Il Fornaio

Maybe I was expecting too much from a local chain restaurant. The service was great, we were promptly seated and our server was very attentive. The food however was meh. I got their 3-​course meal, the salad was good but my salmon was dry and had to much onion.
For now I will stick to local restaurants. I don’t think I will be coming back, unless it for happy hour, I have heard that is great. $ 6 drinks

Definitly a fine dining resturant. My fiancé and I went to try something new and it was a night to remember. I had the seafood pasta and she had the ravioli. Everything was really good!
Going to most resturants, it is usually hit or miss with the wait staff. THIS IS NOT THE CASE. Our waitress was amazing. She was able to answer all of our questions and recommended really good dishes. She was also extremely friendly and professional. My two pieces of advise for you is to go, and asked to be served by Emily.

This is a favorite of my family. Excellent service. Excellent food. Very nice atmosphere! Have never had a bad meal at Il Fornaio!

I had a butternut squash and walnut ravioli dish that was to die for. I believe that the others in our party enjoyed their meals too. The dessert was fantastic. Service was really fast. I will be back again.

Usually very good, however, due to the holidays, I am guessing it wasnt quite up to par!

I’ve tried the downtown Sacramento (Capitol Mall) location of this place for a high school (a few days ago) pre-​dance dinner, so I figured this one would be similar. It was not.
The high ceilings were about the only things that felt familiar. Other than that, my pasta dish wasn’t anything beyond ordinary (it IS a chain after all) but it did carry a beyond ordinary price tag.
Nothing to take away from my rating of the place, but the front door was not clearly marked. It is in between the two buildings between the makeshift ice skating rink and the parking garage.

Amazing restaurant! Beautiful family orientated environment! Need to come here, even if you just come for dessert it is worth it! The service here is amazing and you feel like home when you come here ! Annie the waitress and Chris the chef are amazingly sweet! The managers are so caring and considerate! Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, oh my goodness! You need to come here

Highly recommend for happy hour! Jardice is exceptional! We sat in the overflow section which was wonderful with a view outside. Very fun drink and food menu. We will back soon!

Went here for lunch last weekend and ordered the Salmon salad. Bad choice. The salmon was cut in thin slices and literally fried/​browned. It was dry, leathery and tasted fishy… horrible. I was expecting a thick, moist piece of salmon. The waiter should have explained how it was prepared when I asked him if the Salmon Salad was good. The spinach salad that accompanied the salmon was tossed till soggy in a heavy amount of dressing and salt. The waiter was very nice about replacing my meal with another seafood dish/​salad. It was okay, but nothing I would order again. The best part of the meal was the very fresh bread with oil and balsamic for dipping. It was delicious. The seating was comfortable.

I hate to admit this but I was not very impresses. I have not eaten here in a very long time, the food was not worth the money we spent. I had the rissoto and my friend she had the vegetarian raviolis and neither dish was very tasty! The food was bland and cold and the service was not very good. After $ 50,00 we felt like we were pick pocketed! I seriously feel like three stars is being generous. But I have to take my elite status serious and give them a fair shake. My advice go somewhere else.

I absolutely love this restaurant as it never disappoints. The food is always very delicious, and the waiters are very friendly and accommodating to our family. On our last visit, I noticed the menu had changed, which was a nice surprise so we would get to try some new menu items. I ordered some sort of seafood dish, the potatoes were undercooked and hard, but the rest of the meal was amazing, so it made up for it. The menu items have really long italian names, so I wouldn’t be able to tell you what it was until the next time I eat there (I’ll have to write it down). Either way, I’m sure anything you order off the menu will be amazing. We sat outside and the staff was kind enough to turn on the fireplace for us outside, which was a treat as well.

I once walked into the kitchen of a PF Changs before having the chance to eat there. Besides not seeing a single Chinese cook, there were lots of pre-​made sauces in big plastic bags on shelves. That told me all I needed to know about PF Changs. Il Fornaio is quite possibly the Italian PF Changs. Nice building, great décor and atmosphere, SUPER friendly and attentive staff (our server was excellent), but the food was horrible.
Its shocking that a place that caters to the «take the tie off and head there after work crowd» (we saw droves of business people mid-​week there after work in large groups) doesn’t upkeep the restaurant. There was visible dust in odd places, and the mens room was disgusting. It looked like somebody had a huge drunken party the night before and nobody bothered to clean the bathrooms. Urine on the floor, and dried urine goo all over the top of the toilet bowls under the seat. This is at 6PM at night for the start of the dinner crowd (or maybe the lunch crowd really sauces it up and gets crazy… IDK).
BELIEVE THE OTHER REVIEWS ABOUT THE FOOD. You won’t get «fresh» here. My pasta and chicken dish tasted like one of those frozen microwave pasta meals that come in the cardboard container where you peel the top back after its been heated. The chicken was dry and either re-​pan heated previously cooked chicken or straight up re-​heated microwaved chicken. When I think about it, it was reminiscent of my college days when you were really hungry and only had frozen chicken breast, so you chop the frozen chicken while it’s still frozen and throw it in a pan to cook itl. Yep. They threw frozen chunk chicken in a pan! That’s exactly what it tasted like!!!
It seriously tasted like I was eating re-​heated leftovers from a few days before. The menu brags about fresh made pasta on site. Sure. If you made it fresh, dried it out so that it was like any other store bought pasta, stored it for a week, then reconstituted it in water, then yeah, I will buy your claim. I have had fresh made and cooked pasta (fresh as in it was soft before it was cooked) and this did not taste «fresh». Just to be fair, I tried another pasta entrée at our table. Same sketchy sauce and tacky pasta with a heavy «smoke» flavoring (it was supposed to be bacon…). Olive Garden actually has better quality pasta than these guys…
Some others in my party had also ordered pizza. Nothing about the pizza impressed me, and again, lacking any kind of fresh taste to it, from the crust to the toppings. I would almost venture to say the crust was pre-​made way earlier or slightly pre-​cooked, stored, then had toppings added to it and cooked.
Apparently lots of sodium in the food, because after a slice of pizza and a small pasta dish, I was completely dehydrated far into the night and into the next morning chugging water.
Now, this is not retaliation for sticker shock. As in «Holy crap! That was HOW MUCH?». I knew it was going to be expensive walking in the door, but the food here does not command the prices on the menu. This place is «lets meet for drinks after work, oh man, I am buzzed and need some food in my stomach, wow –hick– this food is pretty good» and the buzz makes you forget about the price and food quality because you just need something in your stomach (I was totally sober doing this excursion AND during the writing of this review by the way…).
This is big box food that seriously lacks and gouges the wallet. Tired of these places, but I got dragged here. I was hoping for the best, but not so.
Fornaio has a great staff, thought the dirty white blazers are a little sad. But don’t pay to dry clean your employees blazers Fornaio, I would hate for you to have to degrade your food quality even more.

