A16 - San Francisco

We celebrated our wedding anniversary, and the staff made it a very special and unforgettable evening. We’ve eaten at A16 many times, and it never disappoints! Wonderful crafted pizzas, and we love several of their pasta dishes.

Extraordinary attention to detail in every dish. Fantastic.

Went with my wife and daughter, and they sat us at a table for 2. All the parties with 3 people were sat at tables meant for 2, and the area was pretty crammed for space. Our daughter barely had any space to sit comfortably with the person behind her taking up alot of extra room. Service was good and food was overall really food. Given the high price range, I expect better ambiance and space to eat comfortably.

So wanted to love this spot but sadly everything just fell way short. Booked for a special occasion with parents visiting and birthday with a reservation, but had to wait 60 min outside for a table due to a prior seating even though there appeared to be tables available. Would have preferred to sit and eat at a less desirable table if it meant we didn't have to wait 90 min before getting food. Then the table they did give us was right near the kitchen, very loud and hot, with lots of hustle and bustle of servers walking back and forth. The food and drinks all came out at different times for our party of 5 with some people getting their mains 10 min before others. They did comp us some champagne and dessert for the inconvenience but would have expected the manager or somebody to come apologize. The hostess and server did the best they could given the circumstances but sadly will not go back as everything that could go wrong sort of did.

Good food. Pricy.

It took forever for the food to arrive and the server completely ignored us when we asked about the status of our orders. It got to the point that we had to talk to the manager and left the restaurant with part of our dinner as takeout.

Inexperienced wait staff. Overpriced food, nothing special. Very loud.

A16 is always a must stop for us when my wife and I visit San Francisco. I was a little disappointed that we were seated in the bar area instead of the dining room with all the other patrons. We were with friends who were at A16 for the first time and wanted them to get the full dining experience. However, I understand given our reservation was a party of 6 and we ended up being a party of 4 so I’m sure the restaurant needed to adjust for perhaps a larger group that was waiting. We’ll still be back on our next trip to SF.

Very good meal

You can not go wrong with the pizza and pasta. I had the bucatini pasta and the sausage pizza and both were amazing!

Service was off. The pasta dish was not great. The dining room is OK. Used to be more cozy and romantic.

Anniversary

Enjoyed a last minute dinner at A16 and was reminded both how good it is AND how expensive it is for what you get.
The food overall was very good, the waiter was attentive and the wi e was tasty. However a small piece of salmon for $38, an arugula salad for $18 and a panna cotta for $16 made the night overly expensive for no obvious reason. It was good but not spectacular.

The pizza dough was undercooked

Good pricey food

I often bring friends from out of town to A16 - great food and something on the menu for everyone. For the quality of food, the price is reasonable - it can be pricey to find a great place to eat in SF.

Great food and overall great service, wine service was a bit behind of the food.

Has stood the test of time with excellent food, knowledgeable servers, and a lovely back area behind glass for a quieter experience.

We had been here before and was blown away with the service and food. Our server was attentive and warm so we decided to celebrate my birthday dinner there. It wasn’t as magical as our first visit, but it was still good. The service was fine, but not like our first visit. My wife’s pork chop was amazing! It was more like a whole rib. It was juicy and so yummy. My steak was a slight disappointment. I had it the last visit and it was so buttery and delicious. And although I also ordered it medium rare, it was more medium. The cut of steak was not as good. We still had a good time.

Not worth driving across town for. Pleasant and helpful server but lackluster food and environment. Not bad, but not worth going back to. Disappointed; it used to be better.

I was so excited about this restaurant that I picked it for my mom’s birthday, reserved a month in advance, and in the reservation I asked for a surprise birthday dessert. It was definitely the worst experience.
1) we ordered all the recommendations - the gnocchi were FROZEN inside, and they happened to be my mom’s dish. The rest of the order (salmon tartare, pizza, pasta) were at best mediocre.
2) we had to ask several waiters many times to get water refills.
3) needless to say, the dessert never arrived.

Worst birthday dinner ever. My mom spent the night sick.

I feel awful about giving this 'poor' review of A16....we have been here numerous times in the past year and have sat at the chefs counter, most of the times enjoying our time, food and service. This was not one of those nights and we will not be heading back anytime soon in light of it...we invited friends whom have not dined there in 10 years, I made reservations well in advance and we were seated in a table for 2 but there were 4 of us, no room to put anything other then wine glass and water glass so the "share plates" were not an option...our service was terrible, our waiter Patrick only checked in for our order and that is about it...the wine he suggested was full of sediment and we never drank it and he never checked on us so we had no opportunity to return and re order, one of our items was forgotten that was ordered and there was no "i am sorry? just "I'll remove from the bill"...and when the bill came there was not pens to sign....we left ready for a good glass of wine somewhere else, and possibly bit more to eat since we were never asked if we wanted anything after they forgot part of th order?? Very unfortunate and I was embarrassed as it was my suggestion.

Server was rushing us. He came to our table 4 times to see if we were ready to order, even though people were off to the restroom. Our apps came out in seconds. Before we even finished our apps, our dinner was out. We've been to plenty of fine dining restaurants and the food here was inadequate. We ordered the tomato salad, squid ink pasta, another pasta (can't remember b/c it wasn't too memorable) and the mushroom pizza. Was not impressed. From crappy service to mediocre food - spend your money elsewhere!

