Firenze Ristorante

Cute décor, excellent staff, great variety in their menu and everything we had was delicious. Nice warm bread at the table with Olive oil and balsamic vinegar that was so delicious I almost make it to my dinner lol. Drinks were also yummy. My boyfriend ordered a steak well done and it was completely perfect juicy and moist without being burnt. Definitely will go there again.

I wish they had a 3 and ½ star rating. 3 Seems low. 4 Seems high. I can tell you this: We had a lovely time at Firenze last weekend. I went with my parents and my Fiancé’ not really expecting much from this bumpkin ass town. But Firenze was delightful. I had Steak with Cabernet sauce and mushrooms, Penne Pasta and Crème’ Boulet. Our wine was Rombauer 2012 Zinfandel at $ 45 a bottle. Best Zin around — BTW.
Our total bill was $ 213.00 for 4 people’s dinner plus two bottles of wine, and dessert. That’s very reasonable. Also, our Server (I wish I knew her name) was ON IT! She was fast, instinctive and very pleasant.
GO TO FIRENZE … especially if you are from the Bay Area and just visiting your parents for the weekend but want to eat out and not at a tacky central valley bumpkin restaurant!
HAH

I liked the Italian décor. That’s about it. Our visit was after church at around 1:00 PM, and there was a football playoff game on, but no sound. (Why to restaurants or bars do that?) Not very many tables occupied at this hour. My pasta with meatballs tasted horrible because the sauce seemed to have a strong liquid smoke in it overwhelming the flavor, which got old after a few bites. Yuk! I should have returned the plate. The meatballs were small, about the size of a quarter. Overall, our meals didn’t seem very authentic Italian. Very disappointing. The woman server was very shy, short on words and not very engaging. We still left a proper 15% tip though. Unfortunately, we won’t be back. There’s another place in Oakdale that has a similar name that is much better. I can’t remember the exact name though, it’s on 120.

Great place to stop in for dinner. I will agree with the other Unilocalers though, there is A LOT of garlic in most everything. Not complaining, just make sure that you loved ones is eating the same amount of garlic also so you both smell great…

Live music! Break with fresh garlic!!! Warm bread from the oven! Loved it-​highly recommend! Everyone was so helpful and kind. Food was delicious!

Wouldn’t go there or recommend anyone else. Horrible treatment across the board. Don’t waste your time or money. And thank the manager Diane for this review.

This one star is for the manager, DIANE SMITH, and her unprofessional and uncouth behavior. It is amazing how one can act so childish and tactless. I am a performing musician that has played live music for the patrons of Firenze several times in the past. although this is my lowest paying venue and a 45 drive, I enjoy coming back to play because the of the ambiance of the dinning experience and being able to entertain the locals of Oakdale.
A few month back I was notified that my performance time would change for the winter season. a few weeks after that I was notified that once again my performance time would change back. With 150 shows and 50 different venues I have booked for 2015 I have never had a venue switch times so frequently and this was somewhat confusing to me. So upon my arrival for my last performance i ended up being 30 minutes late confusing the emails I had received. I apologized to the manager and told her I would still perform for the full 2 hours that I had agreed upon. The night was going fine with many guest coming up to me and complementing my performance, taking business cards, tipping generously, and asking when I would be back again. Half way through my performance Diane with disregard decides to throw my folded up check into my tip jar. I reach over to take a look at the check and had noticed the amount was less than what was agreed upon. When I brought it to her attention she stated that, «You were late so I docked your pay. Your my employee and i treat all my employees the same. We don’t need you and if you don’t like it you don’t have to play here!» UNBELIEVABLE! If she knew she was going to pay me less she should have stated that in the beginning of the evening and maybe we could have come to some agreement but instead she cowardly throws my check in the tip jar and hoped that i didn’t notice. I really hope her docking me the $ 25 was worth her defaming her own work place by her ignorant behavior. several customers had asked me what had happened and were so upset by the way she treated me they tipped me the difference of what she owed me and even a little more. Another customer stated that this was their first time dining at Firenze and they would not be back. Another customer told me that they have many family members in Oakdale and that they would spread the word how I was treated and would not be dinning there any more. So all i have to say is, SHAME on you Diane, you should know how to treat people better.

I had a truly fabulous experience here, the service was excellent! We left a 25% tip because they were so on top of everything. The place was packed but our meals still arrived hot and in a timely manner. Water glasses stayed full and our bread was always warm. Our waitor was so pleasant and very patient. And the food is just so yummy, we will definitely be back.
The only downside is, its a little loud in there just because it was so packed. But we didn’t really mind all that much. I would still recommend, still a beautiful restaurant and atmosphere!

This was my first time eating here. Decided to take my family and friends to try it out and I was beyond impressed! The place looks great, very clean. They have excellent service and the food is amazing. Love the bread with the generous serving of garlic! Gotta try it!!! We will be back soon!

Excellent! Finally after a year and a half of living in the area we finally had a chance to try this place. Man I’m bummed we waited to long. The stuffed mushrooms were so good and the seafood ravioli was wonderful. Only marked it down one star as the drink I had was made so strong I had to water it down to tolerate it.

Service is great! Servers are not too invasive, check from time to time, they are very quick and nice!
Food:
— We had the manicotti, very rich in ricotta but soooo creamy and nice! It balances very well with the tomato, could use a little bit more flavors
— chicken parmegiani (not sure about the writting), tender chicken, marinara sauce was well seasoned, pasta was good
— I don’t remember the name of my plate… it had shrimp and angel pasta, the portion is huge! It was tasty but here again could use some more spices — I’m used to spices in my food so it’s maybe just my palet
I’ll definitely come back here if I’m around

First time here. We came for an early lunch since I was craving pasta. Wife and I were pleased with our choices. Buffalo wings were juicy and favorable with a side of ranch. The bruschetta was good but it’s like any other type we have had. The calzone was the chicken pesto which was very good. Had big veggies, a lot of cheese, and pesto. It’s worth getting. The dessert was very good and complement the meal. We did not order wine becuase they had nothing worth our taste. We will be here again!

