When Tourists Hit the Beach

I'd been tempted by the tre paste ($12.95), three kinds of pasta served on a divided plate: ravioli in cream sauce, penne in pink sauce, and gnocchi in red sauce, but I chose the abbachio arrosto (roasted lamb shank with potatoes and vegetables, $19.95) instead of grilled salmon topped with asparagus, filet mignon with shiitake mushroom sauce, or pounded veal chop with roasted potatoes. The lamb was perfectly fine, still-moist meat covered with a dark pan sauce, crisscrossed with sprigs of fresh rosemary and sided with good roasted potatoes (though no other vegetables, as advertised).

We drank a reasonably priced Orvieto ($21) from an adequate list that warned the vintages were subject to change. Luckily the other warning we read — Sorry, No Credit Card — proved to be no longer in force.

The two desserts we tried — overgelatined panna cotta flavored with Nutella ($6.50) and little profiteroles squiggled with chocolate sauce ($6.50) — didn't encourage us to linger. I didn't feel that the punters now filling every table at Panta Rei were to be pitied, exactly, but I had no plans to add it to my shortlist of the best places to eat in North Beach.