As Featured On Eater San Francisco
“There’s a new Italian gem opening in a beloved space in Nob Hill. If you recall, Seven Hills made pasta waves when it moved only three blocks from Nob Hill to Russian Hill back in December 2019. It’s since settled into that new location at 1896 Hyde Street, enjoying the extra elbow room to roll fresh maccheroncelli. However, the owners never gave up their original home at 1550 Hyde Street, where regulars loved to cozy up in the bay windows and watch the trolley cars trundle by”.
"It’s been four years since Seven Hills moved into a larger space in Russian Hill but finally, they’ve gone back to the space on Hyde to open Collina, a sister Italian spot to the well-loved original. Here, executive chef Anthony Florian offers a more affordable menu of fresh pasta, entrees, and Italian wines. The 48-layer lasagnette promises to be a showstopper with bolognese, bechamel, and spinach stacked up high. There’s also brick chicken, tripa alla Romana, and pan-seared scallops."
“There’s a new Italian gem opening in a beloved space in Nob Hill. If you recall, Seven Hills made pasta waves when it moved only three blocks from Nob Hill to Russian Hill back in December 2019. It’s since settled into that new location at 1896 Hyde Street, enjoying the extra elbow room to roll fresh maccheroncelli. However, the owners never gave up their original home at 1550 Hyde Street, where regulars loved to cozy up in the bay windows and watch the trolley cars trundle by”.
"San Francisco has always had a bevy of excellent options for Italian fare, specifically fresh pasta. But this year the Bay Area saw a boom of approachable pasta spots positioned as affordable neighborhood destinations — think Anthony Strong’s Pasta Supply Co. in the Richmond District, Mattina on Fillmore, Molti Amici in Healdsburg, and Sfizio across the bridge in Oakland. Most recently, Nob Hill welcomed Collina, the little sister spot to Seven Hills up the road. The dimly lit dining room gives it a more date-night vibe than most of its contemporaries, but the tight menu of a la carte options makes it easy to split a few dishes with a friend over a couple of glasses of Italian wine. There’s pillowy housemade focaccia and sturdy arancini to start, but you’re probably here because you want a plate of carbs. In this seven-by-seven city, it’s hard to order a massive raviolo and not compare it to Cotogna’s impeccable version, the same goes for a many-layered lasagna and the sky-high timballo from Sorella. But every restaurant and chef gets to do what they will with simple, classic spaghetti, and in this arena, Collina’s version excelled: an artful tangle of delicate al dente strands coated in a shiny slick of tomato sauce, piquant with garlic and a kiss of chile. It’s the kind of dish you want to return to again, a simple and well-executed pleasure that draws you back to a restaurant when you’re done chasing the latest trends. I, for one, would be glad to have it, and Collina, in my backyard."
— Lauren Saria, editor Eater SF
As Featured In The San Francisco Chronicle
Collina is the latest restaurant by the Seven Hills crew, offering comforting Italian cooking with a contemporary direction. There are excellent snacks like a crudo on obsidian, squid ink-tinted crackers, and pastas made in-house like the marquee lasagnette ($26). The layered pasta is sliced, crisped and served over a pond of green fondue. Even the sides are formidable, like the recent crunchy broccolini ($9) with fried garlic and the luxuriously creamy bowl of butter beans ($9). The vibe is welcoming with a monochromatic blue paint job and a descriptive list of wines by the glass.
"For Italian dishes with a contemporary feel, there’s Collina, the more affordable sibling to Seven Hills. Bites like Calabrian chile oil-laced ahi tuna crudo ($21), piled on jet-black crackers, invite fun. As does the descriptive, inviting list of Italian wines by the glass. On pasta: All signs point to the enticing, crispy-edged lasagnette ($26). The sumptuous slice of lasagna looks like an air vent surrounded by a lagoon of emerald green sauce made of spinach and Parmigiano Reggiano. It’s spinach lasagna like you’ve never had before."
“When you enter Collina, a new Italian restaurant in Nob Hill, you push aside heavy velvet curtains to reveal a cozy neighborhood haunt. The more casual sister restaurant of the nearby Seven Hills, Collina focuses on homey dishes and fresh pasta like tomato spaghettini and a luscious lasagnette, with 14 layers of pasta, Bolognese ragu and crispy edges. It’s hard not to compare the raviolo al uovo to San Francisco’s most famous iteration of the dish at Cotogna (where Collina’s executive and sous-chefs met years ago), but Collina’s holds its own. It’s lighter, an oozing egg tucked inside delicately thin pasta. End your dinner with the rich, salty-sweet butterscotch budino.”
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