vinegar – standard. A happy hour menu is available until 6:30pm with discounted tapas and drinks, so I recommend making a reservation for 6:15pm to make the happy hour.
We got the Squid Ink Pasta, Lamb Shank Fettuccini, and Fileji Di Renato (pork). The server said that the pasta will be slightly undercooked because the texture will be better tasting that way – she was right. The pasta was delicious because it was very chewy. I personally am a fan of white sauce more than red sauce but I really enjoyed the pasta here regardless. The red sauce in my Squid Ink Pasta was slightly spicy and it was perfect. The bites of octopus added great texture to the already chewy pasta dish.
We also wanted to try the Burrata appetizer and the Cauliflower side dish but we’re glad we didn’t order it because we were super full after the pasta. Next time!

The ragu was pretty damn good. The sauce especially would compare favorably vs. most good pastas you could get in a city with a better Italian food reputation.
The Pasta Nera was awful. Shame on me for ordering squid ink delivery pasta, but for the price you’d expect better than a foil ball filled with doughy, hyper-​salty pasta and rubbery seafood. I eat too much seafood. Fishier-​smelling, slightly past seafood normally doesn’t bother me, but this dish was impossibly stinky.

Was a group of 4 business dinner and an opportunity to celebrate one of our partners birthday. Alex was our server and was most accommodating and served up an after dinner dessert equipped with a birthday candle. The pork and lamb dishes over pasta (with GF options available) were all well received by the group. Wine prices were very fair.
Videos of old B&W films projected on the back wall was fun.

I was not impressed by this restaurant at all.
The ambiance is just not right, the food is very simple and seriously I can do better at home. If I’m going out for Italian, I’m expecting more than just a simple plain tomato sauce.
Service was also OK, but again nothing special.

Three times in the past month or so. Damn, so hard to try new places in the Castro when there’s just a great place you can always go to.
Came here the first time with a friend and her bf. Got to try the tomato bread soup (Pappa Al Pomodoro) — wasn’t bad, but not great either. Kind of tasted like tomato bisque, but maybe not for everyone. I ended up ordering the pasta with pork ribs sugo (Fileji di Renato). Definitely really delicious. Small plate though so made me a bit sad that I couldn’t try any the next day. Most of the time pasta sauce is better after you let it sit for a while.
We also ordered 2 desserts — they had only heard one of them, so we only got that dessert until we asked about it. No apologies for the mistake — only a little bit of blame on us. Regardless, we got the dark chocolate mousse (spuma di cioccolato) which was good except the sea salt grains were definitely a bit too large for the flavor they were trying to go for. Some of the bites were definitely too salty for a dessert. The other dessert — tiramisu — was delicious though.
Came again on a Friday for happy hour. Happy hour ends at 6:30 rather than at 7 which is what my friend thought it was. They still gave us happy hour pricing — thanks! — since we were like a minute late. I ordered the Seduced and Abandoned — which was yummy! We also ordered the buratta with prosciutto and asparagus (burrata con prosciutto staginato e asparagi). Delicious. I’m glad that they also give us bread because the three together on some bread is so delicious.
Third time here, on a date, Friday night. The dining table was packed We started with the ricotta gnocchi (gnocchi di ricotta con pomodorini). It was light and fluffy with a delicious sauce. Definitely one of those things you should get as an appetizer — super delicious. We ended up ordering the ravioli special and the fettuccine with lamb ragu (fettuccine al ragu’ di agnello). Both of which are delicious. The special was definitely good, but I definitely enjoyed the lamb ragu more.
Overall, this location has really good Italian food. Service is pretty decent, but not the best. So come here knowing that.
Protip: get the gnocchi and the tiramisu. Both really good dishes. Service can be spotty when it’s busy, but it isn’t horrible.

A wonderful date deserves a wonderful place. Being able to reserve a table here just made it all the better. We arrived just near the tail end of Happy Hour, and our waiter was very happy to honor the lower cocktail prices during our time. Which is good, cause boy did we drink (and remain extremely classy). We shared an appetizer, and thus began that dance of emotions, while stuffing our mouths full of delicious food. I quality of the pasta was wonderful, and while the portion sizes are smaller than I am used to, I left feeling very full. And with a dessert menu like that, we just couldn’t say no (and you know you have «met the one» when you both realize that even though your full, there is still room for dessert).
The waiter keep our waters filled, and our drinks coming, while leaving us be to enjoy a romantic dinner conversation.

Poesia is such a lovely hidden secret right in the middle of the Castro scene — a quaint juxtaposition of the thumpa thumpa from the bars around.
It’s like dining at a friend’s place. The space is intimate, warm, and welcoming. To boot, the food hits the right marks too. Totally love the grilled calamari salad. Nice char on the squid with a salad that hits the right balance of acid. Also had a zucchini blossom gnocchi that was quite lovely. Top all of this off with lovely service and Poesia is quite a winner.
If anything, starting a night of drinking here prevents an immediate kamakazi dive into drunken lunacy with the plethora of two-​for-​one drink specials around. At the very least, you get some good food to start the night.

Don’t buy the hype.
The burrata was horrible. Italy would’ve been ashamed. It took an hour and a half, after we arrived for dinner, to get our entrees. My pasta was a disappointing heap of dry and flavorless pasta with Romanesco broccoli and olives. Inedible. We left our entrees untouched, paid, and ran across the street to grab a slice of pizza.
Btw, when we asked for the check, our waitress looked offended, notified the manager, and he soon made his way to our table to ask what was wrong with our entrees. We politely explained. He mumbled out a half-​ass apology and walked away briskly. Gross food, slow service, rude manager. To top things off, I got an email shortly after leaving, from Open Table, notifying me that our reservation had been canceled. What a passive aggressive and pathetic move by the manager. Who does that?
Save your cash.
Go to Locanda, Delfina, or Lupa Trattoria instead. You’ll get good service, and leave with a happy tummy.

Stu S. already hit all of the right descriptors in his review a few months back. Charming. Tiny. Upscale. Italian.
Delicious tapas. Reasonable happy hour. Delicious, like REALLY delicious cocktails. Definitely a cute place for a grownup to grab a cocktail with a co-​worker at 5:30pm.
I’d recommend sitting at the bar. It seemed to be the only place that wasn’t a bit cramped for space. And as a 6’6 dude, that means something to me.