Sodini’s Green Valley Restaurant

This is Old School SF Italian food that used to be what North Beach was all about. Huge portions, lots of garlic, red sauce, and outstanding Friendly service (thank Erin and Linda).Seafood linguine with pesto sauce, mmmmm. Forget your diet for one night. You remember the cliché «You’re only a stranger once».?This place it’s the real deal as is the food. Like stepping back into 1957.

This place has been around for over 100 years, and has outstanding food and service.
We started off with the polenta, which is covered in cheese and marinara. I was really impressed with the marinara, and the polenta was delicious. My boyfriend and I split the gnocchi with Gorgonzola and the seafood linguine. I was blown away by how heavenly the gnocchi tasted. Impressed with the seafood linguine as well, but it paled in comparison to the gnocchi.
Rachel (who has worked here for 17 years) was incredibly thoughtful and treated us like we were her family. She had helpful wine and entrée suggestions, and was very proactive when it came to making sure we had everything we needed.
The ambience is very kitchy — Sinatra posters and Italian memorabilia. No reservations, and they do not serve dessert.

The service was excellent but food was mediocre. It was missing seasoning. The environment is cozy.

If you are looking for a place to eat excellent food at a great price this is the place. Its off Columbus a few blocks so it has alot of locals which is great. Most places you find in the Columbus St area are tourist geared. Expensive, tasteless food and bad service. At Sodinis I always get great service and food comes quick. Its a funky old place and full of atmosphere.
Love the Clams linguine and large portion of fried calimari. They also serve fresh sour dough with your meal. Prices are very reasonable for SF. It does get crowded fast, so I always get there just as they open so I can be sure to get my window table. I usually try to park up a few more blocks toward Coit Tower. I can usually find street parking there.

The service was excellent. Polite and with a smile.
Gnocchi was amazing. The Gorgonzola sauce was so tasty.
Everyone else loved their food too.

We went here on a whim, and it was worth it. The drinks are stiff, the food is great, the staff is friendly, and it’s really clean. The place is smallish, but don’t let that stop you. You can even draw on the table!

The pizza is delicious. Everything was good but pizza was the best. The calamari was also very good.
Great environment.
We had spaghetti and chicken parm. They were both great
Place has a great old school Italian vibe. There were a coupe of old timers sitting at bar the contributed to the environment.

LOVE LOVE LOVE!!! We eat here every time we are in SF. All of the food is amazing! Servers are sassy and roll their eyes but we love that part too! Eat here as often as you can…

Ok. Came here at 6 pm on a Thursday and got a table easily. The school is an old school Italian restaurant with kitchy stuff on the walls that is almost cheesey. My friend got a house salad that was basically a Cesar. My canelloni was whatever. The gnocchi my other friend got was the best dishes by far. Just overall mediocre experience.

Looking at the reviews it is either great or terrible. We liked the restaurant. Started with their deep fried calamari. It was lightly breaded and the sauce went well together. We had their seafood with linguine. Everything was very fresh. Unfortunately they are not open for lunch

Authentic Italian Cuisine — YUM! This is one busy spot and understandably «no reservations» but it’s worth the wait. The staff works hard and is super friendly and cheerful. The portions are quite large definitely feel like you are getting your money’s worth.
My husband and I share the Gnocchi Nostri and they were to die for… tiny pillows of heaven that melt in your mouth. For dinner, I had the veal scallopini and my husband had the NY steak. Both were superb and seasoned perfectly. I wasn’t a fan of the marinara sauce on the linguini but the whole dinner was a perfect night out.

The food was awesome!!! Great pasta and great wine!
We are definitely coming back!
Not giving 5 starts only bc I think that the restaurant could be a little more clean.

