Barbara Pinseria & Cocktail Bar

Every time we've walked past this place, it's been PACKED -- so when we stumbled by on a Tuesday night and saw it had tables, we jumped at the opportunity to try it. So glad we did!!! The food is as warm and charming as the atmosphere. It has a strong 1960's vibe, with lots of orange hues. We had the bruschetta, which came out promptly, and then washed it down with healthy portions of pasta. The carbonara was perfectly al dente and the tagliatelle bolognese was hearty. We wanted to try the desserts as well, but we were so full from the appetizer and entree that we had no room left!The service was warm -- our waiter's thick Italian accent really sold the fantasy of Little Italy -- and even for a casual Tuesday night, the place was nearly full by the time we left. Reservations are well worth it; it's easy to see (and taste) why it is always busy at Barbara's.

We sat at the outdoor patio area and it was very cozy and cute, with plants decorating the area + some small space heaters. The buratta, cocktails, and calamari were great, would recommend! The pasta was good (not mind blowing but good if you're craving pasta). Good solid options.The service was good and friendly.

I made a reservation easily day of on a Friday night & had the most amazing time! I love the window seating and the ambiance was fantastic (I love a restaurant that has a good playlist as well)!! The service was great, attentive, and also patient while we took our time with our meal and chatted.We ordered a bottle of wine to split, the arugula salad, pesto & burrata pizza, and the funghi pasta. I am still thinking about the pasta and would 100% go back for it. This was the perfect combination of food and can't wait to go back!

Food was extremely extremely mid. Pizza kept falling apart and the sauce wouldn't stay on the pizza. It was also incredibly salty in a bad way. The pasta also tasted bland. I would pick another place in North Beach. Overhyped. Only good thing about this place was the decoration & ambiance.

Delicious food and appetizers. I ordered linguine with clams and calamari. The linguine with clams had a delicious light sauce. The calamari was really good with a unique flavor. If you are in the area I would recommend trying this place.

Absolutely delicious Italian food!! Super lively and fun, with colorful decor and loud music. Barbara is not the place you want to be for a quiet dinner with deep conversation, but if you're looking for dinner and yap, Barbara is it! Servers were very friendly (but seemed stressed so I hope they get more staff soon). I came in with very low expectations about the food but was blown away. To be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of Italian-American cuisine. Maybe I'm not looking in the right places, but most Italian places I've been to have served me the blandest, most boring pizza and pasta. My friends wanted Italian so we came here since it was close to where we were hanging out in the city, and I'm so glad we did because if we didn't, I would still be a non-believer in pasta. Their tagliatelle salmone & zucchine (smoke salmon, zucchini, tomato cream sauce) is literally the best pasta I've ever had. It was sooooo flavorful -- noodles were perfectly chewy and the saltiness of the salmon paired so well with the milder tomato cream. Like I said, I didn't even like pasta before I tried this. Ugh, amazing, still think about this dish all the time.We split these appetizers:- Lentil soup which was the soup of the day: surprisingly very large portion sizes. I was expecting this tiny bowl of soup but you could honestly order this as an entree and be full. Good, but nothing noteworthy.- Brussels chips: couldn't get enough. I inhaled the whole bowl. Crispy and charred, which is how I like it.- Bruschetta: great starter, enough for large parties to share. - Caprese: standard tomato with mozzarella and EVO. My friends got the following entrees and they all raved about them:- Tagliatelle bolognese (parmesan, ground beef, tomato sauce)- Linguine al frutti di mare (calamari, clams, mussels, prawns in red sauce)- San Francisco pinsa/pizza (tomato sauce, spicy salami, Italian sausage, mozzarella, red onion). We weren't entirely sure what made this 'San Francisco' but it was great. We did come on an understandably busy Saturday night but it seems like they're slightly understaffed. The bathroom was a little dirty... Service was great but our server seemed stressed and the staff were running around trying to get to all the tables.Would def come again, especially for that salmon pasta. I just hope they get enough staff!

Went here for a team dinner. Had never been here before so I was excited to try. We had few appetizers and cocktails to start. Loved the Burrata and San Francisco pinsa. I tried the Hugo spritz which was super tasty. The entrees were generous portions with freshly made pasta and grated Parmesan. Service was great and dessert was delicious. The place got packed fast and I loved the big windows so you could watch passersby shopping, running errands, etc. great for group or meet up. Very festive and priced well for what you get.

The food looked good but one dish was AWEFUL.Mainly, Carbonara was thé worst I have ever had. It was creamy but the pork pieces were quite small. The issue was a terrible bitter taste, like that of a metal pan and soap. The flat iron steak was good, and the potatoes and greens nicely roasted.Pasta di Mare was okay but the pasta was like that out of a box, so nothing special.Brussel sprouts were the best part. They had nicely crisped outer leaves and had the right amount of balsamic. Atmosphere was lively and the place was clean but smelled of some cleaning product when we came in.Service was okay - not the best, not the worst.What could improve?The cooking.Overall, I would keep walking down Columbus to a different place.

I've spent years bopping around North Beach and this has always been a favorite. My husband and I used to come here on date nights in our early 20s, now we make a trip here with our 4 yr old. The food is always made with the freshest ingredients, the service is always friendly and fast, and space smells as good as the Italian ingredients being used in their open kitchen. I recommend the Spaghetti Neri, but you can't go wrong with any dish (or dessert!)

Tasty pizza and pasta spot in north beach! The mushroom pasta was great, and the off menu vodka pasta was also tasty! Pizza was very thin and a little burnt with watery burrata but not too bad! Atmosphere is lively and waiters and servers are friendly.