Charming place with excellent food and wine list. Great service. The sardines and fish of the day were fantastic. So was the grilled veggie appetizer.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Matthew Dolbow
$50 entrees aren’t good enough
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 2
Service: 3
Anthony Barros 'student'
Best drinks in the Castro, amazing Italian food, can’t go wrong with Poesia
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Morgan Prenger
Poesia is such a hidden gem!
Great food + cozy atmosphere + kind staff = a wonderful spot! My partner and I go often. It's a great date spot, and great for parties of 2-4!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
J
Friendly service, but really bad food on happy hour. Happy hour mini pizzas were bite sized and not served hot. Happy hour meatballs were tough, overcooked, and tasted like they sat in a pan for hours. The entree pastas were really good.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 2
Service: 4
Roark
There is no good food in the Castro so I’m dead every time I see anyone in this place. I suspect it’s on purpose so no one eats anything to maintain their figure, but that said, if you’re actually looking to eat Italian food, go elsewhere.
Fred Soucy
Great food and atmosphere!!!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Peter Athanas
Old school beautiful trip to Italy without your passport. Food was excellent, server was really on it. Back ground music was spot on.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Camila Raimond
Loved walking through the kitchen to the back patio. The food was good, a couple of the seafood dishes were definitely on the fishy side. My favorite was the Vitello Tonnato, thinly sliced veal over tuna salad, sounds strange but it’s a great combo with some fresh bread. I was slightly underwhelmed by their “signature” pasta dish, the Agnolotti, I found the sauce to be too rich and very greasy. The decor of plastic hanging on the wall printed with an old house in Italy I’m guessing 🤣 is quite a site, especially with the window holes ripped into them… Overall I think I’d come back to give some other things on the menu a shot, maybe skip the seafood.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
Micah Glaz
Absolutely amazing! Visiting SF and decided to take my partner here. We were both so impressed. He had the eggplant and I had the sea bass and we shared the tiramisu for dinner. The service was also perfect.
Something has gone seriously south here in the last 6 months..
I wanted to have a great return visit to Poesía — the last time I went it was solid — but this time was a big let down. We made a reservation, and even though there were several empty tables when we arrived, we weren’t seated until well after the arrival time. They botched the sequencing — one of us ordered soup as a main after server specifically indicated they could do a bowl as opposed to a cup. Not so. They brought her a cup of soup and didn’t bring anyone else’s food. They also didn’t serve bread with the soup (which is pretty standard). They realized they flubbed, then re-served her with our mains but they literally didn’t bring her a spoon… waiter didn’t check in, so we had to flag him down. Also had to flag down someone to refill our water carafe. I ordered the special, and it pretty under seasoned. The cafe is great, but I can’t recommend upstairs anymore based on this last experience.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 3
Service: 3
Margie Powell
What a treat on our recent visit to SF and the Castro from Sydney, Aus. Staying nearby, it was an Uber driver recommended this place to us. It was perfect - as if we were holidaying in Italy !
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Regina Paramitha
Was recommended by my Italian coworker so I had high expectations of this place but unfortunately those were not met.
My partner reserved ahead of time for our anniversary and specified that we requested patio seating. Upon arrival they brought us to indoor seating, but thankfully they were willing to move us to the patio.
We were given happy hour menu but when we were ready to order the waiter did not come until 3 minutes before HH ended. We wanted to get house wines based on HH menu and then the waiter asked red or white. We mentioned white and asked for his recommendation. We ordered based on his recommendation thinking those were included in HH as we specifically said we wanted house wines. Yet when the check came, our wines were not included as HH price. When we asked about this, another waiter who served us said that there was only one type of house wine and the wines we ordered were not part of HH. We were so annoyed because the first waiter who took our order didn’t clarify this although we had mentioned that we wanted house wines. Due to this reason, we had to give lower tip than SF standard
Now for the food, we ordered: 1) pepata di cozze alla ‘nduja 2) paccheri al pomodoro e burrata 3) filetto di maiale The only thing I like from our appetizer (1) was the nduja sausage. But we could barely found the sausage, literally only 0.5-1 tablespoon worth of sausage. Mussels and broth were pretty bland. The pasta (2) was too hard to our liking. Sauce was pretty bland. But the burrata was fresh. The entree (3) kind of saved the night. It was good although not mindblowing. Overall this one tasted better than other dishes we ordered, but the pork tenderloin was a bit dry.
Jessica
I was introduced to this lovely spot when I met some friends here for dinner. The entire experience was terrific: the pastas are made by hand, the sauce is like your nonna made when you were little, and the desserts strike the right balance of flavors and notes, with none being too sweet. The staff are all very friendly and very welcoming, and our camariere was so nice when speaking to me in Italian (I'm still learning, so I speak slowly).
Grazie, Poesia per un pasto memorabile e molto delizioso- non vedo l'ora di tornarci!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Caleb Ng
Poesia was accommodating when we added one more to our reservation last minute. The service was polite and professional. The food was very good as well. I specifically enjoyed the seafood in the squid ink pasta.
