Ristobar

I've dined here several times for dinner and recently started sitting at the bar for a fun experience & interaction with the bar staff. I love their arancini & had that as a snack in addition to the beef tartare, an off the menu item that we were informed about by Scott, the bar manager. Great recommendation & it was delicious! My recent favorite cocktail is their Italiano, which is vodka based with strawberry purée.Service is friendly & helpful. Very lively restaurant & bar area with additional quieter dining room towards the back.We always have a great time when we're at Ristobar!

Food is amazing, I had the fried Calamari for appetizer and Gnocchi (same set up on their menu with fettuccine substituted without Roma tomatoes). The Pasta is amazing and Scotti and the staff were very attentive. All pasta is made by the owners' company and test and texture is out of this world.Real authentic Italian food, not the American style but real Italian style and quality.If you want lots of food for cheap, go somewhere else. If you want reasonable portions and prefer quality over quantity, this is the place to eat.Otherwise there's lot more places one can eat for less and get bigger portions.This place ranks on top for me. Right up there with "Harris steakhouse" and "Brazen head"

Tiny, INCREDIBLY overpriced food. It was ok but damn, you could at least serve bread. I left hungry and kinda pissed. Mediocre service, mediocre food.Give this place a miss for sure, it's surrounded by better options.

What an amazing dinner! So good, beautiful restaurant. The service was excellent, everyone was so friendly yet professional..We just left the Warriors game and had decided to try The Risto Bar on a friend's recommend..Im so glad we did..Our dinner was absolutely delicious..The Bar tender was awesome hope my video comes through..I would highly recommend The Risto Bar..You will not be disappointed. Stephanie and Nicolai were our servers..Thankyou so much for making our dinner experience the best it can be..We appreciate you. Peter, and Kat

I asked for sauce on side for my lamb chops but got it with sauce on it beside they were 3 small chops and soit's so noisy the guy in the kitchen area might be the owner or manager with shirt putting his finger in his mouth openly

Overall, Food was not bad for the price. Steak was chewy and well done when we asked for medium rare. Pasta were good. The service was not on par at all. We waited in between each meal 40+ minutes for the food to come out. The dessert was the longest. We waited over 40min and the moment we complained she brought the pre made dessert in a jar out immediately. We ordered a tiramisu and lemon dessert. We got a cheesecake instead of the tiramisu. Instead of telling us they ran out or something the waitress insisted it was correct. They need to staff the place better on a Saturday night. The staff was running around with very little coordination.

Such a fun spot to hop into. Fancy ambiance, but also chill. Food is delicious and staff is incredible, kind and knowledgeable. If you are in the neighborhood, make sure you pop in. Also, great music.

Don't come at me, but I really did not like this place. I think I would've had a much better experience if the sommelier wasn't in my personal space. he was talking to the marina bros next to us, and his back was up against our table and his elbows nearly kept touching the food. I was so irritated with that behavior, and I just moved to the table next to me because I really didn't want someone's elbow touching my food. when it comes to fried food, I always love a good batter and something extra extra crispy. There was not enough sauce for all the food on this dish and I had to add a lot of lemon juice to make it taste like something. If they added more herbs or something to give it more flavor, I would've enjoyed the dish a lot more. I also don't think they fried it very well because things got soggy very quickly. Now let's talk about the carbonara. I had one bite and I was like whoa this is hella salty. So then I ended up mixing it cause I was like oh maybe the cheese that was hella salty or something in this dish, but no it was a whole dish. I kept taking a few bites so I could figure out exactly what it was. I couldn't figure it out, and I hated this dish more and more as I try to figure out what was the salty part of this dish. I want nothing to do with this dish and wanted it out of my sight. The staff came back and told us that they ended up trying the dish and said the cheese was what was making it "salty" and it's just the taste of the cheese -it's not actually salt. we were told it was gonna get taken off the bill but in the end it wasn't taken off. They tried to offer dessert since they couldn't take it off the bill, but I just wanted to get out of this place. Honestly, I was so done. I don't care to pay for the dish, but don't tell me one thing then not follow through. I think the pizza was the only thing I enjoyed partially . I love having sauce on my pizza so that was my favorite part but there was not a lot of basil and I think if you combined all the basil pieces together, it probably made one leaf. Overall, I would never come back here because I felt disrespected by the staff, and the food was lacking in many departments. This is my brutally honest review. ‍

I now have a new hangout for extended meetings over bottles of wine, fresh oysters, small plates and selected gourmet cheeses. They understand cheese here, You need not venture to the Fisherman's Wharf to struggle with parking and crowds to have a great fish dinner. The corner foot traffic was also great for people watching.Service was excellent and the Manager Mattia, was indulgent. Can't wait to be back.

Definitely check it out! I don't know why this place was not busier last night, 1/23/25, a Thursday. It is much better than the place across the street, and the ambiance at Ristobar is superior, including the recently renovated room which is beautifully decorated with comfortable chairs and amazing marble table tops.Seriously, this place is consistently remarkable. I read an outstanding review I wrote for it over 15 years ago (Emporio Rulli, same restaurant under a different name), reminding me just how long this place has been turning out amazing meals.Last night was great, and our recent visit on Christmas eve 2024 was outstanding. Wonderful oysters and hamachi antipasti, mushroom and truffle pappardelli primi, branzino secondi, with a few expertly paired wines (by Nicola, the server). My wife and I split all courses, including desert, and had plenty of food and were very happy. We didn't hold back (oysters, truffles, etc.) since it was Xmas eve and the bill of $350 including tip reflected that, but it was Christmas Eve. The place is not inexpensive but we normally get out for less than $200, sharing.It's not just the food, the whole environment transports you to Italy. And it's not just the chef, all the staff take good care of you. Mattia, the GM, is terrific, and if you're lucky you'll get there on a night when he put together the menu after chatting with his Mom in Italy - I kid you not. (1/24/25 update: Sadly I must report that Mattia has left, a real loss for the restaurant and dining experience. I know you guys are always looking to mix things up but this is unfortunate, in my opinion.)Our favorite Italian in SF, and top couple of restaurants overall.As I said, definitely check it out!