Octavia
Melissa Perello opened her second restaurant in 2015, 55 seats on a Lower Pac Heights corner of Victorians. It took a MICHELIN star inside its first year. The menu is rewritten every day off the farmers market. The four-course family-style tasting is $98 and lands as about a dozen plates.
Why go
Patrick Wong reviewed it for The Infatuation. Each course arrives as a handful of smaller versions of the day's dishes. He worked out that the tasting gets you about seventy percent of the card.1 That is why it beats ordering a la carte here.
The pastas are the strong suit and there are usually about four a day. A spaghetti al pomodoro turns up with porcini XO under it. Cheese-filled cappellacci come with fairytale eggplant and opal basil. Portions run small.6
The kitchen bakes its own sourdough daily and it arrives in the second course. A loaf costs $10 if the day's supply holds. The same bread goes over to Frances.5
Robert Wright, Perello's husband, runs the floor.2
Order this / avoid
- Order: the chef's tasting. Tell the floor if there is something on the a la carte you want folded in.
- Order: the fried artichokes if they are on.3
- Order: a loaf to take home before they run out.
- Avoid: ordering a la carte if you came for the range.
What locals & experts say
- The Infatuation SF (Patrick Wong, October 2025), 8.6:
In a city where tasting menus usually cost more than last month's PG&E bill, Octavia's $98 chef's tasting seems like a steal.
1 The Infatuation is owned by JPMorgan Chase. - The MICHELIN inspectors, quoted in the guide's own 2018 interview with Perello:
chef Perello has a gift for elevating straightforward dishes through the use of superb ingredients and beautifully executed technique.
2 - Azalina Eusope, a San Francisco chef, was asked by the James Beard Foundation in February 2026 which chefs she admires here. She names Perello.8 That piece is the Foundation's own, tied to a ticketed event it runs.
Good to know
- Getting in: the room takes bookings on its own site.
- Closed: Sunday and Monday.
- Where: 1701 Octavia Street, in Lower Pacific Heights.
Verdict
should-visit — Go early in the week, and book only a day or two out. That still lands you a table on a weekend, which is not true of much at this level.