Gardino Fresco

Aweful Aweful Aweful. Don’t waste your time or money here. The service was horrible, and the food was worse.
My daughter and I were downtown shopping one afternoon and popped in for a quick snack to take the edge off. We were seating in the bar area which was fine. We looked over the menu and once we knew what we wanted, we waited for someone to come back and take our order. I swear we waited for at least 20 minutes which I wouldn’t have minded if the place was busy but it wasn’t. Not only was it not busy, the Manager was wandering around chatting it up with a few regulars and completely ignoring us. To make matters worse, the language he was using was absolutely offensive in every way. Were we invisible? Did he not see us sitting there? Just when I was about to walk out someone came to take our order. Nothing complicated, just a caprese salad that we were going to split. Again, we waiting for what felt like a really long time.
Finally our Appetizer came out and it was underwhelming. The tomatoes were under ripe, the cheese wasn’t soft and everything was just disappointing. To bad too because the venue itself is nice. I believe it was renovated a few years ago and it’s a huge improvement. Unfortunatly though, I can’t say we’ll be coming back anytime soon.
With so many other great eating establishments on this street, it’s a shame that this place couldn’t step it up. After all, you’re in LG so prices aren’t cheap so the experience should have been much better than what we got. Bummer.

Very loud football on TV and pictures of mobster and mobster movies on the wall. Not a good Italian experience.

For the flavor of the food, I would rate this restaurant/​bar 5 starts. Food has great flavor, and is nicely portioned. A bit on the pricey side, but you get what you pay for. We ordered chicken piccata and pasta with some sort of sausage that was amazing. Why only 3 stars? Our waiter. I believe his name was Geoff (what’s on the check). He did not greet us when we sat down, or asked if we wanted anything to drink. He just stood there with his notepad clearly ready to take our order. Along with the items above, I had ordered a side salad. Never saw the salad. I ended up cancelling the salad when the busser brought our main dishes out. Our waiter never apologized or mentioned the salad again. Once we were finished eating, we waited a solid 15 – 20 minutes before I finally asked the waiter for our check. He very rudely said «YEAH!» And walked away. Needless to say, a small tip was left. Sadly, the waiter left such a sour taste in our mouths we will probably never be back again.

Nice small bar nice crowd was recommended by my girlfriend tried it out overall it’s a laid back bar
Garlic fries was soo good more of the garlic and just a hint of salt. Cool ice bar keeps your drinks cold!

LOVE the BEEF SKEWERS! Must have. Not sure if on the menu, but they know what time it is if you order. Yummy beef sliders. Moscow Mules on point.
Owner is awesome and always making sure you are being taken care of.
Super sweet bartender that makes great drinks, think her name is Krista? Not sure; cute, curly hair, looks like the girl from brave :)
Friday and Saturday nights tend to be more for the bar ;) always fun times. Mixed age crowd.

Great bar with good menu. We only had an appetizer (deep fried Calamari) but the drinks are made well. They have a slurry that is good for a hot day but beware of brain freeze because it’s quite thick.
Came back for lunch and was not greeted or seated so had to seat ourselves. Then waited gave us menus but did not return to take our order for 20 minutes. It’s 4 pm and there were no other customers!!! He did not ask or offer us water while we waited. I tried to flag him down from just walking around (again there were no other people in the place) and it took another 5 minutes for him to come to the only table
The food is ok. I had the Tony Orsini special and the broth was outstanding. So 4 stars for the food 1 star for the service

This is a place that I went with my family because it was convenient and boasted «the only ice bar in California». The entire experience was underwhelming. The ice bar was a chilled slab of metal, service was so-​so, and the food is best descried as edible. In a town where I have not yet had great food, this place is par for the

Stopped in while touring Los Gatos. Major colorful place with 15 beers on tap and constant TV’s with colorful sport events. Fun colorful place. Did I mention that it was colorful?

Came here on the Halloween evening. Door was open. As we went in owner said:“I am an owner and we are closed.” And literally closed the door in front of our faces. Never again! I’m not coming back.

It’s loud. The food is spotty, but we always enjoy the Tony Orsino seafood special.
It’s loud. Don’t go during Monday Night Football, you’ll be sorry.
Did I mention it’s loud? Even when the restaurant is half-​full, it’s loud.

I came here one night when they were closed and I thought it looked like a cozy but fun place for a date night! Unilocal does not have the correct closing time.
I returned a following Friday for said date night.
It was not a lovely experience I imagined. The music is very loud and I felt like I was yelling at my date the entire time. Most people were crowding around the bar. It seemed very crowded since the place was small. We were planning to eat here but the menu is very limited to mostly meat-​less pastas. We wanted meat. We opted for several tequila shots and left else where for dinner. Hooray for $ 9 tequila shots!

