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Caffe Sport
Categories: Restaurants Italian Restaurants Seafood Italian, Seafood [Edit]
574 Green St(between Columbus Ave & Jasper Pl)
San Francisco, CA 94133
Neighbourhood: North Beach/Telegraph Hill
(415) 981-1251
- Hours:
Tue-Sat 12 pm - 2 pm
Tue-Sat 5 pm - 10:30 pm
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- No
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take Away:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Wi-Fi:
- No
- Good For:
- Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
- Noise Level:
- Quiet
- Ambience:
- Casual
- Has TV:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
300 reviews for Caffe Sport
Review Highlights
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"Family style yes, but you devour every bite." In 68 reviews -
"but anyway, best bread and dipping sauce ever." In 18 reviews -
"Big huge plates of pasta with lots of yummy sauce." In 117 reviews
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300 reviews in English
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Review from Anthony W.
Los Angeles, CA
5/8/2012
if you are one of those jerk-offs that needs the chef to come out and ask how your meal was, this ain't the place for you...
if you are one of those dillweeds that deduct a star cuz water refills don't come quick enough, this ain't the place for you...
if you just like to have a feast, than give this place a shot. portion's great, tastes is definitely great, service is great if you ain't a puss and just ask the waiter for what you need. -
Review from Angelic S.
San Francisco, CA
4/8/2012
The search was on for a good seafood restaurant, and while Sotto Mare had a long wait time, yelp reviews listed Caffe Sport pretty high on the list, so on we went next door to explore some good food. The ambience was INTENSE. A whole lot going on all over, from the ceiling to the walls.
The menu was sparse and our options limited, but we decided on the filet of sole, steamed mussels and tomato cioppino. The mussels were FANTASTIC! the filet of sole was great as well... But that cioppino, despite having a fantastic tase, was a bit overcooked. A bit upsetting, but despite the overcooked cioppino we left satisfied. -
Review from Brendan D.
Berkeley, CA
4/4/2012
Hands down the worst Italian food I have eaten at a restaurant. The calamari was good for appetizers, but the pasta dishes and sauces were gross.
The pesto especially was this creamy green sauce that looked like guacamole and tasted like it too.
If you find yourself here don't be afraid of filling up on bread, you won't want to eat much else. -
Review from M C.
San Francisco, CA
2/27/2012 1 Check-in Here
Came here for a friends birthday party. It was a nice little place. The problem was that this place has no vents so it was like a sauna inside. They also have problems filling the water glasses from time to time.
Food was good. -
Review from Rosanna T.
San Jose, CA
2/26/2012
I love this charming restaurant in North Beach, the decor is unique and fun. We went for lunch and we ordered:
1. Seafood stew
2. Pasta with mushroom and meat
3. Fried calamari
The stew was amazing! The seafood was fresh and was a good quality. The stew consisted of calamari, mussels, crab legs and jumbo prawns. The pasta was delicious and I love the sauce. This is one of the best pastas I have tasted in north beach. The calamari was huge and the dipping sauce was amazing:) I want to come back for dinner. -
Review from Nicole H.
Modesto, CA
3/31/2012
BEST PASTA/SEAFOOD COMBOS EVER!!! So it gets 3.5 stars.
Loses the 1.5 stars because it is superrrrr cramped inside the restaurant and there's never any parking ): -
Review from Tiffany W.
Fremont, CA
12/29/2011
I have been wanting to try this place out, but never got around to it until this past Tuesday. With family in town and the sister wanting seafood, I first chose North Beach as a location since it's a fun area to walk around at night, then Caffe Sport as one of the choices since I knew they offer seafood and have great reviews.
I've read about the decor of this place, but after visiting, I definitely find the decor interesting, yet fun! Although it's kind of crazy and all over the place, nothing about it feels uncomfortable. Very cozy and inviting restaurant.
The food here is also very good - first off, the sauce they bring you with the fresh bread is excellent. Although their pasta options are limited and only serve over Penne, the dishes are good - I ordered the Pasta Vongole (clams), and it comes with their pink sauce (or as the server described, a mixture of cheese sauce and red sauce). The sauce is great and seafood was fresh.
