Seven Hills - Amazing Italian on the streets of San Francisco

 We were traveling in the Napa Valley and San Francisco area for a week, and Seven Hills is the best restaurant of our entire trip, and we have enjoyed some pretty amazing places to eat. If you are a local and have not been to Seven Hills, you have to go because you will fall in love with it and have a new favorite spot yourself. The next time I come to San Francisco, I will make my reservation weeks ahead to make sure I can get a table.

The restaurant is located on the corner of Hyde and Green. Hyde is on the Cable Car line, so imagine being able to ride the cable car directly to this amazing Italian restaurant from Ghirardelli square; this would make the ultimate romantic experience. The cable cars were not running, so Uber dropped us off at the front door. When we arrived for an 8:00 reservation Alex, the owner, greeted us at the door. We were a few minutes early, so he set us up with a wine list and encouraged us to look it over. We asked a question about an Italian wine that we were not familiar with, and Alex told us about the wine and then opened a bottle for us to sample before making a final decision. We loved the wine and purchased the bottle. It was cool that he had faith in the wine and wanted to make sure that we were happy that he would do this.

The food was simply amazing so let's jump into it. For starters, we order the Burrata, which has been a dish that we have tried multiple times during the trip. The Burrata was made with fresh melon, arugula, and almonds topped with a delicious sauce that pulled everything together. Complex flavors came together so nicely; it was a great way to start. We also got the mixed olives, a generous portion of olives, served slightly warm, which enhanced the flavors and elevated the ingredient.

At this point, we decided that we were going to eat family-style because we wanted to try as many of the flavors and dishes as we could. I would highly recommend this approach because it will expose you to so many great dishes. We chose three different pasta dishes, and with the help of our amazing waiter Alex, we adventured out of our norm to try something new.

The Truffle Tortelloni is the most unique and delicious pasta dish I have ever had. The key is to eat the entire pillow of goodness at once and just savor the creaminess and bursting flavors. The sauce is buttery, and you will want to make sure to get every little bit of it. If I could recommend a single dish, this is where I would start.

Our second dish was the one recommended by our wait staff, the Agnolotti. The pasta tubes are filled with sweet corn and ricotta. When you bite into them, the corn offers such an amazing natural sweetness to your tastebuds you are going to be amazed. We were a little nervous about the whole corn and pasta combination, but it works so well. Our daughter does not like mushrooms, but there was only happiness as she tried the Chanterelle mushrooms with this dish.

Our third and final pasta dish was just added to the menu and were a braised pork with a wide pasta noodle. I wish I would have made better notes on this one to share about it, but I do not want to misdescribe it. Like the others, it was fantastic, with the pork being very tender.

To conclude our evening, we shared the Chocolate Budino and the special dessert of the day, an open tart with apricots and blackberries. Both deserts are were amazing. When you look up Budino on your phone, it will say that it is a pudding; I would compare it more to a mousse. It had a rich chocolate flavor with a smooth, airy texture. With our dessert, we splurged and paired it with a port to cap off the evening.

Be sure to go to Seven Hills for an amazing meal and a culinary journey to Italy without air travel.