Frantoio Ristorante

This hidden gem is just off Highway 101. Quiet with good décor. Great service with a wonderful waiter & support staff. The food was beautiful & tasted great. I had a crusted halibut that was one of the best I have ever eaten. Overall a really nice place & a nice bar with peaceful atmosphere.
Just down the street from the famous Buckeye but it was not full so I was surprised. People are missing out.

I arrived without a reservation on a Friday evening. We were greeted graciously and immediately seated. The food and wine were fabulous. The gnocchi was worth all the calories. What made the evening worth five stars was our waiter. I believe his name is Ettore. Ask for him.

Frantoio is a neighborhood restaurant for me. Every time I go there I am happy with both the meal and the ambiance. Frantoio is one of the few restaurants where the decibel level is within a comfortable range and one doesn’t have to spend the entire meal shouting at one’s friends in order to have a conversation.
Because Frantoio is closely positioned to a Holiday Inn Express, it is often assumed to be the hotel restaurant. It is NOT! Frantoio is privately owned and of excellent quality. One does not need to make a reservation far in advance… the dining room is large and can accomodate many.
Most importantly, the food is excellent… I’ve never had a bad meal there. The dining room is beautiful, open, inviting, warm.

I’ve eaten here many times over the years. While the location next to the Holiday Inn Express can give a bad impression, the restaurant is actually very good. The atmosphere is nice – airy, spacious room, very modern. The food is very good (if somewhat pricey) and the service is attentive without being overly so. In my opinion, it’s a far superior choice to the nearby Buckeye and almost always has a free table.

Friendly, very accommodating to requests. Favorite dishes are consistently good.

We had the fettuccini with shrimp sauce with an iced tea and coffee the waiter was a very nice polite person food was good atmosphere was very well very neat and side ;-) when I get back in this area I will return

Amazing service — thank you Jamsheed for making the night so extra special with you wonderful service, perfect recommendations and great personality! The food was amazing and perfectly cooked (we had the scallops, risotto and NYSteak– all exactly prepared!) It was a great find!

My son and I visited my family up in the Mill Valley area and Frantoio was suggested by them.
We loved everything about it. Beautiful décor and atmosphere. Food and service was excellent.
We will definitely be back on our next visit!

nice atmosphere. server was a nice guy, but I was alone and felt a bit ignored in the place. It felt like a long time between waiter stops, but if I was with company and enjoying myself in conversation, it probably would have been fine.
I had a margarite pizza and fried calamari. The calamari was perfect and the pizza was good.

I’m a little heart broken in that this was my birthday pick and it wasn’t as fabulous as I’ve always known it to be.
My sea bass was over cooked and dry. Their sea bass used to just melt in your mouth. The real shot to my heart is that my favorite Pannacotta in the world has been replaced by a firmer and holiday spiced version. So sad. But $ 50 per person I smiled as not to ruin it for my stepmom who knew it used to be my favorite.
On the up, the space has expanded to accommodate larger private parties, but that sea bass and Pannacotta are truly lesser versions of what they were in 2013 or 2014, which is the last time I was here…
I don’t know, I love the ambiance still but think that the new chef has different strengths than the old so need to know what’s good here. Walking out I saw the pasta and it looked really good.
Note– I the chocolate tower tastes nearly the same as the old version with a slightly more modern look. We really enjoyed the tower but you’d have to be nutty not to.

Last September, on our way to buy a sailboat, my family and I stayed overnight at the Holiday Inn, and thought we’d give Frantoio a try, mostly because it was in the same building and were tired of driving.
Are we ever glad we did! It was the dining experience of a lifetime! To begin with, we were warmly welcomed by a beautiful elegant woman whose name I failed to get, for which I apologize. My wife said later that «it felt like being welcomed into someone’s home.» Shortly thereafter, we were joined by the manager, Matt, who took us on a tour of the wine press. Amazing!
The food was superb! I had the pan-​seared scallops, by far one of the best things I ever put in my mouth. That first bite was so good that I did a little happy dance in my seat. Matt saw me wriggle from across the room, and came over to chat a bit. Matt even gifted us a bottle of the fantastic olive oil, which was absolutely delicious.
Our waiter, Jamsheed, was personable and knowledgeable, and we followed his recommendations all the way through dessert. And a good choice it was, too, as we tried a number of items that we would likely have overlooked, including some exotic dessert creations and some liqueurs I likely would never have discovered on my own. Well done, Jamsheed!
We also had the rabbit tortellini, and a small pizza, both of which were fantastic.
We bought our boat, and sailed out of the area, so we have not yet returned. Frantoio will be first on our list the next time we travel that way!

My wife and I love this place! Tried it for the first time Wednesday night and will absolutely be back! From the second I walked in I felt welcomed and was immediately taken care of! Service was on point and the food was excellent! My wife had the tortellini as I had the NY steak with amazing scalloped potatoes! We will be back!

