The older and more well-established Mediterranean fusion restaurant, Nopa, has a kitchen dominated by Latin American immigrants. A different group of employees is responsible for preparing staff dinner every night, so it is often comprised of Latin American cuisine. Some of the employees at Nopa claim that their staff dinner is often better than the food they dish out at service. (And that’s saying something considering Nopa prepares some of San Francisco’s top cuisine.) Nopa’s owners decided to help out their dish-washers and floor sweepers in opening up their own restaurant. And so came to be “Little Nopa” or Nopalito, my number 52 spot for their carnitas.
Although Nopalito has a consistent line out the door and a reputation almost as big, their food is not over the top. My carnitas are the perfect example of Nopalito’s execution. My nice, and very cute, waiter served me a ramekin filled with three hunks of pork. They were very lightly seasoned, and had no sauce. There was no need to mask the pure porkiness. I didn’t need a knife to eat my pork medallions. They literally fell apart at the touch of my finger.
Accompanying my hot, steamy meat (that’s what she said) was a housemade pickled spicy cabbage and carrot salad with green chile salsa, which was the perfect, light, fresh and crisp companion for the pork. I also received several housemade soft corn tortillas, which were warm, nutty and sweet. This food is authentic, yet refined and always fresh, while still maintaining the simplicity that good quality, fantastic tasting ingredients should have.
Nopalito is definitely a top one hundred San Francisco spot, and the carnitas were the perfect choice for the list. My Nopalito eating partner, Stephany, will go so far as to say if she had to eat at one place in San Francisco for the rest of her life, Nopalito would be that place.
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