Partners Jerry Dal Bozzo, Dante Serafini and Andrea Froncillo have the Midas Touch when it comes to opening restaurants – other ventures include The Stinking Rose (North Beach and Beverly Hills), Crab House at Pier 39, Calzone’s and The Dead Fish – and Bobo’s is another brilliant nugget. When these successful restaurateurs decided to open a steakhouse, they wanted to offer the best steak possible, and partnered with one of the few purveyors in the country who has a Total Quality Control (TQC) USDA-rated facility for dry-aging beef (only eight-percent of US facilities qualify for this designation). While a handful of the better steakhouses dry-age their beef (on premises) up to 21 days, Boboquivari’s ages their beef for four to six weeks, producing a tender, juicy, flavorful piece of meat that literally melts in your mouth. Only Brooklyn’s famous Peter Luger and Bern’s of Tampa, Florida, have a steak that can compare.

When you first walk into Bobo’s (located in the two-story building at 1450 Lombard Street that used to house a Thai restaurant), you are instantly transported to a mystical, mysterious place. The first thing you see is the beautiful bar, with its enormous glass sculptured top backlit with a soft green glow that bounces seductively off the dark, red-amber walls. A giant Italian marionette greets you, whimsically leaping over the doorway with his long, gangly legs. This marionette is the namesake for the restaurant – Boboquivari (bo-bo-kwee-var-ee) is the Venetian court jester of comedy and entertainment, and the atmosphere at Bobo’s doesn’t disappoint.

Settled in our cozy booth, my dining companions and I began ordering from the "light meals" portion of the menu, which can also be ordered as appetizers to complement your entree. We started with the sizzling iron skillet-roasted mussels ($10), which were delicious – tender and juicy with a smoky flavor. I’m not a huge mussel fan, preferring clams and oysters, but these were the best mussels I’ve ever had. Next we tried the Dungeness crab cocktail in a citrus beurre blanc coulis and smoked salmon ($10), which was also lovely. The crab was fresh and sweet and was nicely offset by the tangy citrus. I had never seen a twice-baked potato on a menu – my mother made them routinely when I was growing up – but they have a good one at Bobo’s, filled with gooey fontina cheese, zucchini and chives ($5). The lollipop lamb chops with truffle oil essence and spicy mojito mint sauce (four for $10 or six for $15) were roasted rare to perfection and were so tender they practically fell off the bone, but my favorite appetizer was the lobster soup with potato and cauliflower puree in a light curry brodetto ($9). I’m not a curry fan, but I loved this soup so much that I wanted to lick the bowl. So often, lobster soup in a restaurant means one or two pieces of lobster in thick bisque, but this soup was in a light bisque and thick with chunks of sweet, tender Maine lobster. Other light fare standouts included the giant salt-roasted prawn, the sautéed Brussels sprouts and the Ahi tuna carpaccio with crunchy Chinese cucumber ponzu and sesame oil mist.

For entrees, there was no question that we were ordering the steak. But before the piece de resistance arrived, we tried a couple other dishes. The Hawaiian sunfish in seaweed-sesame soy glaze sauté ($16) was marvelous – crispy on the outside and moist and juicy inside, the sweet fish was a perfect match for the layer of tender, slightly-salty seaweed that accompanied it. But it was the crab angel hair lasagna ($14) that set my heart aflutter. It may sound strange, but this dish is a masterpiece in its simplicity. In fact, it was such a hit at the Crab House on Pier 39; they decided to bring it to Bobo’s, where it serves as the icing on top of an extremely well-rounded menu. Angel hair pasta, cooked al dente, is baked in a ramekin with a creamy but not heavy béchamel sauce until the top is brown and the lasagna mixture is hot and bubbly beneath. I can honestly say that I dreamt about this dish for days afterward.

At long last, the steaks arrived. JT, Ronan, Heather and I split the filet mignon (16-oz. $39) and the t-bone (24-oz. $42), and they arrived at the table thick, sizzling hot, medium-rare and juicy. Even the guys – both fitness trainers with hearty appetites – were in shock at the sheer size of these cuts. The filet was served bone-in – something I had never seen before, but it helps the flavor blossom during that four to six week dry-aging process. Words can simply not describe the steak at Bobo’s, and I would be doing an injustice even trying. Suffice to say, I’ve never had a better steak anywhere.

There is only one dessert on the menu – quadruple bypass, made with dark chocolate mousse, "dunce cap" cones and ancho chili pepper chocolate sauce ($5). It was the perfect ending to a perfect meal – light, fluffy mousse in a peppery sauce that gives the mousse a bit of an edge.

Boboquivari’s is a must-visit restaurant for anyone who loves steak, but there’s something on the menu for everyone, from vegetarians to pescetarians. With charming atmosphere, friendly service, a well-stocked bar and a smart wine list, this is the perfect place to gather with friends for a warm and wonderful evening.

Not to Miss Dish: The steak, of course! But make sure to order the crab angel hair lasagna and the lobster soup as well.

Boboquivari’s: 1450 Lombard Street @ Van Ness. (415) 441-8880. Open daily from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Bobo’s will soon offer limo service to and from the Lombard Street Garage. There is also limited parking next to the restaurant.

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