nicholaspearceer: Does Flour + Water Live Up to the Hype? ? Wandering Off

Posted by: Sarah V. on: February 7, 2012

When I asked my friends for San Francisco restaurant recommendations, more than one person suggested Flour + Water. To be honest, I?d never heard of it, but after looking at their website and reading reviews, I thought it sounded like a great dinner option for my husband and me.

I?d read about the fact that it can get very busy and that reservations are recommended. Since we didn?t have our daughter with us, we decided to give it a try even though we might have to wait a couple hours to eat. When we stepped out of our cab, we thought we had it made. There didn?t seem to be many people waiting by the hostess stand. It turned out there was a three hour wait?everyone had gone down the street to grab a drink at a nearby bar. The hostess told us to check back after an hour or so. Sure enough, we came back and were seated after about 90 minutes of total wait time. (We went on a Saturday night, by the way.)

One thing that stood out to me immediately was that despite all of the hype, this is a very unpretentious restaurant. I love that. I don?t like places that are formal, where you feel like the servers are hovering over you. Our waiter was very friendly and helped me decide what to order.

Flour + Water specializes in pasta and pizza. The pasta servings are fairly small, so our waiter recommended that my husband and I share two pasta dishes and a pizza. This was the perfect amount of food for us and allowed us to try multiple dishes.

We ordered the prosciutto pizza (with chicory!), cauliflower tortelli with brown butter and capers, and pork raviolini with black trumpet mushrooms. I liked the pork-filled pasta the best, which was interesting because I usually don?t gravitate to pork dishes. Both pasta dishes were not heavy at all, and they weren?t overwhelmed with sauce. The flavors were subtle.

The pizza was very good, and we really liked the crust. However, I wasn?t so sure about the chicory. If I were to go back, I?d try a different pizza.

For dessert, we ordered the chocolate budino with espresso caramel cream and sea salt, which was the perfect end to our meal. I love the sea salt and caramel combination. The dessert wasn?t too rich or heavy.

Overall, we very much enjoyed our dinner at Flour + Water. We would return without hesitation and would recommend it to others. It?s hard for any restaurant to live up to such high expectations, but I think the accolades are deserved.