Il Fornaio

Giving this a four star… ONLY because I came from Tennessee wanting great lasagna and they didn’t have it! The only reason… They make their pasta fresh daily and only carry it once every year. It must be great.
Diana was our server and she did a great job! I don’t remember how to spell what I had but will post a picture. It was ravioli with free range chicken and lots of other goodness in it.
Anyhow… Stop in, you will not be sorry that you did!

Awesome food! We came here on Monday evening for dinner. The food was good and so was our server (Nora). Definitely coming back whenever I come back to Virginia.

Came here with a bunch of friends for dinner the other evening. We had a reservation and they had secured a table for us in the back. Service was great — super friendly.
Unfortunately, food wasn’t as good as I had expected. I’d heard good things about this place and was certainly disappointed. When the waiter provided us the specials, I decided to go for the gnocchi because I have always been a big fan of gnocchi. He mentioned how it was homemade at the restaurant. I’ve had homemade gnocchi in Italy and I certainly didn’t expect it to be quite on that level but it wasn’t even remotely close to the same — nothing about it tasted homemade, I’ve had better gnocchi from the supermarket. And the sauce lacked any flavor whatsoever — it was merely mashed up tomatoes. Super disappointing for a $ 20 entrée. My husband had a pizza and it was much better. Others seemed happy with the bolognese.
I’m not sure if it was the table we were sitting at (at the back of the restaurant) but the inside of this place was very warm — to the point that you didn’t want to touch other people because everyone felt a little musty. One of my friends kept holding her water glass to her face to cool herself off.

Met with a bunch of friends for brunch here. I have had brunch here before and didn’t care for the dish I ordered (not a fan of goat cheese) last time. This time I ordered crab cake Benedict with fresh fruit and potatoes.
Pretty good portions ! Everything was delicious and ofcourse the mimosas were also good.
With first check in you get a free dessert ! So we tried the tiramasu :) delicious ! Service was also great. We will be back again when we are in the area :)

We live nearby and keep coming back, hoping something has changed for the good. Never again! Usually it’s the wine that gets us first – we order a bottle on the list and they bring us a bottle from a different year, or something else entirely saying they just ran out of the bottle we ordered. Often it’s the food, which is just never right, sometimes terrible.
This last time it was both, combined with poor service and a stupid manager who wouldn’t leave our table after we told him we were done talking about why we’re never coming back. We ordered a bottle of wine – not available, do you want the other Zinfandel? Oops, not available either. Waiter brings over a bottle and starts describing it – I tell him to bring me back the list. Third choice, not available – we just ran out! Always, we just ran out. Fourth bottle, not available. The floor manager brings over a small carafe of wine and tells us it is the private brand chianti, and we order a bottle. When the bottle comes, it doesn’t taste like the small carafe. Bait and switch again!
We ordered from the three-​dish fixed price menu. My wife’s soup was 12 ounces of bland tomato and a ½ cup of croutons for filler in a kid’s cereal bowl. I had three small slivers of acidy unripe heirloom tomatoes with two postage stamp slices of parmigiana cheese.
Next was 6 tablespoons of pasta shaped like small wall anchors with a marble-​sized meatball with tomato sauce. Really?
My wife’s fish filet was supposedly rockfish, but I couldn’t find it among the tiny black olives the size of capers. My petrale sole had the skin on, but it was so over cooked, I would have needed a steak knife to cut the skin, so I just scraped off the meat. Roasted eggplant slices-​some over-​cooked and mushy, some undercooked, all tasteless. Didn’t try the roasted potatoes that looked like they were left over from breakfast.
I hope that some restaurant comes into the Reston Town Center and wipes them out with real white tablecloth service, some concept of wine (and inventory control) and good food. Right now, the best one can do is go to the casual «get a card» Vapiano down the street. Il Fornaio is dressed up like a good restaurant, but it’s really just a shabby chain with bad management. Ciao, baby!

Brunch was great, I had the waffles topped with strawberries and bananas with a bit of (what I assume is) freshly made whipped cream. It was delicious and filling. My friend had their french toast and I liked hers better but only because the flavor of it was superb! We both ordered bacon and didn’t know it cost extra ($ 5 for 3 strips of bacon…), had we known that we wouldn’t have gotten it but it wasn’t bad. My friend loved the bacon and while I enjoyed nibbling on mine, it wasn’t cooked the way I love but it’s hard to find bacon cooked just right. I wanted to try their peach bellini but the mimosa special was $ 4 instead of $ 8 so we went with those. It was extra good because there weren’t very many people in there, for RTC I was expecting everything to be packed so that was really nice.