The only gripe I had during our visit was the order that our dishes were brought to us. We had a party of six and two of our orders came out, then another 10-15 minutes later, the other four came out. By the time everyone else's orders came out, we were already done (usually of course I would wait for everyone else's food to come out to start, but we began waiting so long that it was better to eat it than let it all go cold).
Service is friendly, beer & wine only. -
Review from Catherine L.
Palo Alto, CA
Portions have gone down by half but the prices haven't.
The eggplant parmegian was okay as was the beef and mushroom pasta. What really stood out was the white sauce cioppino. We all loved it and it was really good. Also really good is the complimentary dip! Some of the dishes we had were bland so I mixed the dip w/ the pasta and was good.
Desserts were sad. Tiramisu "cream" was too thick and the cannoli's.. no one was a fan of. My coffee was good though!
Service was really slow which is understandable because it was a Friday but it took forever to order dessert and then ask for the check. -
Review from Kelly S.
Berkeley, CA
1/19/2012
Best pesto pasta ever. Even Martha Stewart agrees and did a story about it a few years back. The eggplant parm is also fabulous.
This place is filled with North Beach history. The food is really good, but it's not a fancy pants chef type of place. Very family style, not going for the sophisticated crowd. The service can be a bit erratic, but I've been coming here for years and I still say it's a wonderful experience. -
Review from Jenn C.
Penn Valley, CA
4/15/2012 1 Check-in Here
Love Love Love this place! Everything we ordered was absolutely fabulous.
Service was good. the atmosphere was very eclectic and fun. We ordered the cioppino and a seafood pasta. Both were delicious. We will definitely be back. -
Review from Arturo N.
Calistoga, CA
4/6/2012 1 Check-in Here
Yuki K. Has it right. Totally reminds me of Howl's moving castle... This place is great. Unless you're some D bag tool that NEEDS to find shit to bitch about on yelp. They got some Italian beer that's pretty good if you're into that. Prolly got wine too, but I don't drink the stuff... All in all it's a good place to go with friends, if you actually like them. Best Italian restaurant in S.F. for sure. Not going into specifics, I'm not a fan of Italian food. This stuff is a-ok in my book though.
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Review from Pablo R.
12/22/2011 2 Check-ins Here
Can't say I'm truly impressed by Caffe Sport. It's an old N.B. restaurant with lots of regulars and come backers but I'm a long time area visitor and there are lots of better places nearby.
I met with a large party and we tried many dishes but it seemed to me that lots of them were the same sauce. True there were a few favorites, like the shrimp pasta. Big, tender shrimp in lots of sauce and pasta. The bread is OK but it's not sourdough. The seating is very cramped and can be uncomfortable for lengthy seating. Overall, the place is OK but I wouldn't put it at the top of my list of Italian joints. -
Review from Athena S.
Updated - 12/22/2011
Update: they do magic plastic here now.
last night was incredible (again), thank you dear chef.Listed in: This SF Native speaks...so…, Fcuking Amazing, why I work out
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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4/22/2011
6 stars if I could....
Here's 5 reasons I love Caffe Sport:
1. Scampi All'Antonio - 4" prawns with… Read more »
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Review from Jamie C.
Daly City, CA
3/26/2012
They have the best seafood stew! Its fresh and and good quality seafood. I have been here a few times, it gradually gets better and better each time I visit.
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Review from Paul O.
San Francisco, CA
3/24/2012
The ambiance is very cool and unique. The service is good to excellent, depending on who's helping you. The food was very average and it's a bit misleading that they say they serve "family style." The dishes aren't that big. Each plate will serve 1-2 people, depending their appetite.
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Review from Tony L.
San Francisco, CA
10/4/2011 2 photos
Love the restaurant and decor. Service was excellent and very attentive. Was with friends. We ordered three pasta items and the crab salad covered with the white sauce.... one dish was the pasta con calamari - while both dishes was lukewarm, parts of the pasta with calamari was COLD. THAT really turned me off right away..... I agree with a few other reviews that for $20 the dishes were very small as compared to other North Beach italian restaurants...
Also, going to the website of this restaurant got the following message:
Warning: Something's Not Right Here!
http://www.caffe-sport... contains malware. Your computer might catch a virus if you visit this site. Google has found malicious software may be installed onto your computer if you proceed. If you've visited this site in the past or you trust this site, it's possible that it has just recently been compromised by a hacker. You should not proceed, and perhaps try again tomorrow or go somewhere else. We have already notified http://www.caffe-sport... that we found malware on the site. For more about the problems found on http://www.caffe-sport..., visit the Google Safe Browsing diagnostic page.
