The newest Italian addition to San Francisco is coming from a team with plenty of experience.

Via Aurelia, which opened last fall, comes from chef David Nayfeld of the ever popular Che Fico. I’ve been to Che Fico a few times and while I was a little harsh during my first visit, I remember liking my next visit significantly more. However, it’s been several years since I’ve dined there. This new project is advertised as showcasing the region of Tuscany but with fine dining sensibility aka more refined and elegant. Maybe it’s my fault for not knowing this key detail but I went into the dinner expecting to see some of my favorite Tuscan dishes. After all, I lived in Florence for four years!

The ambience is upscale, with a beautiful bar, and I definitely got the impression that they’re gunning for a Michelin star.

The menu is divided into antipasti, primi, pesce, and carne, and with a group of four people, we were able to order a range of dishes. Just to preface: some of my photos from the dinner weren’t the best quality as I find it more challenging to take nice pictures in a group setting versus when I’m dining out with just Tommaso since I can concentrate more in that setting.

We started off with these complimentary chickpea crisps which were dusted in a house spice blend. They were fine, nothing revolutionary.

I love, love, love sourdough bread and I’m not sure if it was because I was slightly high during this meal but the sourness was very prominent. Maybe a little too much?

The butter presentation was dope though!

We actually got three appetizers but I totally spaced and forgot to take a picture of the bay scallop crudo with Jerusalem artichoke, pistachio, and beech mushroom. It was a slightly odd dish to me as I didn’t find the flavors to come together at all. One of our dining companions, also a chef, mentioned that the texture of the scallop was slightly off, almost too soft. Fresh scallops should have a firmer texture.

I love a sformato so I was a bit disappointed with this dish. It was a green garlic sformato with celery root and Pecorino but I didn’t get much green garlic flavor at all. I also felt the sformato itself was too soft and I didn’t love the amount of foam surrounding it.

This one’s on me for not reading the menu closely enough as it clearly states pickled beets with sourdough bread, olives, and basil. That said, I found the pickled beets too acidic which made the dish feel unbalanced. Maybe I was just craving a more traditional panzanella.

The only truly “traditional Tuscan” appetizer on the menu was the trippa alla fiorentina (braised tripe in tomato sauce topped with Parmigiano Reggiano) which isn’t my cup of tea but our dining companions would have ordered it. I do wish they had included one of my favorite Tuscan appetizers though: crostini di fegatini (bread with chicken liver pâté).

The primi section did feature several types of ragù which can be considered Tuscan but I didn’t see some of the most popular Tuscan soups such as pappa al pomodoro or ribollita.

This was probably my favorite pasta dish of the night even though maltagliati is one of my least favorite pasta shapes. The wild hare ragù was very tasty and nicely flavored with white wine, rosemary, and black pepper.

I was really looking forward to this dish since pici is a traditional Tuscan pasta shape but I didn’t love that the pasta was lisci (smooth rather than grooved). I know that’s a very particular critique and more of a personal preference. The squab ragù itself was tasty with Pecorino Toscano and once again rosemary.

This wasn’t Tuscan at all but it was a beautiful presentation thanks to the Parmigiano Reggiano tuile. The tortellini were stuffed with Robiola, a soft ripened cheese from the Stracchino family, and served in a tomato sauce. Fresh, light, and a nice contrast to the heavier meat pastas.

I’m pretty sure this was a venison pasta (not entirely sure why they brought it out) but it was a nice surprise regardless.

Alright, you might be wondering why I rated this duck dish so low. The duck itself was poorly executed: the meat was too rare, at least for my liking, and everyone at the table seemed to agree. The skin wasn’t properly rendered so it wasn’t crispy at all and still had a thick layer of fat. On top of that, they added an amaretti crumble over the duck skin, almost as a stand in for the crispy element. Not only was the crumble off putting with a rancid flavor as if the fat had gone old but the duck skin underneath still wasn’t crunchy. It felt like they were trying to be clever but the execution completely missed the mark. The rest of the dish consisted of various chicories with citrus. I’m also not sure what was particularly “Tuscan” about this dish.

These complimentary cookies were actually bomb, one of the highlights of the entire dinner.

Nothing Tuscan about this either but it was an enjoyable chocolate cake with pears, white chocolate, Earl Grey, and lemon. Hard not to like.

This was their take on an affogato: vanilla bean semifreddo with espresso poured over, candied hazelnut, orange blossom, and dark chocolate ganache. Once again, not Tuscan but delicious.

While there were some definite lows with the food, the service was excellent. Our server was friendly, knowledgeable, and attentive, and the entire front of house team worked seamlessly together. I have to give them their flowers for that. I often find that restaurants aiming for that “elevated but not quite fine dining” space sometimes miss the mark. Super casual restaurants tend to nail what they’re trying to be and at the other extreme, true fine dining establishments usually execute at a very high level. But those restaurants stuck in the middle, trying to be refined without fully committing, often struggle to find their footing. Via Aurelia, for me, currently lives in that in between space but maybe I’m being too harsh? Either way, my rating is a 6.5-7/10.