RANT - Capannina

Outside of North Beach, San Francisco's Italian restaurants are under-represented. Or at least that's my impression, because I was hard-pressed to think of a good Italian restaurant elsewhere in the City.

Therefore, after Capannina was highly-recommended by Joe Public on Check Please, Bay Area, we booked a table immediately.

All I can say is that Joe Public doesn't get around much.

It's a small place, and Saturday night it was heaving in there. I don't know if it's normally that noisy, but last night it really got on my nerves.

What I want noise-wise in a restaurant is something compatible with the noise my group is making. That means: if it's just Mrs Page and me, I want the noise level to be compatible with us, enabling us to talk without shouting. If I'm with a group of 6 or 8, I'm happy for the ambient noise to be boisterous, as no doubt my group will be.

With Capannina it was all topsy turvy, with waiters barking in thick Italian accents, and adjacent tables deciding to bellow their opinions so that everyone could here, whether they wanted to or not.

Of course, all of that would have been acceptable if the food was above par, but it wasn't. The signore's choice of Crab Cakes ("much smaller than they looked on the TV program") and Squid Ink Risotto with Mussels, Clams, Crab etc ("dried out and under-flavored") was a little more disappointing than my Papardelle with Wild Boar Ragu (very good) and Veal Scaloppine with Lemon-Caper Sauce, Spinach & Parmesan Risotto (also lacking in the flavor department).

Funnily enough, we did go to North Beach afterward, looking for after-dinner coffee in more salubrious surroundings. But not-so-little Italy let us down by being particularly stingy on the parking opportunities.

"Sapristi Mon Bole" as my schoolfriend Chris James was wont to say. Neither of us knew what it meant, but it summed up last night perfectly.