SPQR
Matthew Accarrino runs a five-course pasta tasting on Wednesdays and Thursdays. The restaurant's own menu prices it at $69. Eater's Flora Tsapovsky credits him with doing an affordable prix fixe here long before the city took it up. The rest of the week the choice is a la carte or four courses at $102.
Why go
The pasta is where the money goes and it is not consistent. Patrick Wong called the walnut and gorgonzola doppio fantastic and al dente for The Infatuation. In the same paragraph he sent back a cocoa bean malfadine as undercooked.3
The secondi are worth the order too. Tsapovsky points at a prosciutto-wrapped pork loin.4 Eater's tasting-menu map adds bacon-wrapped pork and salmon over farro verde. It also notes that this is one of the few kitchens in the city cooking on a Monday.5
The name is Senatus Populusque Romanus, the Senate and People of Rome. Accarrino opened a second room, Mattina, in Pacific Heights in 2023.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the pasta tasting on a Wednesday or a Thursday.
- Order: the walnut and gorgonzola doppio.
- Order: the deconstructed tiramisu.
- Avoid: the taleggio rotolo with beef bolognese. Wong found it salty.
What locals & experts say
- The Infatuation SF (Patrick Wong, April 2025), unrated:
While SPQR's pasta ranges from just fine to good, it's a reliable choice for an upscale-ish last-minute date night.
3 The Infatuation is owned by JPMorgan Chase. - The MICHELIN Guide California inspector, on the room:
Kitschy and boisterous with modern cooking, this dining room is always packed.
1
Good to know
- Getting in: Resy, and the online form stops at six people. Seven to sixteen goes through the restaurant on a set menu.
- Corkage: $40 a bottle, two bottles maximum per party.
- Where: 1911 Fillmore Street, in Lower Pacific Heights.
Verdict
could-visit — Same-day tables for two are usually there, so keep it for the night nothing else has room.