Cucina Restaurant & Wine Bar
San Anselmo, CA 94979 (415) 454-2942
- Price Range: $$$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: No
- Good for Kids: No
- Takes Reservations: Yes
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Alcohol: Beer & Wine Only
42 reviews
San Rafael, CA
"Excellent pizza! I really like the way they load the toppings on. Service was super attentive too. The veg toppings (I got a vegetarian…" read more »
20 Reviews for Cucina Restaurant & Wine Bar
We recently ventured out to San Anselmo for dinner with friends. Much to our surprise, we called at 7pm and easily got a table for 8pm, despite it being a Saturday night (and this being a Chronicle Top 100 restaurant).
The restaurant is nice yet casual. We enjoyed an excellent bruschetta, and an interesting mushroom appetizer. Unfortunately, I wasn't happy with my entree. If you're hungry, don't get the spinach/ricotta pasta dish. Everyone else got these big gorgeous plates of food, while I got six little pasta triangles in some sauce. Disappointing. I would come here again, though - I'd just order something else.
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There's something about listening to travel tales of Italy while eating Italian food that makes the experience that much more enjoyable. This is especially true when eating good food and hearing about good food: A whirlwind tour of Italy that included the culinary delights of Bologna.
We enjoyed the food at Cucina:
- a nice bruschetta with chopped tomatoes
- stuffed mushrooms
- a fig salad with goat cheese
I had breaded chicken cutlets served on a bed of wilted greens. Delicious. There was so much I would've been a smart guy to share it with my gf and two friends.
The prices were surprisingly reasonable. We learned that it was a rarity to be able to just stroll in on a Saturday night. Luck was on our side.
Good atmosphere, good food, and great company.
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3rd visit and the food gets 5 stars for each visit. The service gets 4 stars and the atmosphere is just so-so. If you don't make a res then go the back and wait at the wine bar. Portions are not big, but good. This place is popular.
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This place is ok, sort of ho-hum.
We called ahead of time on a Friday night at 7:30 to find out if they had a table for two free (yea, right) and were assured they did (yeah ... is something wrong with the place?). We hopped in the car and arrived 10 minutes later and they had nothing available (that sucked).
We went straight to the wine bar in the back where were it's first come, first served - the bar and tables are squeezed in pretty close quarters, and the atmosphere is sort of blah, but ok for the last minute, let's grab dinner on the fly. We got a table pretty fast, some bubbles (yum) and dove into a green salad - not the leafy variety, but the straight up, if you're green, jump into the bowl - fava beans, artichokes, mint. It needed a little yellow - like some lemon juice to add some zing.
The gnocchi were saucy and cheesy - can't go wrong with that - but a little overcooked, as in, we didn't need teeth to eat them.
Next time, I'd sit in the front of the restaurant for the price - more romantic, less squishy, less rushed service.
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Pretty good food but the service is just okay. My kids LOVED their pizza and the restaurant was kid-friendly. Wine selection was good, not great. I had a gnocchi and enjoyed it very much. I will return and hope that our waiter was just having a bad day.
Went here last night for the second time and had the best quick meal. We loved the pizza with goat cheese & spinach, it tasted so fresh. Also shared the gnocchi that was amazing. Unfortunately no room left for dessert. This is my man's new favorite restaurant.
If you're ever in the area, Cucina is located on a quaint street full of shops and restaurants. It's a nice stroll, and I wish I arrived there earlier to take time to browse. The restaurant was able to accommodate our large party and was patient enough to not give us too much grief that part of our party was late. The highlights of our dinner included the complimentary bruschetta, the gnocchi con pollo, and the orecchiette. I wasn't a fan of the zabaglione classico, but thought the zabaglione freddo was much better! Service was great, and they even stuck a candle in the birthday boy's dessert, but didn't sing. I don't think he missed that part. ;o)
Cucina is an amazing restaurant. All the food is fresh and of the 2 appetizers and 2 entrees we had, spectacular. The wine list was extensive and looked awesome, but sadly, had no descriptions at all, so for a wine amateur like myself, was pretty much guess work to order.
I take away a star for 2 reasons, one probably coincidence and the other, i noticed twice. First, our waitress delayed about 15 minutes after giving us the dessert menu to come back, and we were so annoyed we ended up not trying dessert (which looked awesome), and second, the owner of this place seems a bit stuck up. The first time we came in, he outright said he could not seat us. Only calling ahead and getting a co worker, and not him, did we get our name in. He will come over and be wonderful to any table that seems to be regulars (or perhaps, people not in their 20s) but completely ignores anyone new (or young? I don't know if this is his bias.) Still, most owners don't come out at all, so net, it's still a great place, because the food is divine.