Just finished one of the greatest meals ever. Finally made it to the Firenze and was nothing short of amazed. The chicken penne pasta was awesome, the Pinot Grigio was delicious, the chocolate dessert was exactly what I wanted and the port wine was the perfect finishing touch. Truly a great meal. Too top it off Cydney, our waitress, was the best. Her service and knowledge of wine was very impressive. I can’t wait to come back.

Good service, everything was perfect. The main meal, Chicken fettuccini sauce was a bit heavy, thick, not a lot of flavor, but it wasn’t bad! But, everything else was perfecto! The wine, desert, hot coffee, warm bread, and they give a good amount of chopped garlic, olive oil, balsamic was perfect. They also have a nice bar area with two
TV ‘s…

I eat a lot of italian food and I just love this menu. There are a ton of options and some of them are very unique. I’ve eaten here 4 or 5 times and have always had good service and a great meal. It can get a little loud, but that kind of thing doesn’t bother me. In addition, there bar is fantastic and makes stiff drinks. cheers!

On the way back from Yosemite stopped by to experience something new and were pleasantly surprised.
Good came out of a great taste! Clam chowder by far better then most of the Warf joints. Chicken Blue Cheese salad was deliciously tasty as well. However service could use lots of improvement.

Darn… I wish I took pictures. So you can see what I’m actually talking about.
Started off with some yummy, couldn’t have enough of the bread. Huge dollop of fresh ground garlic with some olive oil. We are thinking if the bread is this good, everything must be delish. Hmmm not so much.
Pesto Pasta was more like soup. The pasta was swimming well more like drowning in sauce.
Muscles Marinara was super fishy.
This is the kicker, kids Fettuccini Alfredo. My daughter says «this isn’t very good»
I will give credit to the manager, who tried to accommodate our request for a café con panna.
Maybe we just we came in on an off night.
Always try to recognize the positive even if it was not a 5 star experience.

Today yummy soups and fresh salads and we’re also having the basil tomato mozzarella on crispy french bread drizzled with light olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette it is very delicious…

Got a chance to enjoy a nice dinner at a Traditional Italian Restaurant. Romantic setting, with live music in the background.
I enjoyed the Linguine Portofino, Fresh and delicious Shrimp and Scallops in this creamy garlic sauce was so good, but admittedly they have some pretty amazing bread, that we dipped in fresh garlic, balsamic vinegar and olive oil, so I was only to take few bites of the delicious pasta.
Had a bite of the hubby’s calzone, and it was yummy especially after dipping into the side of marinara.
We won’t hesitate in stopping in the next time we’re passing through Oakdale.

Came here for a big birthday celebration with about 18 other family members on a Saturday night. We were seated and given water by a sort of nice older woman, though she seemed frazzled by the fact that she had a large party and came across as a little harried.
The rest of the wait staff had the same sort of vibe coming from them, nice but really overwhelmed; granted, from what I could see of the rest of the restaurant it was pretty busy, but we were just fine left to our own devices so I really couldn’t explain where the strange attitude was coming from. Dishes were brought out by multiple servers in what seemed like an effort to rush things along rather than to merely be helpful.
While not the most expensive place, Firenze averages about $ 15 a plate from what I took from the menu. I ordered the portobello mushroom ravioli in a brown butter and cinnamon sauce from the fall specials menu, which was $ 16, while my brother got the steak in the mushroom sauce with penne and steamed veggies for $ 17. While the portions of everyone else’s dishes seemed generous, ours were ridiculously skimpy — I had 6 small ravioli in my plate, while my brother had four (I counted) pieces of steamed veggies and a tiny serving of pasta. Oddly, my aunt ordered the same thing and had way more veggies than he did.
When the waiter came around to grate cheese onto my plate, he said, «Oh… You ordered a small one, huh? Is that ok? Is that what you were hoping for?» I didn’t want to make a stink so I just said yes, but it made the child-​sized serving of gnocchi I got at Pappo in Alameda look like Thanksgiving dinner.
The fact that the sauce was the type of oily filminess that sticks to your lips, and that the cinnamon wasn’t actually cooked into the sauce but sprinkled on top of the ravioli, made the experience worse. The flavors probably wouldn’t have been as disjointed if the butter and cinnamon were cooked together.
Dessert sort of made up for the dinner that I finished before every single other person while I sat, still hungry. I got the chocolate toffee Kahlua mousse cake, which was a pretty huge slice for $ 5.95. Rich, decadent, and sweet, it was definitely delicious. The homemade bread they kept bringing to the table was phenomenal, and the minestrone, while a bit underwhelming, was at least good and wasn’t stingy with the veggies.
Upon leaving, there was a man standing next to the hostess, with a shaved head, who was either a chef or part of the front of the house (and who had come to our table at one point during the evening to help with the service) who I thanked as I was exiting. He didn’t smile, didn’t respond, just stared as I and the rest of us walked out. Very odd.
The sort of strange service, cheap servings for my and my brother’s plate, inconsistent portions from plate to plate, and lazily put-​together sauce on my ravioli couldn’t really justify the pricing for me. Perhaps if I were to go back and try one of their standard dishes rather than a special, I’d have a different experience. But as of right now, my experience was just alright.