Good and tasty food. But on top of that i want to thank the whole staff. Very quick and efficient service. Staff is extremely nice, dedicated. We’ll be back just for them! They made my kids’ day (my daughter’s birthday and my little one’s energy…). Probably one of the best service I’ve had since I leave in the US. THANK YOU!

Stopped here for a cocktail as they were closing. The bartender was so kind and helpful and the cocktails delicious. Our friends eat here regularly and rave about the food. We’ll definitely be back to try it for dinner sometime. It is a quaint and lovely atmosphere as well.

This is our new Marin favorite. We are a Paleo household (using our food choices to keep our ADHD, arthritis, myesthenia gravis, and Crohn’s asymptomatic — the slightest contamination can be disastrous — so we don’t eat out too often) and they completely and accurately accommodated our (Paleo AIP) restrictions in the blink of an eye. The owner has serious dietary restrictions as well and the chef has constructed pretty much everything on the menu to be easily adaptable and strictly compliant.
So it was pretty much seamless to order the steak and lamb chops with veggies and sweet potatoes… AND WHEN THE FOOD ARRIVED WE WERE IN HEAVEN. EVERYTHING WAS AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS, and this was among the best dining experiences we have ever had in our lifetimes. Even the housemade ice cream/​sorbets were incredible.
We will be going back as often as we can.

We ate here Saturday November 7^th around 6pm — we made our reservation SUPER last-​minute, and though the place was only half full when we arrived, the place was PACKED with people waiting for tables when we left.
The service: Our server was NOT polite (was she ageist? Thought we weren’t worth the attention because he wasn’t in a suit and I wasn’t in a dress?), and didn’t put in one of the appetizers we ordered and then didn’t apologize, and almost acted as if it was our fault. However, Daniel, one of the employees who isn’t a server, is so on his game that we didn’t care — he made sure we always had water and bread, he immediately boxed and bagged our leftovers, he offered pleasant conversation, and he was very polite/​charming every time he checked on us to make sure we had everything we needed. (Hey, management, you probably already know, but you’re super lucky to have such a fantastic employee who loves their job as much as he does!)
The food was fantastic. We shared two appetizers, two entrées (lamb and gnocchi) and a side of potato purée, all of which was phenomenal. We will definitely be coming back, but we hope to sit in a different server’s section next time :)

Every single bite was memorable!
The minestrone soup was hearty with lovely flavors and a few small pieces of grilled Parmesan.
Burrata and prosciutto — fabulous!
Seafood fettuccine — all seafood cooked perfectly!
Braised rabbit with pappardelle in balsamic reduction — indescribably delicious!
Torre (chocolate tower) — lip smacking good!

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Frantoio Ristorante is a big restaurant adjacent to the Holiday Inn, it’s family owned and operated since 1995. They use locally products and organic non-​gmo ingredients, bringing the traditional northern Italian cuisine to the Marin. A l long bar and casual area opens for lunch. The spacious main dining room rustic warmth with contemporary design is to the left, opens for dinner. An outdoor patio would be nice on a beautiful day but it wasn’t open when we were there for lunch.
Limited menu for lunch, full menu for dinner, a wine list consists of Californian and Italian.

They produce in house olive oil press. Each fall they produce award winning extra virgin organic olive oil which we use in every dish and is available to take home. They also make their own pasta in house.
— Calamari, gulf shrimp, chickpeas, baked kale, roasted cherry tomatoes. Served warm, it was quite nice, wish they serve more kales, generous seafood.
— Sandwich: Seasoned lamb meatballs, ricotta salata, fresh mint. Generous portion, quite nice.
— Pappardelle: Herb poached free range chicken, broccolini, white wine cream sauce, shallot, fresh cracked pepper. This was delicious, al dente, perfectly seasoning.
Service was good. The food was reasonable price. Order any pasta, you will be happy!

Decent but can definitely be better.
We started with insalata tricolore (loved the pecorino but dressing needed more salt and pepper) and scallops. The scallops were specifically recommended and may be ordered as an appetizer or an entrée. They were well cooked but I would never get the combination of mashed potatoes and seafood. I asked for my lamb chops rare but they came medium. By the time it got to the table the sauce already started to dry (see pic). My dad really enjoyed his salmone pizza. My mom’s bucatini looked kind of sad to be honest. The noodles here are homemade but her dish came out looking very soggy/​mushy. Dessert of tiramisu was decadent. Food was really 3 stars but service was really good and props to homemade olive oil.

So I was just passing through and staying at a hotel across the street. I didn’t feel like dealing with the parking hassle. I thought it was attached to the holiday inn.
The good: Food was outstanding. I had a daily seafood special. Fresh, spicy, and the fresh pasta was great. The Caesar salad was crisp and definitely homemade dressing. This place is not part of the holiday inn it was here long before.
The Bad: Mauricio the bartender was rude and inattentive. I guess because I was alone and didn’t have fancy clothes (I’m on a motorcycle tour) I didn’t deserve good service. Maybe if I had worn my rolex like the other patrons he would’ve been more helpful. Also, the cost on Unilocal was misleading. It was spendy.