Ridiculously shitty service. Sat there for 25+ minutes and no server approached our table. Got up and left. Not worth it.
Bread was delicious though! Just wish could have eaten something else with it…

Beautiful architecture as you enter through the door! Yes, Il Fornaio is a chain but you can always count on attractive surroundings, open air feeling, and nice bar area in them all. That’s a plus right there. This one lived up to all of these factors. We came at an off time…3:30 «ish» for a late lunch. Very few diners. Was seated near the open kitchen which was fun watching the «performance» of the hard working people. Nice cozy table for three (meeting a friend). Great wine selection (for us)…we love Honig Sauvignon Blanc. All had a different entrée and each was good not great but good. The price point is high. But that is how it is and most people know that going in. The highlight of our visit was our wait person, Cody! Most knowledgeable about everything (wine, food ingredients) and definitely a smooth operator (and that is meant in the most favorable way). He has his «craft» perfected in all opinions of the three diners! Buon Appetito!

It was slow tonight but our drinks were good and the day bartender was really sweet.
The night bartender (they switched shifts) was curt. I normally don’t Unilocal of someone is a little snarky because everyone has a bad day but it was the first time.

I’m so disappointed. I came here for happy hour with a friend. We started with water, served in mugs. I thought it was odd but gave them the benefit thinking that’s how they serve water here. There weren’t a lot of people in there when we first got there. We ordered bloody marys and they were not good at all. No olives, just a lemon wedge. We were adding salt to it to make it taste better. My friend did tell the waiter it wasn’t good and he put it in a bigger glass with more mix and added olives per her request. The margerita pizza was good but my friend’s calamari was not hot when she got it. We noticed others water glasses and they were in glasses not mugs like ours. I also noticed someone else with a bloody mary and they had olives. We were so disappointed.
I probably won’t be back.

When i pay $ 20 for pasta, I expect it to be amazing. It should hit me in the gut, and leave me ravenous for more. On this front, Il Fornaio disappointed. Their pasta sauce was watery and lacked flavor. The broccoli in the pasta was yellow and otherwise tasted old. The chicken had clearly been frozen and had no flavor. It would have been disappointing at $ 10, let alone $ 20.
Sadly, among my group, i was not the only one with complaints. At our table of 10, 8 walked away unsatisfied (and we are not a hard group to please).

Very good, authentic, and fresh italian food. Their restaurant the Canaletto at the Venetian is also great. The IF in Roseville does a wonderful and very reasonable brunch. Downtown does not do brunch since they are not busy enough on the weekend.

My boyfriend surprised me with dinner reservations here for my birthday a couple of weeks ago. It was our first time trying it so I was excited to try something new!
We were greeted and seated immediately when we arrived. The restaurant was pretty empty as it was 4pm. As soon as we were seated, the hostess asked us for the reason for our visit before saying our server would be right with us. Our server was very nice and nervous as he was in training I think, but very polite and friendly. I loved dipping the bread in the olive oil (i’m not a big butter person) so that was great. We decided to go with the regional menu so we could try more food.
For the appetizer I ordered the Condijun & trofie al pesto e gamberetti, both were very bright and fresh looking. It was very light but a good portion and full of flavor. For the main course I had the Filetto Di Sogliola Con Olive Taggiasche, a nice piece of fish with vegetables on the side. All in all, my meal wasn’t too heavy but was very filling. After our meal was cleared, the server came out with a surprise slice of ice cream for my birthday dessert. It was delicious and quickly devoured! Great experience and they definitely made me feel special on my day! I’d definitely recommend it for a great date night.

Wonderful atmosphere and wonderful food! I took my lady here before Christmas and it was decorated very festive which made the meal more fun!
— it is always very clean and has good customer satisfaction! We were greeted right away and seated as well! We did make a reservation and I would recommend that if you plan on eating on the weekend or Friday night! The holidays will also be busier! The open kitchen is always cool because you can see the chefs cooking! Our waitress was nice and even recommended me to switch my entrée meal because she knew I would like the lamb shank better than the veal!
— the food was terrific! We started out with the risotto as an app which was with mushrooms, fresh crab meat and artichoke hearts! It was savory and full of flavor! For our entrees, my lady ordered the pappardelle pasta with mushrooms and red pepper flakes and it was great. The noodles were the right texture, the sauce was light yet flavorful. I had the lamb shank over mashed potatoes and spinach! It was the best lamb shank I have ever had! The sauce that was over the lamb was wonderful and was so savory with diced up carrots! It was almost like a stew!
We will return we are in the Roseville area!