Beware....Listed in: I need it, I gotta GO (no…
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Review from Nancy W.
Cambridge, MA
10/17/2011
Not sure why the other reviewers rated this restaurant so low, but my experience at this place was very good. I came here in early October with a party of five. We actually came here by "accident" because the restaurant next door (Sotto Mare) wasn't taking any reservations and their owner had a horrible attitude. We ordered five pasta dishes -- all were excellent. Service was courteous, friendly, and prompt. Restaurant decor is unique and interesting (although restaurant is a bit small). Moderate, reasonable prices. Will gladly return to this place.
*** Parking is a nightmare in this area -- come early or be ready to park a little further from the restaurant. -
Review from Erika C.
Ehhhhh. Good Italian is so hard to find in the city. Yelp cannot be relied on for it; the tourists have tipped the scales.
I'd go to E Tutto Qua instead if you're in North Beach. The Mission has way better Italian. -
Review from Tony G.
Tracy, CA
8/30/2011
The decor is very nice and the service was good too. I definitely give the QUALITY of food 5 stars, but the QUANTITY of food 0-1 star. It is pricey - at least 20 bucks a plate because it is family style.
The only bad thing about this place is the quantity of food for the price. 3 of my friends and I ordered a the special that night among other things which was a ravioli plate. For $22 we got 6 raviolis. We all looked at each other stunned and basically said "ARE YOU FREAKIN KIDDING ME?" -
Review from Liss D.
San Leandro, CA
2/23/2012
I would love to say that my experience here stacked up to the hype. I loved the ambiance and the staff was attentive and friendly. The food, though good, wasn't quite the mouthful of Italian amazing I was expecting. I even had the pesto that everyone raves about and found it a bit bland. Maybe I went on an off night?
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Review from Joyce T.
Los Angeles, CA
1/3/2012
This is a must go to spot when I'm in SF! They start you with a spicy creamy tomato based sauce for dipping.... with homemade bread.... don't eat too much of this! You gotta save room for the entrees! We ordered the Eggplant Parmesan and the Scampi. Everything was SO damn good especially the Scampi which is just savory and tasty with huge pieces of shrimp. I told them I had food allergies to find out the ingredients for the sauce hehe. If I perfect the recipe, you will be invited! It's that good where I'd request it as my last meal on EARTH. :P
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Review from Danielle G.
San Francisco, CA
9/20/2011
I am absolutely in love with Caffe Sport.. I came here for the second time with my boyfriend Friday night and boy was it perfect! The Cioppino is a must.. duh. And the dipping sauce they serve with the bread is DELECTABLE. We were the last ones in finishing up our bottle of wine when suddenly they changed the music to some Love Jams and brought out a piece of Tiramusu on the house, which by the way was PERFECT (so hard to find good Tiramasu) it was really cute and just made our night that much better.
I will definitely be bringing more of my family here when they come visit to get a taste of our Sicilian roots. YUM. -
Review from wendy t.
2/3/2012
Clam pasta is great! Will def want to try scampy, pesto n eggplant parm next time. Cioppino sauce is great but clams were undercook n calamari is a lil fishy. I swear the portin used tp be much bigger.
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Review from Vicky L.
Seriously, an average of 4 stars??
Yes, the place is cute.
Yes, the service is great.
Yes, the choices are pretty unique.
Yes, the bread and tomato sauce dip they give is delicious.
But...
Yes, the prices are really high for an italian place (most everything is over $20).
Yes, it's served family-style, but the portions aren't that big, especially for what you're paying.
Yes, it's hearty food, but it's not very good. My meat sauce with mushrooms was too heavy, it lacked a freshness that I love with pasta dishes, the meat was severely overcooked and dry, and the cheese sauce under the meat sauce was just overall way too much. My friend's sole filet, though flavorful, was also overcooked, as were the vegetables (and they were bland).
No thanks to paying $25/person for an underwhelming, mediocre-at-best meal. 2.5 stars, rounded up for the nice service. -
Review from JB J.