I have to start off with saying that the calamari is absolutely phenomenal. I order calamari at almost every restaurant they have it and I have to say that this calamari I truly think is the best I’ve ever tried. The food was absolutely amazing my boyfriend and I have decided to make it a traditional once a month must go. And I must say the service there was amazing the waitress that helped us out was the sweetest woman ever I wish I could remember her name so I can give her credit, how about I say beautiful curly hair and hopefully she’ll know I’m talking about her. oh and the birthday lemonchello shots should help :)
Thank you for your great service and we will see you soon :-)

By far my favorite spot to sit down and grab dinner in North Beach. Probably hit this place up once a month.
No reservations, but they’re really good at taking your name and calling you back. It’s the same door guy every night and he’s awesome… super friendly, super Italian-​American. He’s everyone’s friend.
Get yourself a pitcher of wine (ask for the Giants pitcher) and the Gnocchi is seriously second to none. My wife and I usually split the Gnocchi gorgonzola, bruschetta, and a side salad and it’s the perfect amount.
Service is always amazing.
Oh, it’s pretty close quarters there so don’t pick this place to break up with your significant other. Seriously, we witnessed that once there at arm’s length… not pretty. Also, not a great place for kids.
It’s a fun, relaxed, unpretentious place that’s a good mix of locals even during the tourist season.

So we came here upon recommendation from one of our friends.
And it didn’t disappoint. The service was good and they kept our drinks flowing and tolerant of my companies raucous behavior. We sat outside on a really nice warm day. The waitress was really nice and attentive.
We had the Calamari. A really tasty Seafood Linguine. And the Pizzas we’re also very good.
For beer I had the Speakeasy Bigdaddy IPA.
All in all I recommend the place and hope to come back again.

I LOVE Italian food and was waiting to eat at a place on North Beach. Sodini’s was the first place I went to and it was awesome! Just off Columbus Ave, the entire place was so alive on a Saturday night.
There were quite a few options on the menu (even a few vegetarian ones) and they had specials too. The food was authentic and the service was great! Our waitress was super witty and arranged the food for us in the colors of the Italian flag. LOL! Overall, we had a very enjoyable evening.
The only reason I am not giving this place a 5 star rating is because they don’t take reservations and hence you have to end up waiting about 20 – 30 min which doesn’t seem like a lot now, but is hard when you have to do it with such great food around you!

Came here yesterday with the husband. Wanted some authentic Italian pizza, and Unilocal highly rated Sodini’s. It was super packed so we waited 15 mins to get in. The place was really friendly and cozy. Family style. Unfortunately, the food did not live up to my expectations. (I keep forgetting that «Italian» food in the American context, has little to do with Real Italian food — aside from being carb heavy. Just like the Italians from the Jersey Shore aren’t real representatives of Italians from Italy.)
We got the Margherita pizza… the most basic, simple Italian pizza ever… and it looked like it came out of Papa Johns (and tasted like it too). Don’t get me wrong, it was tasty and I enjoy Papa Johns, but this is a pricier «Italian» restaurant, so I expected better quality. No sliced tomatoes — just diced (Chipotle style), no basil leaves — only basil powder!!, and no mozzarella balls, just shredded cheese — not nice shredded cheese either. We also got the cheese ravioli in pesto and garlic sauce. It was tasty but small and not worth $ 17. Also, the sauce did not taste homemade, but rather, premade. Save yourself some money and go to Trader Joes and purchase their ready-​made pasta and pesto sauce.
Food: ²⁄₅
Price:2/5
Quality: ²⁄₅
Ambience: ⁴⁄₅

Six hungry shoppers, 9:50 pm Saturday night, where to dine?
We walked ’round and ’round the area; I walked in here and within two minutes, the Big Guy walks over and said how many? I said six, he said this way. I like that!
My friends shared a pizza; I ordered gnocchi w/​gorgonzola.
My gnocchi gorgonzola was pretty good; each gnocchi was stuffed with a pesto sauce. Each pillow of gnocchi was soft, chewy and warm all over with gorgonzola sauce.
Will return.
Customer service: good
Parking: very little street parking, take your chances. We parked in Union Square, shopped, then hiked over. We were famished.

