Located in the Mission District where Last Supper Club used to be, this hip Italian restaurant draws big crowds on weekends. My friends and I reserved a six-top and were seated in their dark, dungeon-like room downstairs. It took several minutes for our eyes to become accustomed to the dim lighting and actually see our menus. Seating was interesting, half of us sat in regular chairs and the other half sat in an old church pew.

When I’m in the mood, I enjoy cocktails with either Grey Goose or Belvedere vodka. But our two servers made it abundantly clear that the bartenders turn up their noses at vodka which is apparently inferior to rums, gins and the like for mixed drinks. They said vodka doesn’t do anything to enhance those kinds of drinks. That explains why they only had several vodkas and each were infused with weird flavors like basil.

I tried a highly recommended gin drink, (I hate gin but one of our servers insisted that it was worth a try), and traded it in for a glass of red wine. Then I tried to focus on the food.

Our group shared a bunch of dishes, including roasted beets with ricotta salata which was my girlfriend’s favorite, and meatballs in tomato sauce which were a little too soft but had good flavor. It came with a couple slices of grilled bread to sop up the sauce. We also had a proscuitto pizza with tomato, arugula, and mozzarela which had a thin, crispy crust but was just okay. The marinated sardines were very tart which is the way they are supposed to be, but my mouth got really puckery. The salumi platter was nice, as was the saffron risotto with osso bucco which was comforting and rich.

We had a couple of espresso-laden desserts to finish the night.

Honestly, there are so many other restaurants where I can get a great Italian meal with a nice vodka cocktail and good lighting beyond the bowels of a restaurant. I’ll be back in the Mission soon since I love the overall vibe of that neighborhood, but I don’t think Beretta will be among my stops.