Berkeley, CA
7/27/2011
Overrated and overpriced.
The atmosphere is nice, but the food has no taste. I use to fish and cook calamari and crabs. The ones I had there were without taste as if it had been frozen.
To pay 20$ for some pasta and a simple classical impersonal pistou sauce on it..... Well if you have money, good for you.
You have much better in SF for the same price. -
Review from Pascale D.
San Francisco, CA
2/8/2012
Awesome family restaurant with amazing garlic dishes, salads, bread and dipping sauce. I love the waiters too since their all very friendly and personal. The location is awesome too and on a Friday night dinner here is amazing with a walk around North Beach afterwards. :) LOVE IT!
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Review from K C.
San Francisco, CA
11/4/2011
Caffe Sport is a bit disappointing to be honest. They only give you 2 baskets for free bread, and then start charging for every basket after that. I went with a relatively large group, and the bread basket should be proportionate for the size of the group. Plus, it would've been good to have more for the sauces from the entrees.
The main dishes come in small-ish serving sizes, not worth the price. Also, the only pasta they seem to use is penne, regardless of what you order. The food comes out really quick. Suspiciously quick, which leads me to believe the food is all premade. Furthermore, the eggplant dish we order came out tasty, but barely warm.
On a more positive note, the decor is interesting with a lot of things to look at. Servers were also quite attentive, but in terms of food...not my favorite. -
Review from Leo L.
Fremont, CA
2/12/2012 1 photo
We had fried seafood combination and seafood Cioppino. Very tasty! Great service, too.
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Review from Andrea M.
San Francisco, CA
5/26/2011
It makes me sad to give Caffe Sport only 2 stars. The 2 stars are based on my second visit just this past weekend. My first visit to Caffe Sport last November was wonderful (4.5 stars). However, this last visit came very short of that first time wonderful.
The service was the worst service I have ever received at any restaurant I have ever been to. I seriously think the server was trying to get a bad tip. Never once checked up on our table to see if we needed more drinks, never asked how the food was, never asked if we needed anything else, had a horrible attitude... and the worst thing he did was tell us, "I'm sorry, we don't have any more bread." Are you kidding me?! I came with 4 (very hungry) guys and we had three baskets of bread before we asked for another one. The server brought back a basket with only three slices in it! I asked why this was and was given that BS reply. He could of at least told us that they have a limit on the amount of bread they can serve. They should be prepared to serve tons of bread with that amazing sauce they serve!
I will not be returning due to this unfortunate experience. :-/ -
Review from Mary Jo M.
Cathedral City, CA
1/28/2012
Love this place! Pesto is insanely good, ambiance cannot be beat - it feels like my idealized Italian home.
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Review from Jonathan S.
San Francisco, CA
10/2/2011
Went in with a large group on a Friday night. First off the bread was stale, how hard is it to provide fresh bread at an Italian restaurant? If I can go into safeway and buy something half decent for 3 bucks, they shouldn't have much trouble.
We ordered about 6 dishes and most were pretty good, but for the price, the portions were pretty small. The sole was really well cooked, but the pasta dishes were just so-so. They came out with our dishes very quickly, as if the sauces were all sitting around in the back.
The decor is really cool, but not good enough to make me want to go back. -
Review from April m.
San Jose, CA
1/3/2012 3 Check-ins Here
Yum yum yum! I loved their food! We ordered the penne pasta with beef and lots of cheese I must say for the most simplest pasta that was the most flavored pasta dish I've ever had ! Now for the extra extra good stuff... We also ordered white sauce cioppino :) omg!! Sooo efffing delish! it looks plain and simple, but the dish was epic!! I savored that lemony garlic white sauce it was great!! I shall return, I shall return and the location is great because there is a gelato gem next door :)
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Review from Grace C.
Beverly Hills, CA
5/26/2011
This place is awesome!
Great pasta, pesto is amazing!!!
Ordered Shrimp Penne, and Meat/Mushroom Penne. (don't recall the actual names)
Great friendly service, great italian food, can't ask for more! -
Review from Erica A.
San Francisco, CA
5/26/2011 1 Check-in Here
Super duper small, but comfortable atmosphere. The staff is extremely friendly!
We had a party of 16, and ordered many dishes. It was disappointing that they opted to put two orders on one plate. We had to pass it down the entire table, as well as bring it to the bar.
