Jovino

As a regular, I LUH-​HUVED Jovino, but now they are changing their entire restaurant look and name and am NOT a fan of the lame name horrilbe décor.
When the changes began, I even past the restaurant and wasn’t sure if it was the same place. I almost didn’t go in, but then I saw Roku I realized it was just décor changes. Then the name changed and it all went down hill from there.
I love the people there (shout out to Cody, Lily, and Roku!!!). They are always so friendly to me and provide excellent service. BUT please change it all back to my once familiar — classier place and I’ll change my rating.

UPDATE JULY 18, 2011: LEASED BY UMAMI BURGER of LA, expect a mid-​September roll-​out. They have been seeking a Cow Hollow location. GQ Magazine initiated a «burger of the year» award just to provide recognition to the LA spot. Sounds promising!
*** CLOSED. They are not open today Sat July 2 and there is no sign explaining why so I take it as bad news. Sigh. What a great place to eat and hang out (until the recent rename and restyle), now gone. ***
I am updating this place to 5 stars. The «scramblet» breakfast is simply fantastic with fresh potatoes thinly sliced and veggies, cheese galore. The food is quite good and healthy (alas the scone weighs a ton, avoid). Every other food I’ve tried here was a product of clever and tasteful creativity. The atmosphere is so consistently upbeat, you cannot help but walk out feeling better than when you walked in. Yes the coffee is still not strong enough for my taste, and the Sierra Nevada Ale, while wonderful, falls short of a great IPA. (Picky picky!). Thanks to Linda for correcting my pronunciation of the name (Perhaps it SHOULD be called «Joy-​vino», but it’s not!)

Pros:
They have mac and cheese and a very cozy atmosphere.
Cons:
If the food was a little higher quality or healthier, I would eat her all the time.
Fun:
They had a massive happy hour wine party once here and used to do it on Fridays – I hope they do it more often.

Eclectic decoration. Free wifi for 1 hour, but I left with a lackluster experience. It is an order and seat yourself type of restaurant. We came for brunch and they have a pretty standard brunch menu. I ordered the breakfast burrito which was huge, but it was just that. There wasn’t much flavor in it and the chicken apple sausage was bleh to me. The scramble plates looked much more appetizing and entertaining.
My friend ordered a bagel with cheese and it took FOREVER to make. No reason for that… for the amount of time she had to wait (I was already well into my burrito), they should have given her a free something to compensate…
The server was nice and asked if I didn’t like my burrito. I said it was fine and I wasn’t that hungry. Maybe if I had been starving, I would’ve eaten more of it, but it just wasn’t that tasty.
The green chai tea latter was ok, but there wasn’t that «zing» you needed in it. I could barely taste the green tea basically.
However, the polenta with mushrooms deserve more stars. That dish was by far, the tastiest.

Try the polenta, try the polenta, try the polenta, try the polenta, try the polenta. Seriously people, try the polenta. It’s made with goat cheese and mushrooms and tastes like little spoonfuls of heaven.
Also in my «you should try list» the drink Calimocho. I know red wine and Coke doesn’t sound like they should be mixed, but they are and it’s good. And of course sangria is a big hit with everyone.
The rest of the food we had was just okay. The chicken salad was roasted chicken served over veggies and not lettuce, which was interesting. The mac and cheese should have been amazing because it has big chunks of bacon in it, but it was kind of bland truthfully.
But, we were there for hours hanging out and playing games, which is not something you can do in traditional restaurants so I’d gladly trade a little gourmet food for plainer stuff served up with ambiance and the coffee house vibe that allowed us to stay for so long.

Checked it out for the first time last week and went back again within a week… basically because we knew it would not be crowded.
1^st time there, had the Mac n Cheese which was pretty good. Wanted the Pomogranate Mimosa, but they ran out of promogranate, so i got the orange mimosa.
2^nd time there, we went to a few bars on Friday nite and all were packed… except Jovino. I tried to order the pomogranate mimosa… and 4 days later, they were still out of pomogranate. Hmmmm. If they are not planning to get pomogranate, they might want to remove it from their menu.
Good ambience, casual and probably the least pretentious winebar in the Marina

Following the MS walk and accompanying 10 mile hike to and from the car we parked on Union (before hoofing it to Crissy Field), Boy and I were in desperate need of hydration of the non-​water sort and in serious search for good, healthy (ish) food.
Love this place! Pomegranate mimosas, delicious burgers, and the best damn green goddess dressing I have EVER had in my life (this is saying a lot). Plus, the vibe is low key and unpretentious and the staff has a sense of humor. Extra star for the view from the bathroom. No joke. Great option for breakfast or lunch. We’ll be back.

We decided to visit Jovino once more and the experience was similiar to the first: the food took foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
I really liked the mac n cheese from our prior visit and decided to order the same again. This time it came without any cauliflower and the portion was much smaller than previously. We also ordered the mahi tacos, which i’d probably skip in the future, and the salmon with veggies which was OK. The best part of the meal was my sangria.
Management really needs to work on getting more workers during rush hour. My waitress was the only server working the entire restaurant!

I really have to stop eating at places in my ‘hood because they’re local, when I KNOW they have hit-​or-​miss food AND hit-​or-​miss service (I once waited for over half an hour for service at Jovino, see my previous review).
I just had two bites of worse mac and cheese I’ve ever had in my life! Kraft mac and cheese made with reconstituted milk would have been better tasting. I am particularly disappointed because it used to be one of the things Jovino could be counted on to do decently… not the best but by no means the worse.
How do you mess up mac and cheese? List it on your menu as having broccoli and cauliflower but only put cauliflower in it, then use a mild cheese that has only a hint of taste, and finally make the sauce so runny that it has the consistency of broth, and try to fix the problem w/​flour but don’t cook the flour long enough so it tastes like you added flour to it. The dish really needed an extra sharp cheddar or something w/​a bit of tang to it if you’re not going to add broccoli. Cauliflower has no taste! Why even bother adding it?! Nevermind that the menu said broccoli was in the dish and if they didn’t have it, it should have been mentioned when I ordered the dish. Because, then I could have ordered something else!
Jovino you get the award for being the ONLY place in my 30 years of dining out where I actually asked for my money back. Seriously, it was that bad. And although I like your sangria, and you’re in my hood, I think I’ve given you way too many chances… I have finally learned my lesson, which is I should always go with my first instinct and go to Gamine, or pretty much any other restaurant/​café on Union or Fillmore for better food/​service.

Jovino has become my favorite place for Saturday breakfast with the girls. After a good run or a trip to the gym, I usually crave something hearty but not too greasy.
Jovino has a great breakfast menu and their breakfast burrito is delicious. They will cook them to order and I always get mine with egg whites only.
I notice they now have $ 9 daily dinner specials which include fried chick/​mashed potatoes on Fridays (yum!)
Jovino is a great low-​key neighborhood spot!

Nothing is cheap in the Marina, nothing.
This is where Jovino comes in.
For $ 9 you get spaghetti and niman ranch meatballs AND a glass of house wine.
The servings are generous, service is good and the restaurant has a great modern décor.
They also didn’t skimp on the wine. They gave me a Calina 2008 reserva chardonnay which I really enjoyed.
I am DEFINITELY coming back. A great value and very attractive crowd.