(N)OT timista

The title's kind of confusing, but I was trying to merge a restaurant called "Ottimista" with the word "not" to refer to our disappointing evening there. It's an Italian restaurant/wine bar on Union St here in the Cow Hollow neighborhood. I've been there once before and really enjoyed my time. That time, the sommelier was nice enough to pour us 4-5 wines to try, the food was exceptional, etc. But this time was different.

The server apparently knew nothing about the wine, which is a big no-no for a wine bar. I told her I wanted a medium to full bodied white, with bold acidity. She recommending one of the featured wines for the night, an unoaked chardonnay. Now, I DID legitimately want to try this since I'm not really a fan of oaky chards, but i was also hoping that it indeed would be medium/full with good acidity. well it wasn't. it was flabby and watery.

then i ordered the sea perch and i asked for a sparkling wine to go with it. Disappointingly, the server not only brought me the wrong entree (pasta w/ sea urchins), but she brought me the same sparkling wine my boyfriend had just had, even though i specifically asked to try something different.

My friend ordered the lamb, and asked for something to pair with that. The server glanced at their list of nightly specials/pairings and just picked the wine at the top (which their menu said was supposed to pair with the sea urchin pasta). so it was official: this server knew nothing. which is a shame for a wine bar.

the food was pretty good, the wines were ok, and the service was bad. so the fact that the 3 wines we tried were only so- so, combined the server's poor performance means i don't think I'll be going there again for a bit.