Most of the pasta is bought from a vendor because the kitchen is too small (per the waitress). However, it is still cooked to perfection and accompanied by some amazing sauces, all made in house.
Started off our meal with the steamers. You have a choice between mussels or clams or both. We opted for a mix, but I definitely preferred the clams — they seemed sweeter and more tender in my opinion. However, the white wine broth that accompanied the seafood was divine — I definitely used as dip for the bread at our table.
For our entrees, my parents and I shared 3 dishes, all were excellent in their own way… but our favorite was definitely the Tortellini Carbonara. The sauce wasn’t too creamy and overwhelming, just enough to thoroughly hug each tortellini. There was also a good amount of mushrooms and pancetta accompanying the dish to add notes of flavor and change up the texture as well.
Our second favorite was the lasagne. It was so smooth and served up nice and hot such that the cheese was still all ooey-​gooey and stringy — yum! Pasta was not too thick and there was just enough meat and cheese to go around. Quote of the night? «It’s no Stouffer’s, that’s for sure!»
And last but not least, we had the Gnocchi Gorgonzola. They were like little potato pillows filled with spinach and ricotta. Definitely not doughy and definitely one of the best gnocchi dishes I’ve had recently in North Beach.
All in all, meal was delicious. Service was friendly and fun… and the feel was cozy, albeit a little dark inside. I would definitely say that this is one of the better Italian restaurants in North Beach/​Little Italy and it doesn’t need a promoter outside like some on Columbus Ave!

Hey paisan… Why you-​a no come here when Frankie and Dino been here? We gotta pasta. We gotta pizza. We gotta veal parmigiana. We gotta vino. There ain’t nothin’ we ain’t got that you don’t want. Whatsamattuh? Maybe I go tell Don Corleone, eh. Capeesh? Oh good, you-​a come in. Have a seat. And indeed Jamie W. and I did at the tiny table they squeezed next to the bar on the way to the toilet. There was a loud group of middle-​aged tourists, the horned-​up wives being particularly raucous in their adoration of the swarthy bartender. Ah, welcome to North Beach or at least the stereotypical view of it of which Sodini’s does a masterful job of capitalizing.
The staff has their routines down pat here and the décor is everything you want it to be down to the plastic grapes on the overhead trellis and the photos of the Rat Pack on the wall (photo:
). No surprise that the menu is old-​school Italian. We started with the $ 11.95 Caprese Salad, which appeared extravagantly priced for three slices of tomato topped with pieces of mozzarella and buried in a pile of fresh basil and red onion (photo:
). While it was what I expected, it just didn’t taste as fresh as I was hoping. For his entrée, Jamie went for the $ 15.95 Linguini with Meatballs and Tomato Meat Sauce, which was nothing all that special except the quantity. There was a heaping pile of pasta on that plate and the veal meatballs were huge (photo:
).
Mine was the $ 18.95 Linguini with Seafood, which I had to admit was pretty good when it could have been easily mediocre. Granted the tomato cream sauce was a but much, but the plethora of clams, mussels, shrimp and calamari rings was a pleasant surprise along with the toasted garlic bread they put on the side of the plate (photo:
). The other pleasant aspect of our dining experience was the sassy veteran waitress who served us and didn’t ignore us despite the high maintenance needs of the bands of tourists crowding the main dining room. So I guess we narrowly averted a horse’s head in our bed, but I can see why Frank and Dean came here when they were in town. Bada-​boom, bada-​bing.
FOOD — 3 stars… old-​school Italian executed like it was 1952 for better or worse, the linguini with seafood is the standout
AMBIANCE — 3.5 stars… also old-​school and who would have it any other way?
SERVICE — 4 stars… that waitress really made our experience better
TOTAL — 3 stars… one of the true anchor points of North Beach but don’t expect culinary artistry here