Uva Enoteca

This place was adorable, very small and kind of local looking. We were looking for somewhere to eat on a Friday night and walked up to this place with no reservation and were able to eat at the bar (which we were perfectly fine with). The bartender was extremely nice & the food was good! I got the stuffed shells which I honestly expected to come with more based on the price but regardless it was super good (the tomato sauce was amazing). My fiend got the pesto pasta and it was incredible!!! She said it was a little too salty for her but I thought it was perfect. All in all great place! Dark lighting so if you’re trying to Instagram think again ;)

This was a great little find in the lower Haight. The service was great, the atmosphere was a little classy, but the servers were super casual, and the food was delicious.
We got stuffed shells with a Barbera pairing. Both were amazing, and the Chopped Salad appetizer was great. It’s not the cheapest place, but it’s not crazy expensive. Highly recommend!

Service was really slow and very disorganized.
We had to wait for long for almost everything.
Food is strictly okay, did not feel like an Italian restaurant at all :(
Try to find a better option.

What an amazing way to start a Sunday. This is a hidden gem with friendly happy service, awesome good, $ 12 bottomless Bellini, great décor, fun location. Really loved the lasagna, the decadent breakfast sandwich, and the truffle egg toast. Beautiful place to enjoy a nice weekend brunch. Highly recommended.

The cheese & meat board was the bee’s knees. So was the spicy salami & honey pizza (although it was much spicier than I anticipated). The flavor profile of that pizza was pretty awesome if you like some heat. The cheese and meat board comes with an array of sides, including honey, jam, and mustard.
Our server’s attitude was kind of a downer, though. It took a long ass time for her to take our order, and she was pretty impatient and rude. We all agreed that she suffered from RBF.
Another downer: the beef lasagna. It was small and unremarkable — just mushy and not that exciting. I would stick with the pizzas and meat/​cheese boards.
Ambiance-​wise, Uva Enoteca is really cute and cozy. There’s a back room so the restaurant is bigger than it looks, and you can easily make reservations on OpenTable.

Service: 3 stars
Wine: still 4 stars
After my first stellar visit, I brought friends back twice within two weeks. But to my surprise, the service was disappointingly unfriendly when it gets busy. They’re quite efficient, but won’t stop to talk anything about wines/​beers. Still, a good pour for happy hour and good deal on $ 10 margherita pizza, but the rest of the food was meh and expensive (the beets dish was tiny, $ 10 and bland. the cauliflower dish was also small, $ 10, and heavy on capers). I probably won’t be back unless it’s purely for happy hour or cheese :-\

Wandered in here looking for pizza with a friend a little past noon on the weekend. We sat at the bar and ordered our individual noms off the brunch menu. Because pizza is pizza, you can’t go wrong with it any time of the day.
Also I couldn’t be convinced to order anything else, I decided on the Margherita pizza. The best part about the pizza was the crust which is thin but not too crisp. Along with the crust, the rest of it was quite mediocre. I was quite sad it was so unsatisfying!
The pizza wasn’t memorable, probably why I forgot my leftovers in an Über.

Have been here many times with large and small groups. Food is always yummy as well and reliably good. The bottomless bellinis on the weekend are great for large brunch groups.
I like that this place isn’t overly crowded or difficult to get reservations at, but at the same time always has good food, nice staff and a nice ambiance inside.

The last night of my stay back home in San Francisco for the holidays, my dad and I found this local Italian gem. From the outside it looks like a tiny restaurant, but as you step inside you can see how far back it goes! There’s a small initial seating area, followed by a full bar, and a second seating area behind that.
This venue has amazing food — healthy, incredible taste, and good ambiance to boot. They even have great gluten-​free pasta options which are scrumptious (though I wish it wasn’t $ 3 extra)! The only drawback we experienced was the service: Our waiter was very attentive in the beginning, but he definitely went MIA as the meal went on! We had to ask for water refills multiple times, and we even ending up flagging down the busboy for a dessert menu in the end. All-​in-​all, I would go back for the food and atmosphere, hopeful to get a slightly more attentive waiter this time!

BLUF: Go for the group dining!
I went on a Saturday night for dinner for the first time to Uva Enoteca. We made a reservation for a group of 6, and ended up having an extra person join and the waitstaff was super accommodating, even though the restaurant was already pretty crowded.
We were pleasantly surprised to find that Uva Enoteca offered a great deal for group dining, which included several courses, including: a variety of salads, cheeses and charcuterie, several pastas and pizzas and a couple different desserts. The lasagna bolognese was a highlight, and all the pizzas were delicious. It was a fantastic sampling of foods, and very much worth the price of $ 30 per person. We were STUFFED at the end. Our server was very attentive and gracious too.
I’m so happy I live in the neighborhood — I’ll definitely be back!

