Giovanni

Can’t wait for it to open again.
A Berkeley staple for good food, casual dining and a warm atmosphere.
A perfect place for us «fifty somethings» that don’t want all the glitz, glamour, noise and over priced food and drinks. Low key and fun.

Anyone know if this open again? Got an email inviting me for a free birthday dinner. called and hot a recording

Last night we walked past Giovanni on our way to dinner and observed it closed. I just checked Unilocal and read Lynnette F’s ⁷⁄₂₆ review stating that Giovanni had had a fire in April and has been closed since. Here’s the article she cites:
I assume it will be reopening eventually, but no word on that.

Worst service ever. At least pretend to be nice instead of looking at us and ignoring every single request we had. The waiters seemed attentive at first but didn’t even come to check up on us. They did not refill our water and our food took nearly an hour to come out. AND one of the waiters dropped a butter knife on my shoulder!!! Are you serious? If you can’t buss all of the dishes, then come back for a second round. Don’t try to stack your dishes for your own convenience if you can’t carry them.

Just so Unilocal knows, this restaurant had a fire and has been closed since April, with the exception of Anna S., the reviews after late April aren’t valid. They won’t allow those reviews to be flagged. Here’s a link to the article:

Our beloved restaurant suffered a fire in april, athough it was minor we’re now caught in the quagmire of insurance insanity, city permits, etc., etc., etc. We’re sadden to say we’ll be closed possibly til September or October. Please be patient for our return, our legacy will live on. best regards, Giovanni

I came here twice, once for a banquet dinner and once with friends. The food is great, and the service is pretty good. You can book a large table for large events. The pasta is good and the dessert is amazing too. I enjoyed the vibe there, with the candlelight.

Staffed by kids who have no idea what common curtesy is let alone how to wait on tables!!! None of the bathrooms worked while we were there! Our food was cold n didn’t taste good at all! This use to be our favorite place now the food is bad the staff is lackin a lot n it’s lookin run down! Pull it together guys!!!

We went on Valentine’s Day this year and we had a wonderful time. Called maybe an hour before we got there and got a reservation. After a quick drive, we arrived at Giovanni and we’re promptly seated. We got to choose where since they had an open table seat and a booth seat near the back. We choose the booth seat and it was nice. We had a lot of room to ourselves and we could see how interesting the walls and the rest of the restaurant looked.
Not long after being seated we ordered our drinks, Italian Sodas. Those were brought out and we ordered our food. I ordered seafood pasta, can’t remember the name and he got steak. Food didn’t take long but while we waited we had amazing bread to snack on. we dug into our food after it arrived and it was delicious. Steak was juicy and the potatoes it came with perfectly seasoned. Pasta was great and the noodles to seafood ratio was spot on. The only problem was we waited a little too long to get refils on our drinks but that was quickly made up for when our waitress brought out tall glasses of our Italian sodas (glasses they are supposed to come in are much smaller). The waitress knew she took too long and did the best she could to correct it. I will never forgot the best Valentine’s Day at Giovanni’s, the experience was amazing.

I have been here twice now, once with my husband and once with friends and both times the service was soooo slooooow. The food, while tasty, was not mind blowing and was quite pricey for the size of the servings. The entire experience was adequate, but I don’t see myself returning.

Seriously the worst dining experience yet. First return was my fault. Jambalaya was just too spicy for me. After getting 2 out of 3 entrées, we waited for the calamari. It came out hot and tasty with a peice of steel scrubber on it! Then… I got the basic spaghetti and meat balls and the meat balls were cold. Just a really aweful ending to a really strange day. I won’t be back. Ever.

It’s kind of sad to see a place like this with so much potential do so poorly. The food here is pretty sub par and the drinks are either watered down or old. My chicken parmesan was soggy and burned. The service was good and the manager walked around asking how everyone’s food was. I’m sure if they tried they could do much better.

