Il Fornaio

Excellent time today! The service and food was great. We came to celebrate Father’s Day and everyone really enjoyed their food. We haven’t been in years but we used to come all the time to meet family from all over. I highly recommend this place. Their bread is one of my favorites. The Cesar salad was delicious and I really liked my pasta with clams and scallops. The scallops were enormous and cooked perfectly! The espresso gelato was very refreshing on a hot day too.

After receiving horrible service on my son’s birthday, they sent us a gift card to come back and enjoy the food again! Sure glad we did! Our servers went above and beyond, luckily, this time on our 15^th wedding anniversary. Ordered the carpaccio, organic chard, beet salad, prosciutto pizza and shells chicken pasta. Was absolutely delicious and perfect! Our server even packed us up a new loaf of olive bread and Italian seasonings! I’m so pleased with the staff and of course the food is perfect as usual. Love this place SO MUCH.

I was there last Saturday night with a group of friends. The food was delicious! And I wanna say thank you to our waiter. I didn’t catch his name but he did a great job and was very patient since everyone was pretty drunk at the end. We were one of the last table and they let us take our time to figure out the whole bill. We all had a great time and I will definitely come back.

Been meaning to give this place a try for the longest now since I really like Italian food and this place is really close to where I work. Big mistake coming here on my part. While the service is really excellent and nice and the décor/​ambiance is lovely, the food was lacking big time.
My coworker and I ordered the conchiglie al pollo. It seemed like the perfect choice at the time but the portions are mediocre for the price we paid. For 20.25 I thought it was quite a rip off but still as long as it tasted good I would have been somewhat content. Nope, it tasted average at first but then I started to notice how some of the conchiglie wasn’t cooked properly and was still a bit raw. The veggies were also lacking in terms of freshness. About the only good thing to come of this dish was the chicken which was the saving grace. As much as I didn’t like it, my coworker was even less of a fan taking only 3 bites before retiring from the meal.
Overall I really thought Il Fornaio could have been added to my usual lunch rotation during work, but with mediocre food that is extremely pricey I was left very disappointed. The lack of quality in their conchiglie still irks me as I was really in the mood for pasta. I should have gone to my usually location and now I won’t hear the end of this with my coworker. Sigh.

Nice place for a date or special occasion, though the food is a hit or miss.
The atmosphere and vibe is nice, making this perfect for a birthday or any other celebration.
Love the bread basket, excellent, I wish I could buy their bread by the loaf, it is the highlight here.
Second favorite would be the pizza, light and flavorful, very much worth the carbs.
That’s about where the goodness ends.
Pasta is bland, meat and fish dishes mediocre quality and service also spotty, it can be great or non existent.
Salads tiny and really lacking flavor, pass on those as well.
Prices are too high for portion size and quality of some of the items, I would come back for the pizza and bread but that is about it.

Wow!!!
Sixteen of us. We had our own room overlooking a great lagoon water feature (Jay), Great Menu, outstanding wine list, our waiter was very attentive considering this group!!!
Various tyoes of orders and everyone was delightfully full.
Try the Bocci Ball on your way out.

This restaurant is tucked away between some of the taller business buildings so it is a little hard to find. Parking is in the parking structure, but they do validate parking.
The restaurant has a nice ambiance, and the staff is extremely friendly. Service was great.
I wasn’t feeling extremely hungry so I ordered their seasonal lobster/​seafood bisque the polenta appetizer. The soup was good, but nothing crazily phenomenal, but the polenta was delicious. It was slightly crispy on the outside and warm and moist on the inside with lots of truffle flavor.

As usual, IL FORNAIO delivers. Great experience and authentic taste. Always a pleasure, and a place run by absolute professionals.

Il Fornaio is located for convenience walking distance from tall buildings in a business district. If not close to businesses that need a convenient lunch, I would question its financial viability.
The ambiance is better than the food, but the ambiance is pretty nice. The food is above average Italian food that probably isn’t worth the price.