This lovely rustic Italian restaurant is an unexpected tenant on Lower Haight, but I love it nonetheless (or maybe that’s why I love it).
I visited Uva a couple months ago when some college friends were in town, and admittedly, at the time its biggest draws were 1) that it’s walking distance from my apartment, and 2) they take reservations. However, the food turned out to be compelling enough on its own, and I’d definitely recommend it even to locals outside of the immediate neighborhood.
The four of us shared the boar bolognese lasagna, butternut squash rigatoni, and the kale/​fennel sausage/​mozzarella/​pecorino/​basil/​garlic pizza. Of these, for me the butternut squash rigatoni (having breadcrumbs in this dish is genius – so good!) was most memorable, but I still thought everything was delicious.
My one gripe is that the portions are kind of small, but I guess it’s NBD because if you still have some stomach space, Bi-Rite’s not too far away. :)

We ordered the Salami pizza and Smoked Mozzarella pizza for delivery. Both arrived perfectly prepared and in exquisite presentation, almost too pretty to eat. Almost.
The Salami pizza (Spicy salame, mozzarella, pecorino, calabrian chilis, san marzano tomatoes, red onions, clover honey) had a cool bit of honey that complemented the chilis so well, I loved it. Maybe a touch too much honey for me but great nonetheless.
The Smoked Mozzarella (Smoked mozzarella, toybox tomatoes, garlic, basil, black pepper) was just a simple, well seasoned pizza that tasted sublime. Yum.
Recommend trying out, we are looking forward to trying more from their menu.

Glad I booked a table because the place filled fast.
Mixed Kale, almonds, ricotta salata — crunchy & delicious.
Pork & beef meatballs w /​san marzano tomatoes, grana padano, salsa verde — good. solid.
Boar Bolognese lasagna w /​bechamel, grana padano — was a disappointment, especially with the stellar reviews. Not much flavor despite having boar meat & could use more cheese.

The roommate wanted pizza for dinner. I wanted to try a new place, but I didn’t want to pay Postmates’ surge pricing, so I decided to try Uva Enoteca since they were on Caviar. We placed our delivery order on Monday, October 12^th around 8:20pm. It arrived around 9:40pm. Prices below are what I paid ordering through Caviar. Looking at their online menu, Caviar is priced a little more than 7% higher.
*Little gem salad (dinner): little gem lettuces with anchovy lemon dressing, radishes and grana padano ($ 13.95)
*Pork and beef meatballs: served with ricotta salata, san marzano tomatoes and salsa verde ($ 16.05)
*Salame pizza: spicy salami, mozzarella, pecorino, calabrian chili, san marzano tomatoes, red onions, no clover honey ($ 18.75)
*Meatball pizza: mozzarella, san marzano tomatoes ($ 18.20), add Arugula (+$ 2.15), Calabrian chilis (+$ 2.15)
I enjoyed the salad. The lettuce was crisp and the dressing had a nice lemony anchovy flavor. It was overdressed for me, but I love my greens, so it still complemented the pizzas well. The meatballs were a little one note in taste and kind of dry. And the sauce was really acidic. It was a little too sharp and sour for my taste. The pizzas were pretty good overall. The crust was thin, but soft with a nice chew. I liked the meatball pizza more, especially with the arugula. But they forgot to add the chilis which was a bummer (and a waste of about $ 3). The roommate liked the salami pizza more, but I could see why they normally have honey on that pizza. The salami was rather salty.
Not the best pizza I’ve had, but for me, it was a better option than a place the roommate would have picked. At least the crust is on the thinner side. Everyone seems to rave about the charcuterie board. If I’m ever in the neighborhood, I may give them another shot just for that.

5 stars for the boar bolognese lasagna ($ 17.50). The bechamel and bolognese come together to create perfection.
I appreciate that Uva Enoteca offers 2oz and 8oz pours of wine. The 2oz pours, exactly ¼ the price of the 8oz, are great when you want to create your own flight or restrain consumption without being a teetotaler.
The bresaola with arugula + grana padano ($ 11) was also delicious.
The entrees I’ve tried besides the lasagna haven’t wowed me quite as much. The puttanesca bianca with bucatini ($ 16) was a bit dry, but I think it’s hard for that type of pasta to not be dry. The pollo all divaola with arugula and lemon ($ 20) had a thick layer of spice rub on the skin and slightly stringy texture.

WOW! Absolutely loved this place! I find it surprisingly hard in the city to find great Italian food with a great ambiance. Uva Enoteca has both, along with fabulous food and service. Our waiter went out of his way to let us taste 3 different wines before deciding on one, and was beyond attentive and friendly throughout the entire meal. The 8 ounces of wine is GREAT and very reasonably priced. They also take reservations and have a bottomless Bellini brunch on the weekends which I plan to try next time I go to the fabulous place.
Recommendations:
CHEESE PLATE — ALL OF IT!
Stuffed shells were amazing.

