Interior of a restaurant with neatly set tables against a wooden panel wall featuring chairs with woven backs and small floral centerpieces

Stephanie Amberg
San Francisco

SPQR

  • Italian
  • Californian
  • Fine Dining
  • Special Occasion
  • Tasting Menu

SPQR stands for “the Senate and People of Rome” in Latin. In San Francisco, it also signifies uni fettucini. The loosely Roman-inspired restaurant originally opened in 2007, and chef Matthew Accarrino stepped in after the first couple of years, pushing the pasta dishes way past the classics like cacio e pepe. Today it’s known for Accarrino’s bold and modern pasta tasting menu, as well as seasonal dishes that he swaps out every couple of weeks. Within the chic space, some of the best seats pull up to the chef’s counter, with a great view of tweezers twirling noodles in the open kitchen. Only a few blocks from Japantown, consider a stroll after dinner, and digest in peace by the giant pagoda.

I made my mark, or earned my Best New Chef jacket, as it were, at SPQR. It’s an Italian restaurant in San Francisco, really known for innovative pasta and its five-course pasta tasting menu.
Chef Matthew Accarrino
Matthew Accarrino

Matthew's Perfect Order

Dish of ravioli topped with caviar and a sauce container lid nearby

Stephanie Amberg

Rabbit Lasagna

Accarrino usually has a many-layered lasagna on the menu, like this version with 24 sheets worth of braised rabbit, fava beans, and ricotta.

Smoked Fettucini

Playing on the classic carbonara combo of eggs and bacon, he also tosses in buttery sea urchin, and makes a nest around a bright orange quail egg.

“Acca” Caviar

In recent years, the chef has made his own line of local Californian white sturgeon caviar, which comes with different accompaniments, like potato fritters and wild onion crème fraîche.

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