I got drinks with my friend John beforehand at this dive bar right on 22nd between Mission and Valencia and really should not have eaten all the chips and salsa in front of me, but I was starving! I also coerced John to join us gals for dinner. Good thing I did eat those chips though because despite our 8pm reservations, we didn't get seated until 8:45pm.
We started out with cocktails and meatballs. The meatballs are very very good. Not humongous and not tiny, but moist, hearty, and just the right amount of herbs and salt.
We then moved on to get two pizzas: the spicy italian sausage, panna & green onions pizza and the funghi misti, tomato, fontina & thyme with buratta on top. Buratta is basically a fancy mozarella that is extra creamy and buttery- really good. It's the top pizza (pictured below) with all the white blobs on it below- mmmmm love buratta.
The pizza is really good here. Thin crust, reminds me of eating pizza in Italy with really fresh ingredients and the right balance of sweet and salty tomato sauce. We also ordered the squid ink risotto and the kale and prosciutto risotto. The squid ink was better (in my opinion) than the prosciutto.
Overall, Beretta is a great dining experience. It can get a bit crowded so I'd recommend making reservations ahead of time or going earlier. They have a great cocktail menu as well: if you're a girl (or guy) and like drinks that are sweet but not overly sweet and fresh, I recommend the lonsdale made up of gin, apple, lemon, basil, honey.
More to come! This Friday I'll be dining at Incanto with Chef Josef and some friends to eat the Leg of Beast and other delicious goodies! Note: the food served at Incanto is not for the faint of heart when it comes to eating all parts of an animal.
