Leave it to the single guy on the prowl to take me to the trendy places. A16 certainly hosts a beautiful crowd. At ten o’clock on a friday night, the place is packed with pretty sorority girls in cute tops and low rise jeans. I didn’t know such place existed in San Francisco. Then again, this is the Marina, and about the only place a girl can find a straight guy in this granola crunchy, rainbow flag city.  

 

As far as date venue goes, A16 has great potential. The place has the sort of ambient lighting that makes even the plainest of opposite sex seemed appealing and a decent wine list to help it along.  

 

The food isn’t too bad either, it’s casual enough that one doesn’t have too work too hard at making decisions, and interesting enough to provide decent conversation if the couple happens to be mismatched.  We shared a pretty competent grilled octopus with beans, and a thin crusted pizza that actually had a nice flavorful crust and seriously fresh mushroom (not the reconstituted or canned sponges normally seen on NYC pizzas).  Dan’s ricotta gnocchi seemed a little dense, although he did not complained about it.  My tuna conserva salad with radicchio was a bit over dressed but overall okay.  We ordered a side dish of grilled vegetables that has very nice seasonal cauliflowers and Brussel sprouts with meyer lemon which makes it kind of hard to screw up.  

 

Everything was great until dessert arrived. A white concoction sat in a puddle of lemon sauce that tasted strangely metallic.  We sent the offending item back and everything was nice and mellow again.  

 

I wondered if we were the first ones to complain about the dessert, although looking around the room, I sincerely believe that to be the case. The crowd that frequent A16 didn’t seemed like the type to fuss over desserts, they are more inclined to get another glass of wine and call it a day. That is exactly what we did.

 

A16

2355 Chestnut Street

San Francisco.