Day 1 of my San Francisco trip started off with a flight to San Jose so hubby and I could catch the Pace Art + Technology teamlab exhibit in Menlo Park. For anyone who is into digital art installations, this is the mother of all digital art shows. This is worth a visit before they end in July.

For dinner, we took a couple friends who live in the city to Delarosa for dinner. All of us being Delarosa newbies, we wanted to find out why this is one of SF’s hotspots. Seated to a communal table, our server Omar was happy to introduce to us some drink recommendations to start. For cocktails, a popular choice is the Salty Dog – while the name doesn’t sound all that appealing, it was a refreshing cocktail of vodka, elderflower, grapefruit juice, and with a salted rim. This cocktail is a great start to a sunny evening.

For appetizers, Omar recommended three of the restaurant’s most popular dishes to try. First off was the meatballs in spicy marinara sauce. A simple dish, yet the meatballs are tender and full of flavour in its marinara. According to the servers here, it’s a secret recipe from the chef’s grandma. I guess we won’t know what really makes this dish so you’ll just have to come try it for yourself.

When I saw the menu online, I really wanted to try the burrata bruschetta with hazelnut and honey. I love burrata, but this dish sounded to die for. Omar mentioned this was by far their most popular dish. Upon my first bite, I had died and gone to Italian heaven. With the right combination of honey and crunchiness of the hazelnuts, it felt like a rich dessert. I could eat this all day if I could.

The final appetizer which we tried was my friends favourite. This was a dungeness crab arancini with a calabrese aioli for dipping. The bite sized arancinis were crunchy on the outside and soft and flaky with crab meat on the inside. It left us wanting more.

For the main courses we ordered the pappardelle napoletana, two to share as we were told they were small for sharing. Freshly made pappardelle noodles cooked with braised pork shoulder, you could tell this dish was made with love by the chef. Topped with ample shredded braised pork shoulder, these noodles had a light sauce, not too heavy, not too rich and salty.

The roman-style pizza is what Delarosa is famous for. Upon recommendation from Omar, we tried the prosciutto di parma, arugula, and mozzarella pizza. My hubby doesn’t normally enjoy eating arugula, but on pizza he ate it up no problem. The crust was thin and crispy and transported us back to memories of our trip to Italy.

For dessert – yes we still had some room – we shared some bombolone – light pillowy Italian donuts that came with custard, fruit spread, and chocolate dipping sauces. With the dipping sauces, this dessert is not too sweet and great for sharing. We also enjoyed a chocolate lava cake topped with vanilla ice cream which was quite decadent.

Thank you Delarosa for sharing with us your dish highlights. It made for a great start to our exploring the popular experiences in San Francisco!

Disclaimer: All thoughts and opinions are my own. Although Delarosa provided complimentary dishes and drinks for this evening, I was not compensated in any way for this article.