Incanto Restaurant San Francisco - All Things Pork

Incanto Exterior Wall Decoration

We celebrated Chris' birthday at Incanto Restaurant.  Located at 1550 Church Street at Duncan in Noe Valley.  At 6:30 PM parking was easy, but parking may be difficult at later times.  Featured in an Anthony Bourdain TV episode on San Francisco, it has a reputation for it devotion to pork and offal.   I love pork, but I'm a little quesy about innards.  Katie, however, is adventuresome and ordered the lamb heart tartar.  I admit it was good, but I stopped at a taste.  Katie gobbled it up.  

The design of the restaurant has a nice traditional Italian feel about it, but still crisp and contemporary.  The front of the restaurant faces east and at 6:30 PM the summer late afternoon sunlight reflected off the walls of building across the street -- backlighting and making the faces of my dining partners difficult to see.  It's a difficult lighting problem.  You either boost the lighting on the inside to balance the light from the outside -- or you shade the windows from the outside glare.

The salumi platter was available in three sizes and the mid-sized platter was generous and the selection good.  My slow braised pork shoulder lacked the succulent moisture I was expecting.  Best dishes were the ragu handkerchief pasta with duck egg on top - deliciously rich and Bay leaf panna cotta.  They have a great looking website and an interesting read.  Take a look here.