Called to order a pizza at 9:45pm on a FRIDAY night and was told, sorry but they just closed their kitchen (closing time is 12:00am). They were «…closing early due to slow business.»
Really? How much business do you make when you shut down and close up?

horrible, horrible service. Way understaffed. We dined on a Saturday night. The place is very dated and looks like it hasn’t been updated in 20 years.
The service was redicously slow. Looks like a family operation that has their unexperienced kids as servers. Server forgot my drink several times.
The worst part was when all of the food arrived, and the server said, «oh I forgot to tell you, we are out of the cheese ravioli»…my response, «well thanks for letting me know once all the food has arrived». He offered to buy me a drink, which he ended up bringing me one, but forgot to comp it.
I did see the owners come out and try to help, but they were very much overwhelmed.
The food was decent, not over-​inspiring but was worth the money.
If they got rid of the kids and hired some servers with some restaurant experience, they’d definitely be keeping customers coming back.
I don’t think we’ll be coming back anytime soon. Perhaps on a Tuesday night

My partner and I came on a night when they were completely understaffed. Still our server Hannah, delivered service well above what we expected. Not only did she recommend a great wine, but sent us home with free dessert to thank us for waiting.
As far as food goes, Giovanni’s serves traditional Italian comfort food. Their marinara sauce is very garlicky (just how I like it) and their BREAD IS ABSOLUTELY TO DIE FOR. It is served warm and in ample supply. All in all my partner and I had a lovely date, the food, the atmosphere (they sat us right by the fireplace), and the service was excellent.

This place is really cute looking, but for some reason both of our dishes. (We got the chicken Marsala and the linguini pesto) tasted like maple syrup.
Hahahaha
We only had one fork for the first 30 minutes, three different servers forgot to bring us a second fork after asking.
The best part of our dinner was the strange lady outside the window obviously on bath salts talking to herself for a whole hour and 25 minutes so we just sat there drinking and watching her laughing.
We are never going here again, EVER!

I took my family here around christmastime, and they were coming from out of town, and it was a great experience. DELICIOUS food. Five star service– like, sensible service, where the server knows the right times to be around. I love the look of Giovanni, especially the back room… there’s a fireplace in the middle of the room!!!
I’m pretty easy to please, especially since my decisions on Italian food have been shaped from working at Olive Garden for 3+ years, so italian food aficionados, beware of a potentially incorrect rating. The lasagna was SO GOOD. Chicken marsala, yum. Bruschetta, hell yeah. And tiramisu… that shit is really so wonderful, I will be getting it to-​go by itself on lonely nights.
Overall, 4 stars because everything was just so nice. Minus 1 star because the place was pretty empty (we were here 8pm on a Monday night), and it’s definitely not a bad thing to have the ambience of other guests in the place. Cheers!

Very romantic, very standard but delicious Italian food. A real classy joint. My husband and I make this a regular date night favorite.
Sit by the fire if you can.

You learn something new every day, and recently, I learned that there was a legitimately nice Italian restaurant in the ‘hood next to the Dollar Tree on Shattuck. Giovanni’s décor makes you feel right at home, with crackling fireplaces, wooden tables, and red checkered tablecloths deckin’ the halls. The waiters were fantastic, making sure that our tables always had baskets of freshly-​baked foccacia bread. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I filled up on the bread. Fluffy and soft, you didn’t even have to dip it in olive oil to make it drool-​inducing good.
I ordered the seafood pizza, which comes with juicy bits of shrimp and calamari (non-​fried, of course) on a pesto base. Even though it lived a bit on the blander side, I ended up gobbling half of the medium pizza (³⁄₆ slices) and felt satisfactorily stuffed. I stole — I mean, sampled — a bit of my friend’s gamberi scampi, and honestly, I felt the $ 18 spent on the pizza was a better deal. The scampi comes with six shrimp and a side (understatement) of linguine. Decent entrées overall, so it’s a-​ok!

We’ve eaten at Giovanni’s several times over the years but not when it was operated by the original owners. Heard that the original owners have returned to run Giovanni’s and we recently had a chance to check it out.
From first appearance there appears to have been some décor changes. Gone are the high back office bar chairs, the plastic grape vines that draped the overhead lights, and a brighter back dining room. This evening, we sat a table in the front room near the bar.
After the waiter took our order, we were served the warm house herb focaccia. Always, loved this focaccia and was glad it was still the house bread. We got seconds of this tasty bread. (
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Veal parmesan: A nice thick piece of veal that came with some fettuccini and steamed veggies. The veal was tender, more so than when it was served under the previous ownership. (
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Linguini vongole: ten nice sized clams adorned the plate of linguini. It was fresh tasting and cooked perfectly. A tasty dish. (
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Tiramisu: a nice moist chunk of cake, but was not the best Tiramisu I’ve had. (
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Overall, Giovanni’s is a step above the era of the prior ownership. Service was attentive and efficient. Glad the original Giovanni’s is back.