Sistina

I was always curious about this place when I pass by it. I never bothered to look it up. When my friend said she wanted to come here for her birthday, I did some research. It was an Italian Restaurant. Wow, I would have never expected it. After reading reviews we expected it to be busy on a Saturday night, so we made reservations through Open-​table.
When we walked in the lady/​owner? came up to us and was seated after confirming our reservation. The restaurant looked really nice. It had a lot of murals on all the walls and ceiling. It was really beautiful and historical (to me). It reminded me of Adam and Eve. maybe because some of the men were naked. Haha
They had wine looking glass for water… classy. My friends and I decided to order 3 plates and share it. We got the lobster ravioli ($ 23), linguine carbonara ($ 15), and chicken piccata ($ 15). After ordering they served us bread with herb and garlic butter dip. Unlimited refill of bread… it was crispy and good with dip. lobster ravioli came with about 8 pieces. It was pretty good. The linguine carbonara was my favorite — had bacon, and a creamy, thick flavor to it. I didn’t like the chicken piccata too much, it had a tangy flavor to it. There wasn’t much sauce, mostly olive oil as the sauce? We mentioned it was my friend’s birthday so they brought out a cheesecake with chocolate drizzle right after my friend came back from the bathroom. There were even a candle for her! The cheesecake was sweet but tasted good. I wasn’t sure if they made it themselves or order it from other places. Overall, food was pretty good.
The atmosphere was great. It was a nice restaurant to experience. The food is on the pricey side but definitely worth a try for an occasion. Service was great and attentive. Our water is always refill. Definitely go try it out.

This place needs to get their act together. Made a reservation on open table, got all cute for a night out with my husband on our honeymoon, paid to take a cab over here and then we show up for our CONFIRMED reservation and the door is locked! One of the employees came to the door with the excuse that the kitchen is closed and the new manager «doesn’t really use» open table… Seriously??? How about REMOVE yourself then??? Coming sense is severely lacking here. Don’t give these people your business. We ended up at Taormina instead and both the service and the food were wonderful!

Mmm, low 2. I do like the colorful murals. Reminds me of some Italian places I’ve been to on the mainland. We were lucky to get street parking. I was dissatisfied with my meal though. Got the shrimp Lily. The shrimp was rubbery and flavorless. The bacon was freezer burned. There was some but not enough mozzarella. And the sauce was extremely runny. Service was mediocre too. The server could not describe the items on the menu and they did not come around often enough. I will not return.

The staff are very friendly! The food was delicious, I had the mushroom ravioli. The savory flavors mixed well with the mushrooms and ravioli. It paired nicely with the white zinfandel. Overall great customer service!

The food is excilent and the wait staff very attentive. I had the view picatta and it just melts in your mouth.

Great Place! Great Food! Great Service!
Parking allows for easy access and they also validate.
Romantic atmosphere.
Beautiful artwork.
Spacious.
Ideal for lunch and dinner.
Neat and clean.
Server was nothing short of awesome. He knew his menu inside out and he was very attentive. Also the server made suggestions that allowed us to try a variety of foods that lead us to have a wonderful experience.
Drinks! Water ice cold. Very tasty iced tea that had hint of berries that is unsweetened. The red wines will not disappoint. Very bold taste and good a selection to pick from.
Food! Excellent! Hot bread and herb butter is brought out to you as you wait for your appetizer of choice. Went with the Hot Antipasto (fresh clams, mussel, calamari, shrimp, garlic, cayenne, and paprika in white wine butter sauce) that was recommended because we wanted seafood. Fresh and delicious!
The main course! We went with the Chicken Parmigiana and the Mushroom Ravioli. Both satisfied or hunger with very flavorful ingredients, unique sauces, and generous portions!
Dessert! Yum! Yum! Yum! Cheesecake of the day that is house made and absolutely the best cheesecake we had! Tiramisu is also house made. Tiramisu was very light yet flavor was on point and I’m going back for more!
After driving by this place often, we finally decided to make time to go in and give it a try. We are now considering to go back again tonight for dinner lol! It’s unfortunate to have other Unilocalers give this place anything less then 5 plus stars. I think we are going back tonight and we shall continue to be customers of such a great place!

Had dinner here for the first time with some friends. Really loved the ambiance and décor of this place! I mean, how many restaurants (Italian in particular) do you see in Hawaii that have a lion’s head door knocker? It wasn’t too crowded the time we came here on a Friday evening, we made 7pm reservations and more people started trickling in around 8pm.
The wait staff was generally very friendly and helpful in getting us seated, asking if we had any questions regarding the menu, and got our table setup very quickly (utensils, bread, water, etc). Because we came on a slower evening I felt we got waited on more frequently, which is always a good thing but there were times when it felt like we got serviced a little too often by several different staff members.
The food– I love my pasta and I love Italian. I ended up ordering the Linguine Pomodoro pasta after debating on which entrée seemed like it would taste the best. The linguine didn’t disappoint. Pretty generous serving with everything I love: peas, mushrooms, and bacon! Very tasty but got really full after a while and wasn’t able to finish. :(Next time I’ll try some of their house red wines and pair that with my dish.
Overall I had a good experience here. Prices are reasonable and comparable to other places and there is convenient parking in the building.