The food is so incredibly good. Ricky, our server was attentive and observant. Top notch service, quality of meals beyond reproach. The noise is deafening, but everything else is so good, you hardly notice it.

One of the best Italian dining experiences in the country

Food was amazing. Although the steak wasn’t fully cook. (Everyone’s different taste though.) but food was delicious besides that.

What a disaster at once hot & famous A 16 SF last night!

The bad & basics...Server “Matthew” brought WRONGLY made or written-up pizza over, DISAPPEARED more than appeared to help us with filling our empty water or yummy drink or taking back the wrong pizza order or dealing with WAY TOO SLOW service or our MEDIOCRE & way OVERPRICED way too SMELLY & TINY trout or the kinda anorexic & a bit too dry 1/2 chicken entrees. 2 small rectangular pieces of trout for $36. ??? Come on. I could buy both of those retail for $10. each. So $20 now $70. What a rip. Moreover, the sweet open oven cook in front of us didn’t even WASH HANDS or have a sink near him after touching tons of dirty things & after washing his metal work top area off with soap & water as finishing up last orders (including ours) & before touching our food with his BARE HANDS. Yuck, gross. Clearly not SF DPH or AMA standards or “best practices.”

The place was less than 1/2 full by our Sat @ 9:30pm OT resy & our kitchen counter table area 90% empty. Yet poor service. By the end of our 1.5 hour & 2 course fiasco, we found most of the servers next to us chatting & tallying their $$$$ & TIPS at the Order Computer, clearly their focus! Who cares about the paying customers?

Matthew hands us a dessert menu as we ready to leave. We like 2 things, but when he hears what we want a few minutes later, he says, “I think we are out of those already.” Omg.

We left as fast as we could for a yummy & quick dessert, heading to North Beach for some great dessert options & needed food calories.

I should have left NO tip at all or definitely NOT my nice 20% tip I did leave, but avoiding “a scene” & paying by cash with no small bills on me & the desire of getting out of their fast won! We split. But ripped off.

No sweet GM Helen or caring Owner Shelly there last night we were told. No one really running the place. What was going on & not going on was easy to see. Bad & sad.

A 16 SF continues to slide...

We’ve been to A16 in the past but this visit we noticed steep decline in quality of the food and ambiance. I would not return.

Never disappoints! Everything was fresh. Best pizza in town. We’ve been known to take one to go!

Disappointed that there are no Gluten Free Pasta options offered to customers, who either are intolerant or sensitive to Gluten. Also the celery salad was overpriced with no visible achoives, rather they created a dressing with it. Additionally our server didn’t return to ask how our meal was. I did enjoy my wine but will look to dine at other Italian restaurants in the area.

Great food prep and service all the way around. Eat there at least twice a month.

My party of two was so looking forward to a wonderful meal of Pacific Salmon. I'll take some of the blame as their salmon prep with cucumbers & seaweed just didn't sound interesting so I tried to get creative. Our nice waitress tried to come up with solutions but in the end I was presented with a basic pan fried modest piece of salmon with no culinary 'ambience' all all along with a pile of undressed arugula. I think of the many restaurants that can make plain fresh salmon delicious via wood grilling... or other... so we left just completely underwhelmed. True... They are know for pizza & other specialities... but really... for over $165 ish with tip to get 2 salmon orders and three total glasses of wine... ouch. A16 is a lovely & lively venue... I thought the staff were nice. I'm a generally optimistic, forgiving and enthusiastic reviewer... I'm SO sorry not to give a better review but I feel a need to be honest.

Overall very pleased with the dinner. Pizza was really great and the sides hit the mark. Our service was a little distracted though and we got few wrong things served but this was quickly cleared up so no biggie. The place is a little cramped seating wise and place was really loud. Expected for a Friday evening, but be prepared.

First time customers. Bay Area food enthusiasts. They didn’t cook my boyfriends meal all the way through. The fat on the meat should be slow cooked, the fat should melt right off down into the pork to infuse it with flavor, and fall right apart. My steak was over cooked. They didn’t ask me how I want my steak, either. The dish was meant to be flavorful but it lacked flavor. Definitely needed something. The summer squash side dish was under cooked, it was hard.
$160 for two people who ate a cheese plate, some other unmemorable appetizer, and we ordered two entrees and no alcohol. Sad. Really sad. I looked around and everyone was eating pizza and drinking wine. Stick to what you see!

Waitress didn’t bring lemon slices for our sparkling water.
Knives were not sharp to cut the meat.

Everything was excellent. The wine list is incredible. The pizza is quite possibly the best in the city.

Very good food though a bit expensive.
Some area (in the narrower space in the middle) of the restaurant are quite noisy

Ambiance was great! The food was 4/5. We got the shishito peppers and burrata which were great. The gnocchi was ok and the salccicia pizza and mushroom pizza were just ok. Overall, I would recommend.

Great food, mediocre service.

Weird taste , not the pasta we expected

How do I say this without seeming like I was seeking attention? I just didn’t feel welcome when we first checked in. Staff seems to warm up a bit once we ordered food. Pizza was okay, nothing special. I had better quality pizza at various Italian restaurants in Sf. We did like the salad. Quite disappointed since I wanted to try A-16 for a while...