Might be a good place to go drinking but I don’t go drinking. Food is mediocre at best. It’s very very loud.
Looks like the people drinking are having fun though so if you like a loud party drinking spot and don’t care about food quality this is the place for you

We drove to Santa Cruz Avenue and parked without knowing our final destination. We didn’t check Unilocal reviews but Gardino looked fine so we went inside. The atmosphere was generally family friendly (with the slight exceptions of the full bar and the UFC on the bar tv’s).
The menus looked decades old but all the classics were represented. My wife had the chicken parm and I went with the linguine with clams. I had a choice between the Alfredo and the red sauces. I went with the red and my dish was great. The sauce was really light with some fresh tomato that added depth and red crushed chile peppers that added the perfect bit of heat.
There wasn’t a kids menu, per se, but there were plenty of kid friendly dishes. The server said they could do a half order of any entrée but we chose to split the linguine with Alfredo sauce. You can’t miss with Alfredo — it was a hit.
Nice family-​friendly Italian restaurant on Santa Cruz Ave. I’m not sure we’ll seek it out but we’ll go back if we have the opportunity.

We came for a nice cold craft beer and stayed to try the food. What a mistake.
The food was AWFUL! Really awful. I am talking Gordon Ramsey Kitchen Nightmare awful.
The rib eye was burned to carcinogenic levels.
The vegetables were raw and did not have a speck of seasoning or sauce.
The eggplant Parmesan was like tasteless mush.
The pasta was not al-​dente but rather al-​gooey.
This is a place that should not be in the food business at all.
The bee was good but how could they screw that up anyway? But they have had a sign outside for a week advertising Pliney the Elder but they have not had it all week.
UPDATE: Two people in my party who ate the chicken got sick and threw up at 3AM.

We have been in a few times since they remodeled, mostly for happy hour. We have enjoyed the appetizers only.
The chicken tenders are great, although presentation is lacking every single time. Its a plate of chicken with sauces poured on the side like they ran out of condiment containers. We like it, because we like simple protein.
Calamari is very good.
We have sat next to a couple a few times and they always get the lamb chop and swear by it. It looks delicious!
We have found the bar staff to be really friendly so we always sit at the bar.

I can’t say I am surprised by the recent bad reviews, it really is a shame considering the food is delicious. I had the worst dinner service of my life on Friday ⁵⁄₂₂ with our server Jeff. He is unfriendly, inattentive, and flat out rude for arguing with me about not being specific enough with ordering my entrée when he is the one who placed my order wrong. At one point I had to stop him from barking at me by saying «Are you going to keep arguing with me or are you going to fix it?» I was beyond upset.
On top of that, Jeff spilled our bowl of cheese on the table and did not bother to clean it up! I had to ask the host, Parker, to clean it for us! Although my food order was fixed and I received a «Sorry», I left this place with a bad taste in my mouth despite the great quality of food. I honestly do not like calling people out by name in reviews but the experience was so bad it had to be shared.

Good move installing the tap system.
Great for Happy Hour and a meet up before the show or Jazzz on the Plaz.

I recently went here with three other friends to grab a drink and get some food. It was moderately busy, but nothing too crazy. Our server was usually nowhere to be found, forgot to put in one of the food orders so it didn’t come out with the rest, and never checked on us to see how we were doing. The manager came over and was talking to us here and there. Then when we were closing out our tab, he asked out everything was. I simply replied «it wasn’t the greatest», but in a polite tone to give him honest feedback. All of a sudden, he blew up and said «then why don’t you get the F*** out of here!»
We all looked at him with our jaws open like he just murdered our kitten and had no idea where that rage came from. I said «excuse me, you asked for feedback and I gave it to you». He began to call us drunks and whatever else. We just kind of blocked him out as it was the most unprofessional thing I’ve ever witnessed in the restaurant industry by a staff member and I used to serve all throughout college. I asked if we could speak to another manager and he replied «I am the manager and the owner! Go ahead give me a bad review, see if I care».
He asked for feedback. I gave it to him. He asked for a bad review. You bet ;)
You stay classy Gardino’s

Came here on a Sunday night for a casual dinner where we could eat and drink… and this place seemed to cater just that. They had a full bar and spacious seating with a semi-​opened kitchen. There was barely anyone for dinner service so we thought we could get quick attentive service … but that was not the case.
Service here was subpar at best. We weren’t warmly greeted upon entering; just got blank stares. They were also slow and lacked knowledge of their food&drinks menu. We didn’t expect much for the rest of the evening.
The food itself was actually pretty good. We ordered their «Famous Sliders» and a spaghetti w/​meatballs. Their sliders were juicy and flavorful and the spaghetti was saucy (but the meatballs were average).
I wouldn’t recommend this place for date night, but if you have time to kill and want a quiet place, you might find it here.

I go there only for lunches (about twice a year).
Service is bad during lunch time. Slow and inexperienced.
Food is basic, nothing special (the ravioli come in a very small portion).
Pasta are a bit buttery… no ‘fine’ food.