I haven’t had a proper Italian food all my life. Not because there isn’t one. It was because I never took interest in trying them out. Italian food has lots of pork products which is the major reason for my hesitation. I have been to this restaurant twice for business lunches. It’s in the same building where I work. I had the vegetarian pasta the first time and fried fish the second time. The pasta portion was more and I had to pack the rest for dinner. The fried fish portion was disappointing. They could have added some pasta. It was just a small filet of fish with 3 crostini. Taste wise everything was good. The ambiance is really good with lots of artistic paintings all over the place. Service was really good. I think a lunch or dinner check for two might average between $ 60-​$ 70 here with appetizer/​entrée/​dessert. Feel free to try it once and it might work out for you.

This is ideal place for dates and proposal. Quiet, romantic ambiance! You should come if you’d never been here! I enjoyed my dinner very Uchishoba!

This was our first time here and the food was delicious and the service was great! I had the fish piccata with Monchong fish. It was light and the fish was soft and moist! Their wine selection is amazing! You’ll need to check it out!

While the food here is quite alright for me, I think I enjoy the restaurant more because of the hand painted ceiling by the owner. I remember when half of the ceiling was still pencil sketches!
This trip I had the veil Marsala. The veil was slightly over cooked, but the Marsala sauce was excellent.
If you like sweet drinks, my sister and nephew loved the Italian cream sodas, which were much creamier that other places.
It seems to be a little bit of an older crowd, but still family friendly.

All you need to know is that this place cooks pasta al dente. Too many Italian restaurants here in Hawaii get this wrong. Sistina does not. And when you couple that with the wonderful sauces they provide as a dressing to the pasta, you’ve got an Italian restaurant worthy of 5 stars in my book. I’m coming back to Sistina, and you can’t beat its convenience on King St. (right after Easy Music).
Funghi con Polenta — I love mushrooms, especially in a hearty sauce. Smother that sauce over polenta, and you’ve got me licking the plate clean if it were just me. In the presence of company, I’m sopping it up with the warm bread they bring to the table. Or I’m considering the warm (and spreadable) herb butter to go on that bread. Choices. Aaargh.
Spaghetti Aglio Olio — I wanted something on the lighter side, and this one did not disappoint. Lots of flavor coming through in spite of the simplicity of the dish (EVOO, anchovies, and garlic). The sauce clung like a beautiful dressing to the al dente pasta.
Sistina is my new go-​to Italian eatery, and I’m going back to explore the rest of the menu soon.
My disclaimer: I’m not Italian, and I have never lived in Italy. I visited Florence and Venice once, for what it’s worth.

Walk in and the ambiance is set. The paintings from floor to ceiling are incredible. You forget what’s outside…
We were greeted immediately with warm staff — which was nice… Drink orders were taken and warm bread (with this wonderful spread) was served. Menu has a nice variety. Antipasto, salads, chicken, veal, seafood and of course, Pasta.
I ordered the caprese salad, chicken piccata and tiramisu. Everything was excellent. Salad was fresh… the piccata sauce was perfect and the tiramisu was a thing of beauty with the coffee I ordered (Kauai roast, and from the menu… this restaurant orders it directly from the grower in Kauai!).
I will be back… so much on the menu… it would take many many visits to taste the entire menu.
Prices were very reasonable… and service was friendly and attentive.
Great Job Sistina!