What a lovely dinner! This Il Fornaio is located in the midst of office buildings, but it is so peaceful around. Upon entering you will see vegetation that sets a nice ambience for the place. Within the restaurant, there is an atrium in the middle with seating, as well as seating all around. Our server was very knowledgeable and friendly. We ordered the flavorful bruschetta to start. Our entrees were capellini al pomodoro and branzino with linguine aglio et olio (special request that they accommodated). We also ordered two decadent desserts, the soffiato al cioccolato and tiramisu, as it was a special dinner to celebrate a birthday and birthday calories don’t count, right? The soffiato was warm inside and the sea salt caramel gelato was cold, a delicious experience for the mouth. All in all, we really enjoyed our meals.

The Apple Crepes are back on the dessert cart. They call it Apple Crespelle. 5 stars all the way.

This is my second time at this restaurant but I definitely feel like this time around, i liked the food much more!
service can be slow at times, but its understandable because its busy. nevertheless, the staff are all very friendly and they try their best :)
i fell in love with the pennoni alla vodka! the sauce is soo flavorful and i love how gigantic the pasta noodles are. who wouldn’t love the little pieces of bacon mixed in as well?
i also tried the beef tenderloin that was cooked pretty well but I don’t think i would order it again.
my other friends did the tasting menu (they change it once in a while and make foods from different parts of italy– what a great concept!)
i didn’t get to try all of their dishes, but for $ 34, you choose 3 courses and they’re all very generous portions :) the giant spinach filled ravioli was great as well.
They also make some good cocktails! the one with cucumber, st. germaine, and gin was so delicious.
I ordered a glass of their Jamieson Ranch (cabernet sauvignon) which I also enjoyed.
I came for a friend’s birthday and there were nice enough to sing for us and also give a tiramisu dessert on the house :) (p.s. also delicious)

We came here for restaurant week and it was great deal plus our great server that brought us water and helped provided all the plates, napkins and utensils that we needed for the kids.
Aurelio Helped make this a real home meal by treating us like family for this rare family night out. We may not come back for the food but will definitely be back because of him.

Awful service. Our server was bad.
1. We asked for butter and our server never brought it.
2. We ordered appetizer and he forgot that too.
3. We had to ask for straws multiple times.
4. Ask to Refill ice tea & drinks multiple times.

I was never disappointed here. The food is authentic, I absolutely love the description, and their Fiesta regionale menu feels like a trip to Italy. Our server, Claudio was exceptionally entertaining and very attentive. We had the shortribs — cooked to perfection, the saffron papardelle with a mushroom medley were scrumptious and their appetizers are just the right bite. For dessert, the cannoli were fresh and the semifreddo had a wonderful amaretto flavor, the crème anglaise was spot on. I will continue to return, whenever I have a feel for something special yet comforting.

This place is good for a first date or a get together with a group of people. The atmosphere is really nice and the service is great. However the food leaves a lot to be desired.
The place was a little hard to find because it’s not really visible from the street and it’s behind the huge 24 Hour Fitness. It’s in the middle of an industrial park and there is a parking garage across the street that’s a little overpriced, but not unexpected. The restaurant itself had valet parking that’s free for three hours with validation from the restaurant.
For 8 pm on a Saturday night I was expecting a wait, but there wasn’t one even though the restaurant seemed pretty full. Even though the atmosphere seemed fancy, there were a lot of people who were dressed casually so anyone could come here and not feel out of place.
The busboys were very attentive and made sure that we hd everything that we needed. There is an open kitchen which I really like for no particular reason.
The food was the only lackluster thing on the menu. The prices are not outrageous but they are pretty high for what they are serving. Our group got different things so we could try more things at once and on every plate there was an element that was out of place and dragged the dish down. Many things were lacking in flavor and several things were undercooked and had to be sent back. The food was overall ok, but nothing to get excited about.
#75/​100

