Cugini Restaurant

We had a big party here, and they served us well. The wine was great, the bartender was friendly; I ate the salmon and it was well-​prepared, but I look forward to another day with wood-​fired pizza. Others had pasta, And everyone was pretty happy. Portions are extremely large, so in the future I would share. Warm atmosphere with bar and tables for maybe 40.

Mah goodness! How have I not reviewed this place? I can’t count the number of times I’ve been here. It’s my little retreat (in a very inexplicable way). Wherever I go, should I think of Berkeley and its surrounding neighborhoods, this restaurant is forever stored in my fond memories. Ahhhh. Nostalgia. The ambiance feels so authentic and obviously, as a food lover, I expect quality Italian and it sure is delivered.
Be sure to try the linguini vongole.

Very cute, warm atmosphere.
We witnessed staff interacting with various regulars during our meal.
Half order of Caesar salad was large, crisp and the dressing was tangy.
Butternut Squash soup tasted great and was served piping hot.
Fettuccine Alfredo was huge! Lots of chicken in a creamy cheesy garlic sauce.
Canneloni tasted great, also large portion.
I’ve never had any interest in Calzaones until our neighbor’s order came to his table. Wow. It was a thing of beauty. Can’t wait to go back and try it!
Full bar, descriptive wine list, beer on tap.

Came here with my family for my bday. The food was okay. I didn’t think it was that great. But the tiramisu was amazing! The asian man there was so sweet and helpful! Not sure if he’s the owner or not, but he was wonderful! He helped us take pics, gave me a free cake, and really was the sweetest! The vibe was pretty good too. Parking was a bit harder to find but then again it’s also solano! We got the mussel which was great. The free bread was amazing, I wish they made some own dipping sauce for the bread instead of just olive oil. The crab rivoli was okay, the sauce was good but I felt like the inside could have been seasoned more, there wasn’t much taste. My brother got a moscow mule and my mom got a margarita, which was all cute, but wished it was a bit bigger !

Food is decent. Service is kinda shitty depending on who’s serving you. I’ve eaten here a handful of times and I have received good service during lunch. Dinner service is absolute garbage. Food is slightly overpriced but what do you expect in an area full of cheap ass overly self entitled people.

We came here for lunch on Monday. The food was not only a ripoff, but my sister and I both had a rotten avocado on our sandwich. The turkey wasn’t real, but was luncheon meat turkey. We would would have gotten a better meal at Subway up the street.

Love love LOVE this place! Love sitting at the cozy bar, fantastic drinks, fabulous authentic Italian food! You know a bartender is good when they serve you once, and remember you the second time you come back. That’s passion for service and mixology! Insider tip: they sell their imported balsamic vinegar — unbelievable delicious, I’m hooked!

Cugini is in my neighborhood, so easy walking if too lazy to drive somewhere for dinner. Gotta support the «local» businesses. We’ve had mixed experiences with the food here. Sometimes good, sometimes just okay, but the last time it was bad. Tried the vegetariana pizza… The crust was dry and tasteless. There was no pizza sauce, just toppings of artichoke, tomatoes, mushroom. We had to drown the pizza with olive oil, chilli peppers and salt to improve it. The pizza maker had his earbuds on… maybe was distracted from his job. What a disappointment.

Review for service, ambiance and the chicken marsala!
Very welcoming, friendly and attentive for sure… ordered the chicken marsala and the chicken was tender and smothered with cremini mushrooms over mashed potatoes with asparagus spears. My mother and uncle ordered the same and we all devoured our dish. so much for leftovers… marsala sauce was delicious where you could actually taste the marsala but not overpowering! Yum!
Also, shared the calamari which was lightly coated and not heavy but could’ve used a tad of salt and i usually don’t add salt. The accompanying aoili complimented the calamari nicely. :)
Overall great experience… arrived at 530 on a Friday… pretty empty but filled up quickly by 7:00 with people waiting outside.

