Cucina may be the best restaurant in San Anselmo

One of the best restaurants in Marin, and maybe the best in San Anselmo is Cucina (510 san anselmo avenue), serves up Italian cuisine with a farm-to-table freshness found in California cuisine. It has been around since 1998, but reinvented itself more recently under owners Donna, Kevin and Chef Roberto. It’s a nice space with an almost speakeasy-like wine bar in the back, plus a patio where you can eat when the weather is good.

Whatever you order, they bring you some amazing bruschetta right away. Not just a basket of bread, but bruschetta, with fresh tomatoes, basil, and olive oil. It’s excellent and a nice touch. Most restaurants would charge $5-10 for this and they just bring it out after you order.

 

You could be happy just with the apps and salads at Cucina. I love the Tartare di Tonno, which nicely blends Ahi tuna tartare with avocado and a mildly spicy aioli in soy broth. The salads are also excellent and feature things like Pt. Reyes blue cheese, figs and prosciutto, fresh tomatoes, Burrata, and more ingredients that seem like they came from the farmer’s market.

The Flatiron steak was also quite good, well seasoned and perfectly cooked.

The carbonara was good but not a standout. The only thing I might avoid is the calzone. Maybe they were having issues with the pizza oven when we were there but they told us they had to remake the calzone and so it was delayed and then the one they did bring out was warm on the edges but cold in the middle. It may have just been a technical glitch. We have not yet had a pizza.

You can see the full dinner menu at: http://cucina-sa.com/dinner-menu/

The wine bar in back was completely unknown to us on our first visit to Cucina. But go around the bend at the back of the restaurant and you will find a great spot for a glass of wine or beer with friends.