THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Americano Restaurant & Bar

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Americano Restaurant & Bar Restaurant Review:

Hugging the side of the Hotel Vitale, with a spacious outdoor dining area and water views, Americano Restaurant & Bar offers better-than-hotel restaurant dining that stands on its own. The Italian-influenced California cuisine puts an emphasis on house-made elements and locally sourced offerings. Bites to start include a feta piquillo dip served with flatbread that packs a lot of spice and heat. Local fish, from albacore to halibut and pan-roasted cod, are good bets --- thoughtfully accompanied, as with the cod's crisped black trumpet mushrooms, and pleasantly plated. Awareness of detail comes through particularly in the rib-eye, where the excessive marbling of fat has been removed and the meat reconstructed in a spiral, leaving only the flesh and losing none of the flavor. Wines ordered by the glass come in mini-carafes. Smaller-portioned desserts for tables eager to share is a nice touch. Situated between the Financial District's busy corridors and the tourist-clogged Embarcadero, this place hosts splashy corporate happy hours and business lunches as well as exhausted hotel guests. Many such establishments gamely deign to tackle a diversity of occasions; Americano is rare in that it does so while remaining, almost surprisingly, a very good restaurant.