The feeling I got from this place was something like, «oh, I’m definitely paying those extra bucks to feel like I’m not at a Macaroni Grill.» There is free valet parking with validation, and a romantic Italian atmosphere. The location leaves much to be desired… it’s in the middle of a business district and there’s really nothing else nearby.
My friend’s birthday dinner was off to a good start with (free) delicious fresh bread and olive oil. The waiter was very attentive and professional, and you can tell that their demeanor is meant to be in line with a high-​end restaurant. I should have worn something fancier! Anyway, I ordered the Conchiglie al Pollo ($ 18.50), which is shell pasta, chicken, broccoli, sun-​dried tomatoes, pecorino cheese, garlic, and Trebbiano wine. The portion was large, but it didn’t really excite me. I expected higher quality and flavor, but it was just average.
Despite the not very impressive food, Il Fornaio somewhat makes up for it with the great service. A group of waiters came out to sing for my friend, and brought out a tiramisu. Luckily he didn’t like tiramisu so I got to eat a large part of it — pretty tasty! You definitely are paying more for the enjoyable experience, but it just wasn’t worth it to me since they didn’t have interesting food to hold them up.
Food: 3, Service: 5, Environment: 4, Price: 2

Allergan hosted a dinner here last week and this location was perfect! They have valet available, but if you’re cheap like me– they also have a parking garage located to the left of the restaurant. Parking was not a problem and the restaurant validates so it’s FREE just the way I like it!
I told the hostess that I was there for the Allergan party and she took me to a private room in the back. As we walked to the back, I took a quick scan of the dining room and it was upscale without being stuffy and dark so I made a mental note that it’s a great spot for date night.
Since I was running late, my boyfriend took the liberty to order for me. He ordered me a steak-​medium rare which came with a side salad, veggies and mashed potatoes. The portions were generous and the steak was cooked perfectly. It was still nice and juicy by the time I arrived. Along with a glass of red wine, it was the perfect meal to end my hectic day at clinic.
The servers were very attentive and made sure that an empty dish didn’t remain on the table for more than a minute. About 5 minutes after I had finished my meal, another server entered the room with a cart full of slices of tiramisu! It was light and creamy. It just seemed to melt in my mouth. I couldn’t be polite and stop at a few bites and neither could my boyfriend.
I will have to come back and explore the rest of their menu when I’m not at a event.

I like the modern design. Natural woods, glass, and a hexagon shape give it a very open feeling. It’s a chain, and this one is just off the 405, and tucked into a corporate business complex. Because so, it’s a great place for lots of young execs and Big 4 consultants to gather. I should know, I used to be one of them, and this is where I came.
The menu is expansive, and mostly traditional Italian with a bit of a modern twist. One of the best part of the meal is the basket of warm bread that’s served with oil and vinegar (I like mine with salt, pepper, and parmesan).
The food is not that amazing, but good and solid everytime. You can’t really miss with any of their pastas or pizzas, and I don’t think you would be dissatisfied with some of their seafood dishes.
Parking tickets are validated, and the bar is small… but always packed. Overall, it’s great for a business function… but not so great for a date.

Been here a couple times — both for lunch and dinner — service is always fairly consistent and menu usually offers something that I’ll like. I do prefer the lunch menu because they offer a few dishes that you wouldn’t see on the dinner menu, though the dinner menu may give you a selection of a few more specials to choose from.
My lunch here today was the Piatto Smeralda, mixed grill of marinated scallops, calamari and shrimp with garlic and red chili flakes, braised tomatoes, wilted wild arugula, sautéed organic spinach and cannellini beans, served with grilled ciabatta slices! It’s basically like a grilled seafood salad that’s seasoned aggressively and is packed with flavor. The lemon juice adds a nice zing to your taste buds throughout the whole dish. A must try in my book!
Even though this place is a chain and may not seem as authentic as some other Italian places, the restaurant never fails to provide quality service and definitely a beautiful space and location that can accommodate a huge party. Parking is validated but valet is also available.
Only thing I have to ding them for are the cocktails — unless you really are in need for a drink, save the money for an appetizer or dessert because their cocktails are usually really watered down, too sugary, or just lacks any alcohol presence.