This bit of memoir of Sistina was for my visit during Veteran’s Day November 11, 2015 with my gal. I am only now starting this review November 22, 2015. As my personal test of a restaurant’s memorable quality, I usually wait at least a week or until I am procrastinating from some other important task.
I recall the day to be breezy (25 to 35 mph) and sunny weather absent of any traffic on the H1 with the average speed of most cars to be 60 to 75 mph. That day, in my humble opinion, was perfect. I also recall the difficulty in finding the restaurant because that was my first visit. It turns out there is a front, street view, entrance and a first floor garage parking entrance – either of which were accessible and welcoming to say the least. If you enter from the garage side, you are welcomed by a painting on the wall next to the entrance door and paintings of two semi-​nude man and woman located next to the restroom entrances; after stepping through the entrance door. When you enter from the main entrance, which is from the street side, you are greeted by paintings on the ceiling and side walls of the main dining hall, almost the same impact if you entered the Sistine Chapel. After seeing this, my expectations of food and service and happy possibilities rose.
The wait staff consisted of two very tall, very professionally dressed, and attentive ladies. These ladies were clothed in white dress shirts, black pants and shoes with white aprons around their waists. I truely felt under dressed in my blue t-​shirt and denim shorts and running shoes. Their attention to our table, located close to the main entrance, was nothing short of professional – mind you, at the time of our order placement – around 11:30am – we were the only two customers. Water and the bread basket with basil butter were replenished without a request from my table.
The food I ordered were Oven Roasted Eggplant as an appetizer, Fish Italiana and Lobster Ravioli as entrees, and chocolate cake with ice cream for desert. The roasted eggplant was light in taste with slivers of garlic between slits of a half cut lengthwise of an eggplant topped with some kind of cheese crumbles. The Fish Italiana was a moderately size pan fried Opah steak on top of al dente spaghetti and a diablo marinara sauce. The slight spiciness was a pleasant accent and the sauce had a well developed seasoned flavor. The Opah was borderline dried out and over cooked. The Lobster Ravioli was the highlight of the meal. The ravioli were pillows filled with cheese, swimming with crumbs of lobster meat in lobster sauce. The chocolate cake with hazel nut gelato was a sweet ending to a flavorful meal.
The food was enjoyable but short from perfect. The overall experience was a welcomed accompaniment to that kind of day that is very rare and perfect. We were amused and we will be back.

This is my second time here. My boyfriend and I ordered the polenta fungi and bore sausage. Both were good but polenta fungi was really good and the price was decent (under $ 10). We also ordered La Rossa (Italian beer) while we waited for our entrees. If you like dark beer, I recommend this beer.
Unfortunately, I forgot the name of the entrees we ordered… All I know is that both dishes had chicken (which was kinda dry). Overall I like this place because the food, service, and the ambience is good (except for the dry chicken part).

Location/​Parking: Coming down South King St, it’s on your left, right before the Keeamoku/​S. King St intersection. Look for the Easy Music Building parking structure, or street parking if you’re lucky.
Service/​Ambiance: The servers here are all conspicuously fit and attractive. The bold Japanese tourist might venture to ask, «Are you from Italy?» only to be met with, «No, I was raised in Makiki.» And that’s all okay. Because the service at Sistina is warm and accommodating. You will surely have a question or two about the unique menu items, and the servers are more than happy to give their recommendation.
Food: I think a responsible Unilocaler tries his/​her best to align a potential diner’s expectations of a restaurant with its reality. Many poor reviews, I’ve noticed, are based on isolated instances of 1) bad service or 2) unmet expectations. I will never get over reading one guy’s dismal review of a sushi restaurant that couldn’t make every sushi roll into a specially vegetarian one for his pregnant wife. Um, who was the bright star who decided to take his pregnant wife to a raw fish restaurant? You sir, you. You, who undoubtedly have like two reviews and 0 friends next to your name. And one of the reviews is of a Wendy’s, probably.
Which is why I’m left a bit befuddled as to how I can properly prepare you, earnest Unilocal reader, for the kind of food Sistina serves. It’s definitely not bastardized American-​Italian food with heaps of fatty sauces and badly cooked protein ala Bravo’s, but I wouldn’t say it’s very high-​end eats, either. I think the best way to describe it is rustic and traditional Italian; the kind of food you might expect a nonna to cook for you in her 150-​year-​old kitchen in the Italian countryside. The sauces are very light — so light, in fact, that they border on «watery.» (Chicken Florentine). If you only love creamy and sauce-​laden spaghetti, this may not be the Italian for you. I had the mushroom risotto, which was very, very earthy, and very aromatic. I think there were three kinds of mushroom in it, some dried. Again, don’t expect a super cheesy risotto with recognizable button mushrooms scattered throughout.
A must-​order is the mushroom polenta with gorgonzola cream sauce, served with bread. A knowing doctor would be appropriately appalled at your consequent cholesterol levels tho. There is absolutely nothing redeeming health-​wise about this dish — it’s got polenta and bread (two-​pronged carb bonanza), cream, and cheese galore. There are no veggies in it, not even a smattering of them. The girl who rationalizes that taco salad is salad would despair. It’s a definite calorie bomb, but I’d brace my taste buds any day for this dish any day!

My family & I never heard of a «Cake Fee» before!