The pesto is really out of this world. It was SOOOO yummy. The bread and dipping sauce at the beginning of the meal is also very delicious. If you want more bread, just ask!
We had some fish dish that was really good but I don't remember the name. It had zucchinis.. :) -
Review from Michelle S.
San Francisco, CA
2/27/2012
By Far the most Authentic Italian food in North Beach. My family has gone to this place for YEARS- as well as my boyfriend's family. Anthony and his mother are amazing and have taken over ownership when their dad passed away awhile back. My boyfriend and I come here at least twice a month on the weekends and are always greeted with a smile and leave with full belly's and a little tipsy from the wine. :) The bread and dip you get when you sit down is addicting- be ware!
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Review from Tamara W.
Costa Mesa, CA
11/2/2011
OK-I have been going here since college - 1981...you HAVE to order the pesto and the prawns....both are to die for and the best I have ever had.
Warning - you will smell like garlic for days! -
Review from Veronica G.
San Francisco, CA
2/7/2011
So, admittedly, I don't have much to claim when it comes to experience with finer(ish) Italian cuisine- even Olive Garden is a bit too fancy for me. (unless I get my nails done, hair done & errrrrrything) But this place would get a thumbs up from even the bay areas self proclaimed reigning guido kings & guidette queens.
This is not a pseudo Italian chain place. To my extreme surprise, when the waiter came, it was not one of my fellow Mexican paisas, but a nice young Italian guy who I could barely understand (in any case, almost a paisa since they both no speak pa-pa-pa-americano)
They start you automatically off with some bread and dipping sauce- apparently laced with heroine because it is so damn good, you'll be trying to sell yourself in exchange for more.
Don't sell yourself too cheap though, because the actual entree sizes are HUGE and DELICIOUS. We got a seafood pasta plate and a spinach veggie plate, but ended up leaving with plenty of leftovers. Though food is delicious, be aware that it is rich and heavy with cream, fat, calories, and butter, so you'll end up leaving the place looking more like Fat Tony than Sofia Loren.
Place has a great homey-family-feel and really nice decorating, despite a bit of an unoriginal name for the place. Definitely worth checking out again. -
Review from Jim B.
San Francisco, CA
12/23/2011
Love this place and the awesome pasta plates they can come up with. Been coming here sporatically for years, and always get some kind of seafood pasta(cannot remember a specific plate right now). Not sure if this is a tourist place or more for locals...
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Review from Emily P.
12/10/2010
Apparently one of the other Italian restaurants is upset at how well this place is doing....pretty obvious when the one-star reviews come from question mark heads.
This place is amazing. We accidentally ended up here for dinner before Beach Blanket Babylon. A local pointed us in the direction of Caffe Sport which was a huge selling point. I really wasn't too excited about it when we saw the outside, it looks like an old sports bar and I didn't want bar food, but we went in anyway because we were in a bit of a time crunch.
The second we stepped inside, I know it was going to be greatness.
We ordered a salad and the pasta rustica to split and I could have bathed in the dressing and sauce. I can't even explain to you how awesome this meal was...so I won't even attempt to. Just know that you WILL NOT be disappointed if you eat here.
One of the waiters told us that the restaurant had been there for 41 years and that the menu had never changed...that's saying something!
The service was impeccable. Everyone in the place stopped by to say hello to us...even the man who cooked our dinner! I don't have a bad thing to say about this place and I figure the people who do...haven't actually eaten here...or their brains have been taken over by aliens because you'd have to be crazy to think this wasn't amazing food. -
Review from isis m.
Cardiff-by-the-Sea, CA
2/6/2011
I just visited Caffé Sport for the first time since the mid 80's (I often referred to this as my favorite restaurant in the US). WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT!
The lobster with pasta and cream sauce just missed the mark - lobster was tough, and the sauce did not have the richness that a good cream and garlic sauce demands. The once proud desert choices now feature a frozen tiramisu. In the "old days" they served deserts from local Italian bakeries.
The service was "enthusiastic" but untrained. The main course came too close to the salad and the wait staff reached across my plate to clear a dish several times.
I know all things change over time but this case the change was not favorable. This will be my final visit. Antonio the kitchen needs you back!