After daytripping at the antique shops in San Anselmo, we had dinner at Cucina. A city snob, I was worried about the quality of what I would discover. Cucina was delightful. From the gratis bruscheta to the zucchini app to the best spaghetti carbonara, this place is yummy.
Will be back.
I don't get out of the City very often because there are very few reasons why I should (right, Fremont?). One of the reasons is to discover quaint little cities like San Anselmo, which has two main streets lined with businesses. Although the streets are pretty much dead at night, there is a decently vibrant restaurant scene here. The leader of the pack here is, of course, Cucina.
Food: 4 stars. The complimentary bruschetta, so flavorful and fresh, was a nice way to start the evening. UnfortunatelyFor appetizers, we tried the carciofi ripieni (globe artichoke stuffed with prosciuto and parmesan), which was disappointingly bland. The carpaccio di Zucchini (thinly sliced zucchini with almonds and pecorini) was much better. I don't like zucchini that much, but the preparation was creative and paired perfectly with the almonds. The funghi ripieni (Crimini mushrooms stuffed with sausage and fontina cheese) were good if not memorable. As for the entrees, the highlight of the evening was the gnocchi con pollo (homemade potato dumplings with roasted chicken, fontina cheese, and a touch of tomato), which was lovingly infused with truffle oil. Orgasmic. The tortellini al forno (meat filled tortellini in a prosciutto, mushroom and cream sauce topped with mozzarella and parmesan cheese), was good, but paled in comparison to the gnocchi. I also liked the salmone agrigento (salamon baked in the oven with toasted breadcrumbs) and the orecchiette d'Elefante (chicken cutlets breaded and lightly fried, served over mixed greens with marinated mushrooms and gorgonzola). For desserts, we tried the zabaglione classico (warm), zabaglione freddo (cold), and chocolate torte. The cold zabaglione outshone the warm zabaglione, which basically tasted like alcohol (Michael Bauer must have been drunk when he raved about this dessert in his review). The chocolate torte was decent. I was not too impressed with some of the wine that we ordered, however.
Service: 3 stars. Initially our server and the host/owner seemed annoyed with us because half of our party was late for our reservation (understandably so, given the small size of the restaurant). But the server turned it around and practically became our best friend at the end of the night - she gave us spot on recommendations (and was delighted that we enjoyed them). I dropped the rating down a notch because there is no formal host stand due to the layout of the restaurant. I basically walked in and found the table myself in the back room without any offer for assistance.
Atmosphere: 3 stars. Although the decor is pleasant, I'm not a fan of the layout of the restaurant, where the waiting area is basically the small space between the main dining area and the wine bar/smaller dining area in back. You have to squeeze by people in order to get to the restroom, where the floors are a bit greasy (wear shoes with traction or you'll start doing the splits while going #1 like me). Don't expect too much diversity from the crowd either, which are primarily families. Additionally, we were the drop of yellow in a sea of white.
Hits: Complimentary bruschetta, carpaccio di zucchini, gnocchi con pollo, zabaglione freddo.
Misses: Carciofi ripieni, zabaglione classico, the waiting area.
If You Like This Place, You'd Probably Like: Jackson Fillmore, Antica Trattoria, Bistro Don Giovanni, Ristorante Bacco.
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Saw the yelp ratings and sfgate rating(as top 100 restaurant) so I gave it a try.
Food alone was 3 stars. Didn't feel it was the best pasta(carbonara) and risotto I've had. Complimentary bruschetta was very good.
We tried their desset specialty, the zabaglione classico. This was not for us. It's a warm frothy dessert made of eggs and wine(but tasted like hard liquor) and some other ingredients. I hate to waste food but we each took a bite and that was it.
Service was NOT good. We seated outselves. Waiter did the basic and took our order, served food and gave us the bill. No "how is the food", "see you didn't like dessert, can i give you something else". Busboy was the only one doing his job good.
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I had the most pleasant, unexpected time here last week. I have not eaten a full meal here, but happened upon the little wine bar in the back, right by a little bridge. I had just spent a pleasant morning at Emporio Rulli in Larkspur (http://www.yelp.com/bi...), and had wandered over to San Anselmo, looking for another way to kill some time waiting for my boif to get off work (specifically a place that involved getting a drink.)
It was about 3 in the afternoon, and the restaurant itself didn't seem to be open, and in the back wine bar were two older ladies and the wine server. When I walked in, I was informed by the wine server that lunch was no longer being served, but most things on the menu could be whipped up, if I was hungry. I was a bit short on cash, but knew that if I didn't have a little something to nibble, then I'd be incapacitated after only one glass of wine.
