Dinner at Eight is a regular column by Ms. Collins  reviewing restaurants in the Bay Area. If you have a restaurant you want reviewed, please send an email to the editor: midori@realgirlsmedia.com.

Rating Scale: 

Panties in a twist (unimpressed)

Panties low-riding (intrigued)

Panties on the floor (impressed)

Panties swinging from the chandelier (amazed)

Nopa

560 Divisadero Street

San Francisco, CA 94117

(415) 864-8643

Conditions: Girls dinner.

Rationale: No one had been here yet (though we had all heard about it) and one of the girls wanted to try it.

Long story short: Though it’s no longer new, it’s still a hot spot. The setting and food will likely keep it that way for a while.

The deal: The first thing you notice when you walk into Nopa is the impressive size of the place. Nopa’s striking lighting and design is evident even from the street, and the space is illuminated to reveal the open kitchen and two floors of tables.

The second thing you quickly notice is the smell of good food—really good food. This food is being served up in a room filled with activity. Nopa is busy. The whole place is alive with a well-heeled crowd talking and drinking at communal tables, or crammed in the bar area, even upstairs. Servers and hostesses are bustling through the modern space.

There is usually time to take in the eye candy. Even with a reservation, you’ll probably wait for a little while. When you do finally sit, it’s a challenge to figure out which of the tempting plates you should order, particularly after watching many of them pass you, and getting hungrier and hungrier.

After much discussion, selecting, and editing, our girls dinner started with a warm Italian tomato bread soup, thick in texture and full of fresh flavor, accompanied by a plate of roasted seasonal vegetables that were lackluster in comparison (and did not quite fit our hungry mood). These selections were followed by a grass-fed beef cheeseburger with bacon (damn), French fries with harissa aioli (double damn), and a baked pasta made with bacon, light cream, and radicchio that we had seen floating through the room earlier. Damn, damn, damn. It was all divine. And the dessert battle was a tough one: warm doughnut holes and rum caramel, chocolate pot de crème with chocolate chip cookies, or sticky toffee pudding cake with whipped cream? The last item won, having nothing left on the plate when the forks turned over for the final time.