Dining Review: Dinner at Incanto

You may have heard of Incanto, the restaurant where Chris Cosentino,contestant on Food Network's "The Next Iron Chef" & "Chefs vs. City" serves as executive chef. I had the great opportunity to visit Incanto recently with my wife Katie in celebration of my birthday. My thoughts on the visit are listed below.

This trip was my first to Noe Valley, an affluent neighborhood on the outskirts of San Francisco. The area was incredibly quaint, with lots of little shops on the main street and nicely restored Victorian homes. We parked on a side street and walked down to Incanto. We arrived early so we found a spot at the bar, which was placed right next to the incredibly busy kitchen. We reviewed the menu, a single page devoted to all offerings (i.e. starters, pastas, entrees, and sides). On  the other side, we found the wine list. I'm a wine lover (as can be seen by my wine blog) and Incanto focuses on one of my favorites, Italian wines. We chose the Mystery flight and were offered 3 very unique wines (a white and 2 reds).We decided to pair our wine flight with the Harvest Grapes starter.

The Harvest Grapes salad was an interesting and exciting dish. Green, red, and small yellow grapes were sauteed with shaved turnips and toasted sliced almonds and finished with fresh ground black pepper and fennel and hints of shallots. The dish, unexpectedly, was served cold, but was delightful. Juicy grapes coupled with the almonds produced a wonderful blend that reminded me of fall in Wisconsin.

We moved to our dining table and ordered our entrees for the evening. As expected, Katie ordered the Chanterelle risotto while I chose what the waiter called a "more adventurous dish" in the Paccheri with cippolini and gorgonzola with bitter greens.

Katie's risotto was creamy and perfectly cooked. The abundance of beautiful little mushrooms topped the risotto, which had a very creamy, tan-colored sauce. Needless to say, the dish stood little chance of survival at our table.

The Paccheri dish was an interesting creation. Paccheri is a large tubular pasta that was cooked al dente and subsequently sauteed with the bitter greens and cippolini (little sweet onions) and topped with ground gorgonzola cheese. The dish was very full of flavor. Unfortunately, the bitter greens dominated the dish. The cippolini tried their best to overcome the pungent flavor of the greens, but had little chance of defeating the combined flavors of bitter greens and gorgonzola. I thoroughly enjoyed the cheese and onion mixture, with a nice roasted sweet flavor of onion combined with the salty, blue cheese flavor from the gorgonzola. In this dish though, the greens dominated and the pasta offered little "extra" flavor.

Then, we ordered dessert. The Spiced Panna Cotta with pumpkin jam and cranberry was truly exquisite. Panna cotta is a cross between a creme brulee and flan, with a very distinct ricotta cheese flavor combined with nutmeg and cinnamon flavors. When combined with the pumpkin jam, which I could have eaten by itself, and the cranberry syrup, the dessert was an excellent finish to a wonderful evening.

Overall, Incanto offers an exciting opportunity to try an inspired chef's latest creations. I highly recommend Incanto for special occasion dining or for those who simply love food.