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Casual fine dining at it’s finest.

This restaurant serves local, organic and sustainable foods from local farms.  It’s really nice to know where your food comes from and wish more restaurants will do the same.  And on top of that, their menu changes everyday.  So that makes dining there that much more exciting!

The first time I dined there I had this amazing meal that started with a salad composed of caramelized fennel and figs with parmesan, almonds, and red wine vinaigrette.

Next, I had the Marin Sun Farms’ crispy pork belly with Umbrian lentils, mint, and lemon.  The crispy pork belly was delicious, but what stole the show was the lentils! I don’t know why the combo of lemon and mint made these taste so darn good, but they did.

And for dessert, they served carrot cake with a dollop of cream and some walnuts that was freshly toasted, so it was light and airy and totally orgasmic.

The second time I went there was the next day and this time, G was with me.  Since I raved so much about the previous night’s food, he was intrigued and very curious to try the carrot cake in particular.  But since the menu changes daily, he didn’t get to try any of the dishes.  However, we did try:

• A salad consisted of mixed greens salad with creamy herb vinaigrette, house-made croutons and radishes. (Not as good as the previous night’s fennel salad, but still very yummy.)
• Next we shared two entrees:  Marin Sun Farm meatballs in tomato sauce with basil and crostini and the crispy risotto cakes (their vegetarian option) with cherry tomato conserva.  While we thought the meatballs were good, the risotto cakes was much better in comparison because it was just a different take on risotto, and tasted really good.
• And for dessert, we had the oatmeal raisin cookies with cream cheese frosting.  It’s an awesome cookie! The cookies were warm, the cream fresh, and just thinking about it makes me want another one now…

For my third visit, I had:

• roasted carrot (they ran out of the Dirty Girl Farm broccoli) with pine nuts, raisins, Calabrian chiles, and lemon caper vinaigrette salad.  (They top it with a bit of Acme bread crumb and it was just right amount of crunch, and the carrot added a bit of sweetness to a great salad.)
• For entrée, I had the Marin Sun Farm crispy pork belly with Umbrian lentils, mint, and lemon  (Someone must have tipped them off…)
• And for dessert, I had the buttermilk sponge cake, lemon mousse, roasted strawberries, and toasted almonds  (I don’t think they can make bad desserts here.)

And as if this write-up isn’t long enough, I have to tell you about my fourth dinner here.

• lacopi artichokes with potatoes, castelvetrano olives and feta (so good! again, i almost licked the bowl. Lol)
• Marin Sun Farms spareribs with mustard glaze, baked beans and spicy slaw (I love the ribs. it was fall-off-the-bone good and ohhh..the mustard glaze was a nice touch. Partial with the baked beans as it was a bit too smokey for me. As for the spicy slaw, it was great)
• Chocolate pudding with whipped cream and roasted strawberries  (really hard to photograph, but it tasted great!)

The place is located in one of the ferry building’s hallways.  Very different setup from a “normal” restaurant.  So it’s rather casual and a few people actually eat here before boarding or exiting the ferry.  Also, they have some tables outside, so on a nice night (my third and fourth visit), I sat outside overlooking the water, the ferries, and the Bay Bridge.

Il Cane Rosso | 1 Ferry Building | San Francisco, CA

http://canerossosf.com/?page_id=2