Cotogna
One raviolo, face-sized, stuffed with ricotta and a whole egg yolk that runs out into brown butter when you cut it. Big enough to share with two people.
Why go
Michael and Lindsay Tusk have run this Pacific Avenue room since 2010 as the casual half of the pair they own on the block, with Quince next door. The MICHELIN inspector describes the kitchen as the room is built around it, a display kitchen, from which crispy pizzas and savory roasted meats emerge,
and names the pastas: agnolotti del plin, stuffed with tender rabbit, veal, and pork, or the rigatoni with guanciale, chanterelle mushrooms, and pistachio.
2 The guide carries it with no distinction printed as read on 21 August 2026. Julia Chen scored it 8.9 for the Infatuation in May 2025 and sent her readers straight to the pasta section.1 Blankets are rolled up on the parklet, there are communal tables inside, and the bar faces the wood-fired oven.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the raviolo di ricotta. Cut it open, let the yolk run, and drag it through the ricotta.1
- Order: the prosciutto with gnocco fritto to start. You tear the fried dough pockets open and stuff them yourself with prosciutto, pickled red onion and gorgonzola.1
- Order: the corn triangoli in summer, filled with corn purée, which Chen says is sweet enough to read as dessert. The gelato cart runs in summer too.1
- Avoid: paying the dinner premium in attention. Chen's own workaround is lunch, which is quieter and runs mostly the same menu.1
What locals & experts say
- The Infatuation SF (Julia Chen, 13 May 2025), 8.9: on the sourcing,
The dishes use fresh ingredients that taste like they lived their entire life cycle in a ten-mile radius.
1 - MICHELIN Guide California: in the guide with no distinction printed as at 21 August 2026. On dessert,
The plum and ginger torta is moist and delicious, but those sweet, ripe plums steal the show.
2 - On the San Francisco Chronicle's 2026 Top 100 it sits 51st, and MacKenzie Chung Fegan and Cesar Hernandez place it inside the family in one line:
Cotogna is Lindsay and Michael Tusk's Goldilocks restaurant, far more affordable than Quince, far less rowdy than Verjus.
3 - In 2025 they named the other dish people photograph: the focaccia di recco, the salty cheesy bread with the cheese pull.4
Good to know
- Booking: SevenRooms, thirty days ahead. The bar takes walk-ups.1
- Days: the house says Sunday closed, dinner only on Monday and Tuesday, and lunch as well from Wednesday.5 The guide's hours block had Monday closed when it was read in August 2026, so if Monday is the plan, call.
- Outside: the parklet has blankets, so it works in the evening.
- Beyond the pasta: an open hearth, a grill and a spit6, and seafood roasted in the wood-burning oven5. The name is Italian for quince, which is the room next door.5
- Getting there: Pacific at Montgomery, in Jackson Square.
Verdict
must-visit — A single raviolo the size of a face, stuffed with ricotta and a whole yolk that runs out into brown butter when you cut it, is one of the few dishes in this city that a stranger can order by name and get exactly what they were promised. Around it sit agnolotti del plin filled with rabbit, veal and pork and a rigatoni with guanciale, chanterelle and pistachio, per the MICHELIN inspector. The Infatuation scored it 8.9 in May 2025. Sixteen years of the same kitchen, run by the Tusks alongside Quince next door, and lunch serves the same menu at a lower temperature.