We wanted to bring a birthday cake for my niece and luckily, my sister mentioned it to the restaurant. They informed her about the $ 2 per person charge — wow! For our party of 13 people, that’s almost the price of the cake! We had the birthday cake elsewhere…
Other than that, the food and the service were excellent. I had the Lobster Ravioli which I inhaled! The small chunks of lobster were deliciously firm. I only wish there were more of them and the filled ravioli! My mom never offered me any of her Eggplant dish — by the time I looked over at her plate, it was gone! I eyed my sister’s Carbonara pasta, but she gobbled it up quickly! My brother-in-law’s clam linguini bowl was empty before I could get a taste! The other end of our table had no complaints! I guess I must return for the clams, eggplant and pasta!
We sat towards the back of the restaurant on the left side, near the «interestingly decorated» restrooms. It’s as if we were in a private room — it felt so cozy! The food arrived promptly and the water glasses were filled continuously. We were even given more yummy bread after we finished our meals! That herbed butter really called out to my nephew!
We parked in the Interstate Building for a flat rate of $ 3 after 6pm. There is also free street parking after 6pm. My family and I really enjoyed the décor, the ambiance, and the location. It wasn’t busy for a Wednesday night — go check it out — especially the paintings on the walls! (hint!)

I have been here a few times, few and far between. I like the interior (paintings on the wall like the Sistine Chapel… hence the name of this restaurant).
Pro:
Lots of pasta options on the menu (more so than other Italian restaurants).
Con:
Service can be a hit or miss. Depending on whom you get.
Would I be back? Probably — few and far between.

This place has a solid menu, with tons of lamb and veal dishes that sound amazing (and so-​so seafood offerings). I had the fruitti di mare (average) and amaretto cheesecake (perfecto, even sans-​amaretto), but I ended up eating tons of my friend’s veal marsala (perfecto). Upon entry, I found the place to be potentially touristy and lacking in white tablecloths… But I slowly fell in love with the torsos and romps (courtesy of Michaelangelo) and delicious sauces on our plates. Service was great. Closes 930ish weekdays.
I’ll be back for veal.

Ahhh, Christmas Eve 2014, my sister and brother-​in-​law (the meat n’ potatoes, one) invited us to dinner at this longtime local-​favorite Italian restaurant. In fact, our family has been coming to Owner/​Chef Sergio Mitrotti’s restaurant since early 1990. Chef Mitrotti is credited for introducing Northern Italian cuisine and other regional dishes to Hawaii by way of his birthplace (Turin, Italy). This restaurant is adorned by frescos, painted by Chef Mitrotti, in the 16^th Century Italian Renaissance-​style. Some of the frescos are replicas of parts of the Sistine Chapel.
Our reservation was for 5:45PM and when we walked in, the restaurant was already packed with Christmas Eve revelers from its opening (5:00 PM). Tonight, the restaurant was decked out with colorful cloth dinner napkins, white table cloths and sparkling beverage and dinnerware. The service was on point as our waiters were consistently coming by to refill our water and wine glasses while checking on the progress of our meals so that our courses were delivered in an easy elegant pace.
We started and shared a large antipasto misto platter that was a grand selection of prosciutto, salami, scamorza cheese, and colorful frittata. The savory charcuterie platter wet our appetites for what was to come and paired well with our bottle of 2009 Ardiri Estate Vineyards Pinot Noir. Next, our Caesar’s salad arrived with its crisp Romaine lettuce leaves tossed with its anchovy-​based dressing. The dressing was a balanced emulsion of salt, vinegar, oil and cheese. I wish that they would prepare and serve this salad table-​side but, that’s in a by-​gone era, I suppose.
Our meals were delivered just as soon as we finished our salads as with a bottle of a Friuilian Pinot Grigio from the restaurant’s wine list.
–My husband ordered the classic spaghetti aglio olio. It was a huge plate of al dente spaghetti loaded with garlic, anchovies, chili peppers sautéed in extra-​virgin olive oil. It was delicious and simple. Geez, can I say, please pass those breath mints???
–Then, my «meat n’ potatoes» brother-in-law’s veal porcini was set before him. Wow! His plate was nearly overflowing with a couple of veal scallopines that were sautéed with pancetta, onions, wild mushrooms and fresh herbs in a red-​wine sauce. There was also a hefty serving of pasta to compliment the veal. He «chowed down» the veal while praising the tenderness and delicate flavor. So, I guess I can say that he’s recovered from his heart by-​passes quite well AND his tastebuds have been «broadened» with Chef Mitrotti’s creations.
— My sister and I ordered the Scampi Rosso Verde Nero from Café Sistina’s Contemporary Menu. Our behemoth servings of black squid-​ink spaghetti was mixed with sautéed shrimp, red and green bell peppers, onions in an aglio-​olio (garlic/​olive oil). This dish was delicate yet had a really good seafood punch! The squid-​ink pasta had just enough ink in it to color and lightly flavor it without being overwhelmingly bitter or medicinal iodine. We definitely need the breath mints here, but, who cares, we ALL had garlic breath!
We wound up ordering and sharing two signature desserts… Pistachio gelato and Tiramisu. My sister talked us into ordering them rather than getting, oh Heaven-​forbid, cheesecake. Her justification was that eating dairy product based dessert would neutralize the garlic that we all ate.
Well, it seemed to work as we squeezed back into their car feeling «warm and fuzzy» from the fine family company, food, wines and Christmas Spirit.