This place is 5 stars all the way. Atmosphere music food and customer service is on point. From the moment we walked in I was greeted with a smile. The hostess (Megan) greeted us with a smile and asked us if we wanted to sit by the open wall (window). Our waiter (Angel) was very helpful as usual I was undecided. He gave me a run down in the specials but I decided in the cannelloni and omg was it to die for. So delicious everything was amazing. Have to come visit for a lunch or dinner date. Would show pictures but it was too good to take any. Next time peeps. Xo

If you want good, honest, Italian food without the pretentious Bay Area bullshit, then this is the place to eat. If you want delicious pizza without the over-​priced hipster nonsense, then this is the place to go.
Now this place can get really busy on the weekends and the service can be spotty, but don’t let that deter you. Be prepared for it.

Came in here for lunch with a friend. He ordered the Margherita Pizza with tomato sauce, mozzarella, fresh tomatoes, garlic, and basil. I had their Grilled Salmon Salad. It had fresh grilled salmon fillet on top of hearts of romaine, mixed greens, green bell peppers, roma tomatoes, oranges, cucumbers, pepperoncini, candied pecans, tossed in a lemon shallot vinaigrette. Casual restaurant with reasonable service, and the food was good. The large window were open so the noise level in the restaurant was actually quite loud. That made talking and conversation difficult. It was fine for what it was. Might try dinner here at some point in the future.

Add a half star more. Mmmmm… ribeye medium rare. Bartenders who serve a proper drink. Crowded noisy busy servers running as fast as they can. There’s a reason why they’re busy. One of the best places on Solano to eat.
As for that ½st star? Probably nothing they can do about it anyway. Parking can be awful! But if you’re looking for good food in a lively atmosphere you should stop by.

Authentic Italian? I’m an authentic Italian and Calabrese to boot! So I wanted to eat Italian food and decide to try this place. Ordered Calamari Fritti, little rubber bands they were, sent them back couldn’t eat, neither could my friend. We both ordered the Rigatoni with Calabrese Sausage… so disappointing – IT WAS BURNED, the sauce and the sausage… didn’t eat that either just took it to go – in the garbage… I really cannot believe people gave this place 5 stars.
I would never go back. Service was lacking, very slow… too bad people don’t know what good Italian food tastes like… guess we should have ordered pizza!

Staff is always amazing accommodating my aunt who has mobility issues. For that alone, they get 5 stars.
Now the good is awesome. The portions are big enough to share and not overpowering. Even though this is an Italian restaurant, I always order the rib eye. They do an amazon job grilling that steak to perfection. We ordered 2 bottles of merlot and the owner /​manager suggested a nice alternative which went perfectly with my steak.
Other favorites – calamari appetizer. Light airy and not greasy and battery
Risotto with Prawns — lotsa of prawns and the Neal is enough for 2!
Lasagna was good and just the right portion. It’s made correctly not stuffed with a lot of mozzarella and lotsa of ricotta cheese. Deeelishus!
Dessert — lava cake and affogado. Nuff said…
Thank you to the wonderful staff and chef. Always a great dining experience.