Came here for brunch with a large group, so we were forced to order off their group dining menu. Order 2 types of breakfast items, 2 types of lunch foods and they’ll bring out 10 total plates for the table to share.
We got 2 challah french toast, 3 truffled egg toast, 2 stuffed shells, 3 margherita pizzas.
Oh, and a table full of bottomless bellinis (sparkling wine and peach Kerns nectar juice)
Holy moly.
The antipasto and salads were good — charcuterie and cheeses with olives and toppings. The salad was romaine hearts with caesar dressing and parmesan and radish. Both very good but I wouldn’t have ordered them if they didn’t automatically come with.
The truffled egg toast is not at all what I expected — it’s a single piece of super thick, crusty toast with truffled cheese on top and a truffled runny egg yolk in the middle. Served with zucchini. ⁵⁄₅ for sure — highly recommend.
Challah french toast — I’m not a big sweets for breakfast kinda gal, and I admit that it was pretty good. It was definitely way too sweet for my taste though, but others thought it was perfect.
Margherita pizza & stuffed shells were good, but not any better than anything you can make yourself at home. 3.5÷5
One nice thing is that they actually were very conscious of keeping our bottomless bellinis full, which is tough to do during a busy brunch hour with so many people to accommodate.

This place reminded me that I was once the worst waitress ever. Our waiter at Uva Enoteca, however, knew absolutely everything there was to know about their food and extensive wine selection! He took the shoddy information we could provided about our wine preferences and made some great suggestions without judgement.
The meat and cheese combo plates rule! It might not look like a lot of food, but I still left doing the post-​dinner ‘I may have overdone it/you’ve done it again’ walk.
Great spot for a double date for folks like me who are practically crippled by the social awkwardness of double dates! Picking your meats and cheeses for the table was a natural icebreaker.

A meal made of HH specials.
Every day of the week has a happy hour period, and on a Sunday we happened to arrive on the tail end of those specials. $ 6 house wines and $ 5 veggie appetizers? Yes please!
We sipped our reds and chomped on some kale salad and roasted beets for starters. The kale was probably my favorite course of the meal. The kale was crunchy, the nuts on top added an extra layer of flavor, and it was perfectly dressed. The beets were tasty in combination with the ricotta, but I felt they could’ve been browned a little longer.
For entrees, we split an order of the pomedoro and the boat lasagna. The pomedoro was cooked al dente, and the sauce had a small bite to it, which was a welcome addition. I sprinkled a little more cheese on top which made the simple dish shine. The lasagna was presented beautifully, although I felt the actual flavors were a little flat. It was more meaty than starchy, so if you’re looking for that entrée that’ll fill you up, this is the way to go.
Service was aight. Despite it being Super Bowl weekend and being the only table in the restaurant for the first 20 minutes, our server forgot our waters and table bread. When it came time to ordered, I tried to flag him down several times but he was out of sight usually. I can believe that the place is usually packed on the weekends, but more attentive service would’ve been nice.

Uva Enoteca. What a cool name, even though the UVA is a little bit tainted if you’ve learned dermatology and this restaurant name kindles thoughts of broad-​spectrum sunblock such as avobenzone. Anyways, I’ll begin my review because I’m sure few people reading this have questions about UV radiation on their mind right now, especially for anyone living in SF.
Uva Enoteca was a Unilocal find, and there are a number of notable locations in the area. It’s N-​Judah friendly, has non-​impossible street parking, and is in an area of SF that’s not too busy or sketchy.
The menu features a number of fancy-​sounding Italian fare which seems quite authentic in cooking style, but adventurous in choice of ingredients. (In Unilocal categorization, I would call it Italian (New) and not fusion.)
For 4 not-​so-​hungry girls on a grad school budget, we got:
Boar Bolognese lasagna w /​bechamel, grana padano $ 17: Tasty, but we’re not really sure what made it distinctively boar. (I wish I could make a pun about boarishness, but it was too refined-​looking and not boarish :/​) To us, it tasted essentially the same as ground pork.
Baked Japanese eggplant w /​san marzano tomatoes, mozzarella, ricotta salata, grana padano $ 17: This was our favorite! Because Japanese eggplant is awesome and makes even authentic Italian dishes like eggplant parmesan way better.
A pizza, ~$ 16: Apologies for the poor description, but after looking back-​and-​forth at my picture and the menu multiple times, I still couldn’t figure out what we ordered. It was a good pizza though, with the fluffy but thin crust, a mostly tomato based sauce, and toppings that gave it character.
Service was a bit frustrating because we got attention when unwanted and no attention when neede. One of us got there much earlier so waited for the rest us at a table, but noticed that the staff seemed to be giving passive-​aggressive glares even though the restaurant wasn’t even that busy. On the other hand, during our actual meal we had some problem flagging down servers when we needed them. Meh… bumped down my 3.5 stars food-​ambiance to 3 stars overall: so 4 stars if you look at restaurants Michelin style, 3 stars if you are influenced by service.