WARNING: Check your credit card statement! At least two of the checks from our table were altered to increase the tip. My tip was changed from $ 5 to $ 9 and my friends tip was changed my $ 3 to $ 8. We left a smaller tip on purpose because the service was terrible but apparently our server thought she deserved a better tip! The food was mediocre at best and the prices were high for the quality of the food. The manager was friendly and refunded the extra tip when asked but it sounded like the server was only warned & not fired even after she illegally and fraudulently altered multiple checks.

Normally I frown upon expensive dishes that won’t fill you up, but this one experience was quite different.
I had the Pennoni Alla Vodka. Large pasta tubes with bacon, vodka-​cream-​tomato sauce, and Grana Padano. The taste was absolutely exquisite and one of the best experiences I’ve had with a dish of pasta. The crunchy bacon engulfed in delicious vodka cream sauce paired well together. The Grana Padano, which is similar to Parmesan cheese, was the cherry on top for the layers of flavor. I was genuinely impressed with what I ordered and had no issues with service. Atmosphere was A+ so I can definitely see myself coming back.
Italian food and good company is a win in my book.

The dining experience at Il Fornaio can be summed as a slightly above average Italian restaurant that is good for date night, yet decent for entertaining clients when in town on business. Although not my first time at a Reston Town Center Italian restaurant, this was my first time dining at Il Fornaio.
Although the wine list was the first thing offered prior to my salad choice, I graciously ordered a Peroni that was on draft. I was pleasantly surprised with the Peroni’s hoppiness, given that it tastes best within the bottle (in my opinion). The Peroni that Il Fornaio had in stock was your standard pale lager that has roughly between 5−6% alcohol content, yet given how «nice» I felt after two of these drafts were pre-​entrée, you would swear that it had 9−10% alcohol content. Absolutely remarkable!
The house salad with vinaigrette was more of its expected variety of being a work of art within its presentation, as opposed to its high quality. To me, it was just a salad with basic vinaigrette, rather than one made with fresh pomegranate. The additional appetizers of the calamari and flat bread with diced tomatoes made up the difference in wetting the palate pre-​entrée.
The entrée, as expected, was well worth waiting for. While there is certainly no shortage of delightful Italian entrees with a significant amount of bread & starch on the menu, the Ravioli Alla Lucana seemed to encompass a smaller percentage of the aforementioned based on its portion size and content. There was something about it that just organic (a good thing), and you could taste at least 3 – 4 different seasonings that the chef used to highlight the meal. The ravioli proved to be such a good choice that I just couldn’t finish all of it despite having a significant appetite prior to entering Il Fornaio.
Customer service was excellent. No complaints whatsoever. The ambiance at the time (between 4:30−6 PM) seemed decent, yet not terribly sensual. Its hard to explain, yet for an upscale restaurant within an upscale town center, I expected a little bit more. That, and the restaurant got particularly louder & louder when there was a party of 15 at an adjacent table drowning out the voices of my party of 8. One plus for the restaurant is that the parking garage is right around the corner, which takes about 45 – 60 seconds to get to.
Altogether, a pretty good place that I would love to return to… for date night next time.

Had not been in here in quite some time but a friend suggested we meet here for dinner… why not. I was pleasantly surprised. It was not crowded — we were seated right away on a Thursday night around 6:00. Staff was friendly. My friend enjoyed a glass of wine — although she could tell it was freshly opened and had not had a chance to breathe. Would have expected a bit more from a finer dining establishment.
I chose a ravioli dish that was delicious and my friend chose a chicken dish served with spinach and potatoes. Both were really good. The bread and olive oil/​balsamic served while waiting was delicious a well. Bread was so hot and fresh! I checked in on Unilocal and was lucky enough to have received a free dessert so we saved room. It was good as well… sort of like a lava cake but was an almond cake with nutella type filling.
All in all — a very good meal. I’m sure we won’t rush back just because it’s pricey and there are lots of other places to go but we certainly enjoyed our meals!

