Reviews

By Matthew Stafford The Pacific Sun   Il Davide is no tomato-and-garlic laden, Chianti-soaked spaghetti joint. Its careful presentation of innovatively prepared fresh local ingredients raises it several notches above the standard Bay Area trattoria, where stodgy tradition and rigorously preserved foodstuffs are revered and unquestioned facts of life. At Il Davide, the eye, the palate and the stomach are given equally loving attention; the result is a memorable and satisfying meal.   The restaurant, just off Fourth Street in the heart of San Rafael, is a lively, bustling place, high ceilinged, pasteled and sleek, with acoustics that are no match for the sometimes overwhelming crowds. This is no place for an intimate conversation. Tables out front on A Street are available as well, offering a quasi-Euro verisimilitude especially pleasant on these warm summer evenings­particularly in San Rafael, where the balmy conditions, after all inspired the founding of the nearby mission.   Service is adroit and unruffled. Here at the Food & Drink Department we try to devour as much as we possibly can to better serve you, the reader, and our resulting complex dinner order, complicated by unavailable items and indecision over the tantalizing menu, was ably handled by our long-suffering waiter.   We began with two items from the full bar, a rich, delicious San Rafael Amber Ale and a lighter, even tastier Lagunitas Dog Town Pale Ale, both fresh from the tap and absolutely ideal for menu-perusing. The two salads that accompanied them almost made up for the unavailability of our antipasto of choice, a delectable-sounding custard leek tart with rosemary oil and garlic. The arugula beet salad is a big, hearty platter of freshly roasted beets on a bed of crisp arugula dressed in a tart raspberry vinaigrette, topped off and enlivened with generous chunks of pungent Gorgonzola and glazed walnuts; the resultant flavors and contrasts made every mouthful a pleasure. The Insalata Davide is another treat, its foundation of tasty mixed greens imaginatively accentuated with tart feta, toasted walnuts, golden raisins and a subtle balsamic vinaigrette.   At our table was a woman who deemed herself an expert gnocchi and tiramisu taster, an expertise earned, she assured us, through vigorous research in the field. First the gnocchi, our next course, a generous serving of the signature potato dumplings. These particular gnocchi are out of this world, even to an amateur gnocchi-lover like myself, the dumplings light as a feather and devoid of any undercooked doughiness, but with a richness and depth nicely complemented by a suave, subtle pesto. The pro was impressed enough to rank Il David's version among her personal favorites.   We passed up the other pastas, among them such sensational-sounding specialties as ravioli stuffed with shiitake, chanterelle and portobello mushrooms, and another black squid-ink version filled with snapper, scallops and rock shrimp, in favor of the risotto of the day. It was a wise choice. I'm not a fan of risotto and its creamy, overly rich character, but the Davide rendition is so satisfying I became a convert, at least for a night. The preparation that day, involving a fisherman's networth of seafood, almost defined abondanza, the serving dish so overwhelmed with prawns and sea scallops and salmon and snapper and clams and mussels, there was barely enough room for the rice, plump with the frutti di mare's essence.   We continued the seafood motif with the scallops Michelangelo; the sculptor's favorite model, after all, inspired the venue's name, just as his Tuscan roots inspired its cuisine. Sweet plump sea scallops and smooth, silky canellini are served up on a bed of pungent greens and peppers, the whole drizzled with a roasted garlic aioli; the dish's inspired use of disparate tastes and textures was triumphantly satisfying on several levels.   For dessert, we sampled (of course) tiramisu, the house version as vigorously applauded by our expert as the gnocchi had been, moist and light and subtly sweet; a slab of pretty good chocolate cake, nothing special; and a marvelous raspberry gelato torte, its basic ingredient not quite as mind-altering as the stuff available on the streets of old Firenze, but plenty good enough.   Prices at Il Davide are in the $4-$7 range for soups, salads and antipasti; pastas are $8-$13 and main courses are $9-$15; desserts are about $5 each.