This place came recommended and I don't know why. The food was horrible and sooo pricey. My pasta was about 20 dollars! I could make it better at home. The waiter had no opinion of anything, the salads were tasteless and the eggplant parm was a joke. WAY OVERPRICED! I am sorry to say that the ppl that recommend this place must have no taste in food or they never had real italian food in their lives.

Excellent, excellent, excellent, that includes the food and the service. Don't miss this place, having come home and read some previous reviews about poor service and mediocore food I find them hard to understand. As I said, our party of four found everything to be excellent, excellent, excellent.

We went to the North Beach Restaurant for a family celebration with 10 people. The food was good, but very pricey for what you get. The problem came when we ordered wine. We asked for some suggestions from the waiter, and he brought over a glass for us to try. It was a wonderful wine, but when we asked how much it cost, he pointed out the price on the wine list - again pricey- but we decided to order a bottle. We ordered another bottle of the same wine later, but it was quickly decanted and the bottle whisked away. The second bottle was definitely different than the first bottle. Bottom line: We ended up paying $90 a bottle for our wine, much more than we had planned to spend and more than the price listed on the wine list. My husband, not wanting to spoil the celebration quietly paid the bill. My advice: Be very careful when ordering your wine, ask to keep the bottle on the table, be sure it is the wine you ordered, and be assertive if you want a particular wine and do not ask for suggestions from the waiter as to which wine to order.

The food was fantastic. That's the top reason to go here. Every bit -- from appetizer to dessert -- was just delicious. And the service for our large group event was really outstanding...So why do I still have such mixed feelings about this place?

I had the challenge of putting together an event for a large group coming in from out of town. I do this often -- plan events when I don't live in the city. At first North Beach seemed easy to work with. I thought things were going pretty well until the weekend I arrived in San Francisco. When I called the two other venues we were dining at during this meeting, everything in those locations were pretty much locked in place. When I called North Beach I found that communications between the person I'd been working with in advance and the people working that weekend were not so clear. Even after talking with them by phone before I arrived at the restaurant didn't solve the challenge. It was almost like starting from scratch when I walked in the door.

The biggest issue was a push to add $135 bottles of wine to the group dinner service. I said no as many ways as I could, finally enlisting the help of a co-worker who couldn't have been clearer. No -- we weren't authorizing that wine. A short time later our guests began coming downstairs to the dining room we were told they'd also had a friendly push as they came through the door, asking them whether they'd "like to have this wine with your dinner?" Why is it that my advance email, phone discussions and face-to-face chats about our budget suddenly were not being understood? Another irritating issue was that I'd been specifically asked when I arrived at the restaurant whether we wanted special bottled water at the tables. I said no, but during the meal the servers quickly opened bottle after bottle of water and filled the glass faster than our guests could say "no thank you". Several people attending this event mentioned this seemed very forced service and they wondered what was going on. So, if you're on a budget make sure you are watchful, assertive and willing to argue if necessary.

On the plus side...the Proscuitto room was really something different...kind of like dining in part of the kitchen, or a movie set, or the back of a very clean meat processing joint that Tony Soprano would frequent. Kind of spooky, gothic, drippy red candles in funky silver candelabra. The room is loud and cold at times -- there's a very open ventilation system and either garbage or ice rumbles very loudly through a nearby passage. But this was definitely a memory maker. Lots of aging proscuitto hanging just overhead, and the slight aroma of something like bacon. Again -- just absolutely great food and service. The lamb was perfect, the seafood super fresh and done just right, and the tiramisu was dreamy.

So, the meal was wonderful. Beautifully cooked and presented. Loved the sampler plates they put together for us. The service staff was awesome. This meal was a great stop during our San Francisco meeting and I really wouldn't hesitate to tell others about how good the food was. In fact, it seemed almost petty to vent about these service issues that night. But it's kept bothering me.