Overview: A slightly upscale Italian restaurant in Reston Town Center that promises an authentic experience.
A friend wanted to eat out for a celebratory occasion, so he decided to try this place. We were there at 7:30pm on a Monday night, where things seemed a bit light, but our server was great: helpful, funny, struck the right balance of being present but not hovering.
My friend and I shared a Caesar salad, which was good, but didn’t stand out. It was nice that the person who brought it out offered to divide it up for us, which took a bit longer than you’d think and it was interesting to see him try to figure out how to divvy up the odd-​numbered croutons and hard boiled eggs.
I ordered the primi portion of cappellacci di zucca (butternut squash ravioli). The flavor was wonderful and I thought the walnuts and butternut squash went together quite well. The crispy sage was another nice addition. For dessert (free with a check-​in on Unilocal!Thanks, previous reviewers for the tip!), I had the soffiato al cioccolato (almond hazelnut cake), which was incredibly rich, gooey, and delicious. It comes with a scoop of sea salt caramel gelato on the side, which is a fantastic complement. I ate most of it (and shared more), but wasn’t able to finish it because it was so rich, I didn’t want to overdo it.
My friend had the pennoni alla vodka and thoroughly enjoyed it. He had the affogato al caffe (espresso over vanilla gelato) and polished that off before I was even halfway done with my dessert. I assume that meant it was good. Or that I’m an incredibly slow eater.
Bottom line: A good place to go. I can’t say that it absolutely stood out in my mind, but I’ll probably go again.

I definitely will not be eating here again. The last time my husband and I had dinner, the food was a bit disappointing, but last night takes the cake.
The veal was chewy and overdone, and the meat sauce was below average, not to mention 29.00 for the entrée. The service was slow yet awkwardly pushy. I was surprised to notice very few people in the restaurant, maybe word has gotten out. There are many restaurants to choose from, this one I’ll skip.

Have dined here numerous times, however our experience last Friday, March 11^th, 2016 made me want to go somewhere else in the future. The food was expensive for what we got, the service lacking and pushy to upsell. Overall just not a great dining experience and we all wished we had gone somewhere else.
With all the options in the area especially the town center– you cannot become complacent with great food and service and that is what appeared to have happened here.

Update… Unfortunately I will need to knock off three stars from this 5 star review. It’s such a disappointment, but our last visit was a disaster.
My husband and I visited our favorite spot for Valentine’s Day 2016. Needless to say, it was a very bad experience. My husband and I were so disappointed that this had happened. We really enjoy this establishment and having had such a terrible experience on Valentine’s Day was a real let down.
We were seated near the bar even though my husband called 5 weeks in advance to book reservations and verbally requested a «romantic» spot for us by a window. Instead we were smooshed in the loudest area of the bar, with a trio of mouthy, obnoxious college students and a married couple in jeans and sweats that had brought their two very disruptive children with them (the the boy was throwing these small dinosaur toys at the ground and the little girl was shouting and climbing under her fathers stool on all fours).
Not only was there a complete lack of romantic ambiance, but our waitress was disinterested, inattentive and just awful. We had never seen her before, so she may have been new. Our drink orders were messed up twice (I ordered a sardinian swizzle and got God knows what the first time).
The appetizers and entrées were slow to arrive. After we finished our meal, the waitress forgot to put in our cappis and dessert order. After 30 minutes of waiting for it, we asked her to go ahead and cancel the dessert and coffee and just give us the check. The manager, which was within eye shot and kept looking at our table, never came by to see what was wrong or to apologize. He was too busy shuffling in more and more people and was only interested in turning tables, which is why he kept eyeballing our booth. Before we could even open the door to leave, they swooped in and started working to clear and clean our table for another guest.
Very, very disappointing. It is especially disappointing when we were visiting this restaurant 3 to 4xs a month for the last 3 years. Since the Valentine’s Day incident we have not been back. This place has lost its charm for us and it may just be that it had a good 3 year run and now it’s time to move on.

The service is terrible. And the food is even worse.
Minestre soup — bland no taste
Margherita pizza — terrible. It’s flatbread pizza basically.
Bolognese — sauce is awful. I’ve had better out of a can.
Conchiglie di pollo — cubes of chicken, with tiny shells, over a decent wine sauce. The sauce is the best part.
Bread — they can’t even get the bread right.
I won’t be going back.

