A Starbelly full...

So I am trying to figure out what all the hype is about when it comes to the semi-new place Starbelly. It's owned by the same people as Beretta, which I love, and thus should have been an amazing experience. What makes Beretta great first off, is location, in the Mission and always full of people and lively. And 2, the cocktails! So when we arrived at Starbelly, a bit off the beaten path in the Castro, it was unfortunate to discover there was just beer and wine, I have nothing against beer and wine, I just feel like the vibe gets a bit better when there are specialty cocktails involved. So hopefully this is just a temporary, we are trying work out the kinks in our liquor license, stint. The wine list is a bit on the smallish side, approachable and easy to navigate through... and the beers are a wide range from obscure to common.

The food was good. Just good, not great. We started with a $5 salad, that professed to be the Starbelly salad. It was literally mixed greens that had been tossed in a basic vinaigrette, and some cheese and tomato thrown in there for good measure. I literally could have made it at home. Next was the charcuterie plate. this is my new favorite menu item, and I am trying to taste my way through the city... this one was good, again not great. One thing stood out though and that was the rabbit rilette. It came out warm and just delicious. The other 2 meats really didn't stand out, but the carmelized red onion jam sure did. And of course we had to ask for more bread. That happens with every charcuterie that I have experienced, they always skimp on the bread. Anyway...

For the main event, we shared a pizza (more of a flatbread really) that was really tasty, blue cheese, figs and arugula, we opted for the addition of some proscuitto, and it was good, salty sweet and pungent. We also shared the burger with more blue cheese. I also like to compare burgers around the city. It too was good. we had to ask for all the condiments, they hadn't anticipated that we'd want mustard, ketchup, or aoili for a burger with fries, strange. The ketchup was homemade, and not my favorite, and the aoili they had for us was a basil aoili, good and different, but very fragrant.

All in all I thought the service was mediocre, I tried to be cheerful and engaging with the server and she wasn't having it, she felt uncomfortable in the dining room. The layout is also a bit odd. Having been to the old Askew, I thought maybe they would have changed it a bit making feel a little more, inviting. But rather they stuck with the original layout, which is divided in the middle, so there is a front seating area, divided by the kitchen and bar, and a back seating area. It just doesn't feel cohesive, very separated. If they bring in a cocktail list I might consider a repeat visit, but nothing really stood out to me to bring me back there, and having spent $100 on 2 people it's a bit pricy, which is too bad, because it really had potential. But like any second restaurant, it doesn't live up to its big brother.

http://starbellysf.com/

3583 16th St
San Francisco, CA 94114-1620