I asked if there was any way to just get a little manchego cheese, and not the whole cheese plate, or would the pricing be annoying for him. He said no problem, and in a flash he was back with about two ounces of manchego topped with quince paste, yum! I then downed two glasses of DELICIOUS Garnacha Rose (I guess I wasn't THAT low on cash...) while reading my book (Snow Crash IF you must know!)
I stayed there for a couple hours, and it appeared that the front house was starting to get ready. But no one rushed me or ushered me out, even though, in hindsight, I was probably a bit in their way. When I did leave, I looked at the bill and my super-friendly, knowledgeable wine server had paid for the manchego for me!
Definitely a place I'd love to wile away another afternoon. I can't speak to it as a restaurant, and this is KIND of like one of those annoying reviews where I only went there once and maybe had an uncharacteristic experience, but I'm writing an authoritative review anyway. But whatever. IT WAS ONE OF THOSE SPECIAL MOMENTS, OKAY? And maybe you'll get lucky like I did! So I thought I'd share. FOUR STARS FOR THE GUY BEHIND THE BAR. Whoever he was....
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One of my all time faves - wonderful food, great service, friendly servers..the whole ball o' wax - or maybe bufalo mozzarella in this case. I remember drinking great wine and eating dish after dish of tasty tidbits from the kitchen, followed by one of the best chocolate desserts I had ever eaten.
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What can one say about a place where the pizza is this wonderful?
This is a sister restaurant to the one on Fillmore and Jackson in San Francisco and is where you will find the owner often since he lives with his charming family just blocks away. The salad with pomegrante and pstachios and greens in a vinegarette with proscuitto has to be one of my all time top salads in the world.
(and I eat salads all the time)
The place is small but bustles with locals. The wood oven assures that the pizzas arrive quickly.
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The complimentary bruschetta is a nice touch and the service is friendly, but the food is nothing spectacular. It's decent, but I'd opt for Trattoria Fresco in Ross instead. We shared an arugula salad that was fine, but lacked sex appeal. My pasta with shrimp and spicy tomato sauce was spicy enough, but lacked depth. My husband's calzone was basic and lacked exciting flavors or spices. And his glass of chianti was terrible. I will say, however, that the chocolate torte dessert was divine. Overall, a mediocre place, but one can do better (even in Marin).
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I can't believe this place hasn't been reviewed (or listed!) before! When you arrive, Jack the proprietor will probably come out and say hello. Then, you will be served complimentary bruschetta - crispy, flaky and hot from the oven, topped with aromatic garlic, bursting tomatoes, and fresh basil. Then, start with the thin and light pizza topped with white truffle oil, fontina cheese and porcini mushroom with a nice cold white wine. To Die For!!! After that, I'd recommend their pastas - made fresh daily. I've had gnocchi with rock shrimp, their perennial favorite of crushed avocado with hot pasta; and their carbonara. Do check it out - even if it is a bit of a drive. The service is very friendly and their food is incredibly good! Sometimes I go there a few times a week -- can't resist!
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This restaurant fits its location perfectly. Cucina features delicious, fresh, superbly prepared food, often made from locally farmed ingredients. Better than that, it's no frills, intimate environment. Clean, small, high ceilings, dark wood tables. The waitstaff is friendly, professional and knows a great deal about their extensive, and always changing, wine list that features excellent wines from Italy, Spain, and California.
To try: the carpaccio di zucchini and the snapper diablo UNREAL if you like fish and spicy!
I have been to Cucina three times now and never been disappointed. The wood burning oven can be seen from the street and always draws me in. Service has always been fine and the waitress has recomended some good wines.
man, I agree it's weird this place hasn't been reviewed more. it's one of the best restaurants I've found so far in marin. the breaded chicken with cheese and balsamic vinegar on a bed of greens is unlike anything I've had before and super tasty. and the shredded zuchini carpaccio with pecorino and almonds is also unusual and amazing in its simplicity...the kind of dish you want to try and make at home but you know won't turn out as good somehow. san anselmo is not gonna win any awards for excitement--in fact they seem to pretty much roll up the streets at night so the soccer moms can sleep--but if you're in the area and looking for quality food this is the spot.
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After reading others review's, I deceided to give Cucina a shot. When you initially walk in, its really small and the host station is in the back behind a wall. Weird. There was a little attitude that it would be a pain to seat us, but we had no reservation so I really can't complain. My main issue was out shitty floating table in the line of all the traffic, but again, no reservation. Service was average, nothing great at all. It gets a 4 star review because of the food, hands down. Complimentary bruschetta is always good way to start, and no course afterwards was disappointing. The artichoke stuffed with panchetta and pecorino was awesome. All in all, nice little spot with great food and lots of Marin mommies.
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