Charming place with excellent food and wine list. Great service. The sardines and fish of the day were fantastic. So was the grilled veggie appetizer.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
$50 entrees aren’t good enough
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 2
Service: 3
Best drinks in the Castro, amazing Italian food, can’t go wrong with Poesia
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Poesia is such a hidden gem!
Great food + cozy atmosphere + kind staff = a wonderful spot! My partner and I go often. It's a great date spot, and great for parties of 2-4!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Friendly service, but really bad food on happy hour. Happy hour mini pizzas were bite sized and not served hot. Happy hour meatballs were tough, overcooked, and tasted like they sat in a pan for hours. The entree pastas were really good.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 2
Service: 4
There is no good food in the Castro so I’m dead every time I see anyone in this place. I suspect it’s on purpose so no one eats anything to maintain their figure, but that said, if you’re actually looking to eat Italian food, go elsewhere.
Great food and atmosphere!!!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Old school beautiful trip to Italy without your passport. Food was excellent, server was really on it. Back ground music was spot on.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Loved walking through the kitchen to the back patio. The food was good, a couple of the seafood dishes were definitely on the fishy side. My favorite was the Vitello Tonnato, thinly sliced veal over tuna salad, sounds strange but it’s a great combo with some fresh bread. I was slightly underwhelmed by their “signature” pasta dish, the Agnolotti, I found the sauce to be too rich and very greasy. The decor of plastic hanging on the wall printed with an old house in Italy I’m guessing 🤣 is quite a site, especially with the window holes ripped into them… Overall I think I’d come back to give some other things on the menu a shot, maybe skip the seafood.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
Absolutely amazing! Visiting SF and decided to take my partner here. We were both so impressed. He had the eggplant and I had the sea bass and we shared the tiramisu for dinner. The service was also perfect.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Restaurantji Recommends
Something has gone seriously south here in the last 6 months..
I wanted to have a great return visit to Poesía — the last time I went it was solid — but this time was a big let down. We made a reservation, and even though there were several empty tables when we arrived, we weren’t seated until well after the arrival time.
They botched the sequencing — one of us ordered soup as a main after server specifically indicated they could do a bowl as opposed to a cup. Not so. They brought her a cup of soup and didn’t bring anyone else’s food. They also didn’t serve bread with the soup (which is pretty standard).
They realized they flubbed, then re-served her with our mains but they literally didn’t bring her a spoon… waiter didn’t check in, so we had to flag him down. Also had to flag down someone to refill our water carafe.
I ordered the special, and it pretty under seasoned.
The cafe is great, but I can’t recommend upstairs anymore based on this last experience.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 3
Service: 3
What a treat on our recent visit to SF and the Castro from Sydney, Aus. Staying nearby, it was an Uber driver recommended this place to us. It was perfect - as if we were holidaying in Italy !
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Was recommended by my Italian coworker so I had high expectations of this place but unfortunately those were not met.
My partner reserved ahead of time for our anniversary and specified that we requested patio seating. Upon arrival they brought us to indoor seating, but thankfully they were willing to move us to the patio.
We were given happy hour menu but when we were ready to order the waiter did not come until 3 minutes before HH ended. We wanted to get house wines based on HH menu and then the waiter asked red or white. We mentioned white and asked for his recommendation. We ordered based on his recommendation thinking those were included in HH as we specifically said we wanted house wines. Yet when the check came, our wines were not included as HH price. When we asked about this, another waiter who served us said that there was only one type of house wine and the wines we ordered were not part of HH. We were so annoyed because the first waiter who took our order didn’t clarify this although we had mentioned that we wanted house wines. Due to this reason, we had to give lower tip than SF standard
Now for the food, we ordered:
1) pepata di cozze alla ‘nduja
2) paccheri al pomodoro e burrata
3) filetto di maiale
The only thing I like from our appetizer (1) was the nduja sausage. But we could barely found the sausage, literally only 0.5-1 tablespoon worth of sausage. Mussels and broth were pretty bland.
The pasta (2) was too hard to our liking. Sauce was pretty bland. But the burrata was fresh.
The entree (3) kind of saved the night. It was good although not mindblowing. Overall this one tasted better than other dishes we ordered, but the pork tenderloin was a bit dry.
I was introduced to this lovely spot when I met some friends here for dinner. The entire experience was terrific: the pastas are made by hand, the sauce is like your nonna made when you were little, and the desserts strike the right balance of flavors and notes, with none being too sweet. The staff are all very friendly and very welcoming, and our camariere was so nice when speaking to me in Italian (I'm still learning, so I speak slowly).
Grazie, Poesia per un pasto memorabile e molto delizioso- non vedo l'ora di tornarci!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Poesia was accommodating when we added one more to our reservation last minute. The service was polite and professional. The food was very good as well. I specifically enjoyed the seafood in the squid ink pasta.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
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