Panta Rei

When I walked into Panta Rei, I swore that I had left the United States and was now sitting in the heart Rome eating at postcard perfect restaurant. The waiters are charming; all speak Italian and provide quite an array of eye candy. The service is personal and provides a very Italian vibe. And the food, is well, indescribable. I doubt you would get better food in Italy. If you go to one restaurant in San Francisco, make it Panta Rei.

Pros: food, price, atmosphere

Posted 12/10/03

My girlfriend and I stopped into Panta Rei before a night on the town and it was the perfect start to the evening. The service couldn't have been better and the food was not only good, but inexpensive. Next time we're in the neighborhood we'll definitely be back.

Pros: inexpensive, friendly service, great value

Posted 12/08/03

Panta Rei is a great place for homemade pasta. My favorite is the salmon ravioli, absolutely delicious! Service is always good and the atmosphere lively. I definitely recommend.

Pros: homemade pasta, fresh ingredients, service

Cons: parking

Posted 08/17/03

What a disappointment!

The service was slow and inefficient. Our server was trying to "memorize" our order only to come back to our table FOUR TIMES and ask each one of us what it was that we had ordered!

Our appetizers took forever (probably b/c she forgot what they were) and when they finally arrived, were HORRIBLE! The bruschetta were more like "BURNTschetta!"

After all of that, our meals were OK. Not great, but definitely not as bad as everything else.

We waited for our server to finish up her conversation with her friends who were not dining at the restaurant for about 15 minutes until one of us had to get up and ask for our bill (we decided to go to Ben and Jerrys for dessert at this point - a place that wouldn't let us down!)

Hope you have a better experience.

Posted 07/04/03

Coming from another part of the world we were amazed how warm and homelike my family felt when we stepped inside Panta Rei. We were amazed of how simple, courteous and delicious was our experience @ Panta Rei. We decided to try different dishes for the four of us, my wife and my two kids. The kids ate tre paste, gnocchi with meat sauce, my wife had papardelle pasta with duck, and I ate the grilled tuna. Its rare to see my kids' plates empty. The food was just like eating at my favorite restaurant in my city in Italy. Thank you Panta Rei for making us feel at home and filling up our tummies with great food! Che Buono!!!

Posted 06/30/03

ate there last night. was one of the only places still serving food. the "tre pasta" was terrible. the gnocchi in it tasted like it was topped with chef boy ardee sauce-the ravioli filling was undistinguishable-the rotini tasted like Kraft Easy Mac...that was the good part. ($10) The Tuna was ordered medium rare-it was well done. The risoto funghi special ($16)was so salty it was inedible. We were starving... the kitchen was closed by the time we got our meals(the risotto took 20 minutes-special order)-we couldn't send it back to be remade. horrible-horrible-horrible. The only saving grace was the waiter-pleasent,professional,courteous-although his recommendations didn't pan out. We will NEVER GO THERE AGAIN

Pros: nice red paint, nothing else

Cons: everyhting

Posted 06/15/03

Panta Rei has great sandwiches for lunch...try the proscuitto panini. Its a little uncomfortable sitting outside as it is right in front of a bus stop...otherwise, great!

Pros: good food

Cons: strange staff, in front of bus stop, small resaturant

Posted 05/10/03

This has to be the worst restaurant in North Beach. Service was terrible, sauces were bland, and to top it off there was a rubber band in our pasta dish. I recommend to avoid this restaurant.

Posted 04/19/03

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Posted 12/31/02

This restaurant is really charming. I was with a friend meandering around the North Beach area looking for a place to eat. There was a greeter outside - typical Italian - very friendly. He convinced us to try it out. The food was excellent. I had the homemade pasta, mushroom ravioli with asparagus. I'd recommend this restaurant to anyone.

Pros: Homemade pasta, Attentive service

Cons: Cash only, So/so seating

Posted 11/09/02

I was on vacation in San Francisco for a week and I decided to test some of the "so called" Italian restaurants and...surprise!! I found ONE. PANTA REI is really tasteful Italian in every dish we tried. We stopped testing the others in North Beach since Panta Rei looks much better than any Italian can expect in US. The large variety of recepies, the genuine flavors and the low price gives no doubt. Who wrote negative reviews probably doesn't know much of Italian cuisine and should be better eating a Big Mac!

Pros: pasta "al dente", inexpensive, friendly service

Cons: no reservations

Posted 11/08/02

These other reviews are staggeringly incompetent in expressing the magnificent food and experience Panta Rei can offer. Panta Rei, meaning "everything flows" is exactly what you can expect from the staff and their restaurant. The experience is very similar to a trattoria in Italy, but you'd have to know that. The food is exactly served as the regional cuisine in Italy and is delicious. As an Italian I am willing to stand behind the food they serve as authentic and well-made. Don't be deterred by the negative reviews here, this restaurant has a truly authentic dining experience to offer. As for the cash only policy, most restaurants in their freshman year maintain this policy and some, even very upscale restaurants, stick by it as a respectable business practice. Better even yet to say, try it for yourself!

Pros: authenticity, cuisine, price

Posted 11/05/02

I ate at Panta Rei with friends last night, and it was just okay. The food was mediocre...bland tomato sauce and AWFUL bread. The waiter was very sweet and informative, but he disappeared for most of the meal, never asking if we cared for parmasean, etc. And they don't take credit cards. I would choose Steps of Rome over Panta Rei any day!

Posted 10/29/02

I just read this terrible review of Panta Rei, so I had to balance it with a good one. I've been several times and never had an experience that was less than perfect. Friendly staff, GREAT bruschetta, and the gnocchi are the best i've had outside of Italy. Also, the prices are cheap. The price rating here is way off. Pastas are about $10 at the most. Sure if you order ossobucco you might reach $17, but generally it's very reasonable. for wine, too, and more often than not they bring free dessert--all of it's good! Don't go here if you're looking for a fancy, kiss-my-ass experience. it's bare bones, good, cheap italian food. what's wrong with that? ;>)

Pros: Pastas, Appetizers, Free Dessert!

Cons: Smallish place

Posted 08/29/02

I had this bad experience on July 4th. We wanted to have a quick bite before watching the fireworks at Coit Tower. I ordered a Seafood Pasta and it tasted unbelievably bad. The mussels had an extremely bad taste of salt water, which ruined the whole evening for me. The other plate we ordered was so-so. The waitress offered a free tiramisu to make it up for us, but we returned it because we didn't want another surprise. Plus the service was extremely slow. After we were seated, we had to wait for almost 10 minutes for 2 glasses of ice water and bread basket. I was puzzled when we were only given some bread, with no butter, olive oil or vinegar. I will never, ever go there, even if they offered free food for the rest of my life.

Cons: food, service

Posted 07/06/02