This restaurant isn’t that bad overall, but it’s quite clear that the menu was priced far above what it reasonably could be considering the quality of the ingredients. I’d say that the prices are around 30% higher than they should be. However, as a new restaurant, I see potential if they focus more on quality cooking and trying to attain more authenticity as an Italian restaurant.
First off, this was my first experience with food poisoning. PLEASE do not order the seafood pasta entries. As a longtime seafood lover, I had the Penne con Pesce ($ 23), which was penne pasta cooked with white wine, with scatterings of calamari, squid tentacles, scallops, clams, shrimp, and rockfish fillet (I think). Although the shrimp seemed fresh, the rest of the seafood was bland and tasted frozen. I’m 99% sure that everything but the fish and shrimp come from the same frozen seafood assortment bag that my family has tried a couple times before. Anyways, just avoid this dish. I ended up not sleeping last night and kowtowing to the porcelain throne this morning, so… just don’t end up like me.
Anyways, onto the meal. We started off with Acme bread (Sweet rustic dough, if I recall correctly) and olive oil. Pretty standard, but props for getting fresh Acme bread.
We also ordered two appetizers. I recall the salad (Insalata Finocchio — $ 9) being pretty fresh, and the other (Antipasto Misto — $ 12) with decent selection, with the sheep’s cheese more memorable than the other offerings, which seemed like cheap deli standards. Either way, we were hungry and the appetizers were satisfying.
The food arrived pretty quickly. Right after we finished the appetizers we got the two special entrees (Calzone — $ 17 and Chicken Involtini — $ 26) and my seafood entrée, of course. The stuffed chicken was a little overcooked and subsequently dry with a grainy texture, but the accompanying squash was pretty good. My mom could barely start the Calabrese sausage calzone, so no word on that.
I’d probably eat it if not for this sh*tty nausea. I probably shouldn’t have tried to write about food. It’s not quite helping.
tl; dr: Food is overpriced. They do some things well, but most aren’t up to par to the standards set by their pricing and by other Italian places. Probably would not try again. Also, DON’T ORDER THE SEAFOOD ENTREES BECAUSE THERE IS A CHANCE THEY MESS IT UP AND YOU GET FOOD POISONING. ³⁄₁₀

Very nice…
We split a Spinach Salad and i had clams from the appetizer menu and she had chicken Marsala … Very good and tasty, fast pleasant service and reasonable priced… Thank you.
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we still enjoy the food here and the ambiance ! But recently we got the Spinach Salad again and it was very tasty but a little to oily… Mussels were a little too small and i mean small… and the Risotto was hinting of a Mexican cook in the rear… Not at all like my Nonna’s Risotto. But what can i say it is a changing world… the place still is nice to eat at…

This is the only dedicated true Italian restaurant on Solano Avenue, so I think it gets a little more credit. It’s actually more of a CA Italian restaurant with Americanized dishes and ingredients as opposed to what you find in more fresh-​of-​the-​boat Italian places (not to be offensive). It’s delicious in a crowd-​pleaser vs gourmet kind of way, but still satisfying.
It’s got a loyal neighborhood following, and friendly relaxed staff. Also wood-​fired oven which makes it cozy by default. They have a small bar with TVs if you want to catch some sports. And, I love the big Italian prints which are actually all «original» painted copies of the real things. I wonder where they got them, or did they do them themselves? Impressive if so!

So… I gave them a second chance. I wanted to try their dessert so bad! Plus, my husband loves Italian food!
My second time around was such a contrast to the first experience. I was pleasantly surprised to see smiling faces and greetings from all staff despite how busy it was. I ordered the chicken penne pasta, my husband ordered the chicken Marsala. Both were delightful. Bursting with flavor. Great wine, great food, and finally… DESSERT! I actually had the opportunity to try it this time! We had the exploding chocolate cake. I’m not sure if that’s the exact name for it, but it was sooo good! Like a classy chocolate volcano!
The service was great. No complaints at all. Our server and busser were on point. Always had our bread on the table, always had our waters full. But what was most impressive to me was the way Gianni (the owner) greeted every table. When management and owners take the lead in customer care, it speaks volumes.
Can’t wait to return.

Came here for my birthday dinner and was really happy with the results! Been meaning to come here for awhile. Nice mood lighting for a date. Service was GREAT! Our waitress and servers were SOO nice. We ordered the Manhattan and it was wonderfully made! They offered to remake it for us if we were dissatisfied but we loved it!
We ordered the specials: crab ravioli and the special pizza. The ravioli was so good. I could really taste the crab and the sauce was creamy but not overly thick. Made just right! The pizza had pepperoni and a wide assortment of veges. Also so much cheese. It was delicious!
Wish I had more room in my stomach for dessert. Will definitely come back when I want a nice Italian dinner. Not cheap, but not overly expensive.