We met up with friends visiting from out of town one evening to enjoy dinner. Our party included a 3 year old and they accommodated us all very nicely.
We began by enjoying a little bit of happy hour at the bar; drinks and calamari. The calamari was very good, not rubbery or hard. Nice flavor and the wine selection for happy hour was nice as well.
Sitting down at the table, we were comfy and were promptly greeted by our server who explained the menu, the tasting menu and the wine menu. He was gracious in offering to allow us to taste various wines before making decisions, either on glasses or bottles and that was very nice!
A few of us selected the tasting menu, which is perfectly selected and put together. The food was all very fresh and prepared perfectly.
We did appreciate their diverse Italian menu, as they had some unique items which made deciding rather difficult. (this is a good thing!)
The restaurant itself was lively and busy. It’s in a great location and is within walking distance of many other eateries, places to live and shop.
Overall, we enjoyed it and look forward to coming back again!

This is a really nice hidden restaurant in the Reston Town Center. I have been to the town center multiple times and would have never known about this place is here if my coworker had not suggested it for our work dinner. This restaurant is on the far end of the town center and could easily be missed. We made a reservation for our work dinner, and our table was available 10 minutes earlier than our reservation time. They allowed us to be seated early while we waited for the remaining guest in our party. It is very nicely decorated in here and I love the ambiance. As soon as we were seated, a person came to our table with water before our waitress came out. Our waitress came out soon after and went over the menu and the house specials and then provided us with bread. We decided to wait for the rest of our party before we overlooked the menu, but while we were waiting we dug into the bread. The bread was very good and soft and I really enjoyed it. When the rest of our team finally arrived we placed our wine order and our food order — I opted for a pizza. Our food didn’t take long to come out and my pizza was really good! The wine I choose was good as well. Our waitress continued to check on us periodically throughout our whole visit – which was great service. With my check in on Unilocal at the time I also got a free dessert. The dessert I chose was not that good but that was the only issue on this visit. I will surely be back when in the mood for some good pizza or Italian food.

Feeling Italian and pizza? This is a good place to come. I love their pizza and I am one of those odd person that never crave pizza, but I like the pizza here and I can eat a whole pie by myself.
All their other pasta dishes are delicious as well!
We usually get appetizers: calamaretti fritti (fried crispy and light. Not too overwhelming or greasy) and antipasto della casa (sample platter is yummy, it sounds simple but addictive). And paired with white wine.
For our entrees: Cristina (thin crust pizza with fresh mozzarella, prosciutto, shaved Grana Padano, mushrooms and wild arugula and drizzled with white truffle oil), this pizza I love! Crispy crust and toppings compliments each other so well. The saltiness from the prosciutto and the slight bitterness from the wild arugula and nutty taste from mozzarella and white truffle oil.
Capellini al pomodoro, angel hair pasta. Perfectly dressed with chopped tomatoes, garlic, marinara sauce and fresh basil. So simple and delicious.
Cappellacci di zucca, ravioli filled with butternut squash and walnuts and with tomato sauce and brown butter.
Ravioli alla lucana, it has organic spinach ravioli filled with Italian sausage, ricotta, Grana Padano and fennel. Topped with fresh tomatoes, spicy tomato sauce with imported peperoncino, pecorino pepato cheese and fresh basil!
Two other dishes I’d recommend are Scaloppine ai carciofi e limone, it is thinly pounded veal. And Tagliata chianina, beef tenderloin grilled rare and comes sliced.
Both comes with potatoes and veggies.
Their service is good. Depends on how busy they are, they are usually pretty friendly.

Invited to a friend’s birthday party at this restaurant in Reston, I trundled over. It was a Sunday brunch and for a large group, I was surprised that the restaurant was not more crowded.
The food was great — standard brunch fare, the breads were very good. The fruit plate could be more interesting — after all aren’t we all o-​d-​ed on cantaloupe at this point?
The service was excellent, and the highlight of course was the dessert selection. And Unilocalers can get a bonus dessert for checking into this restaurant!

Came here for lunch and left very full. The complimentary bread basket has a few choices and started off the meal great.
I had the butternut squash ravioli. Luscious pasta pockets stuffed with decadent creaminess. It came with fried sage, but it’s wasn’t a very delicate crispness, but rather a pretty dense and almost burnt hard in an unpleasant way. This probably was the only thing I didn’t like throughout the meal. Just enough sauce to balance out this rich dish. Overall, quite delicious.
Definitely a good option with nice ambiance to meet up with friends for dinner or lunch. They do offer lunch portion sizes for some of the menu items.
When the weather’s nice, I would recommend sitting outside.

Just stopped here for a quick lunch break and got good service (fast & efficient). I enjoyed the soup and beet salad.