Depot Hotel

We had our wedding here last weekend and it could not have been more perfect. Gia was a pleasure to work with throughout the whole process and was so organized! She really knows how to run weddings! All of our guests were raving about the food — most saying it was the best wedding food they had ever had. The service was amazing too — a glass was never empty. I highly recommend the Depot for a wedding for its beautiful setting, delicious food, and amazing service.

Just left the Depot Hotel where my aunt’s wedding was held. The venue was beautiful! The food was very good! The staff were excellent!!!
Gia had organized and handled everything so well there were no hitches. Ian, the bartender, was very helpful with the music and of course tending bar. Jaime was a lovely young lady and helpful. I thought all the staff I interacted with were nice, professional, and pleasant to have a special event. Thanks to the kitchen staff, the food was tasty, hot and plentiful. We would definey recommend holding any special event there.
Thanks to all at the Depot Hotel.

Had a wonderful lunch to celebrate a friend’s birthday.
Beautiful restaurant with lovely grounds.
The veal dish I have was delicious.
We will be going back!

My husband and I chose this venue for our wedding and wanted to take the time to thank Gia and her wonderful staff. Upon looking for a wedding venue I made only one visit, and one visit only, and it was to the Depot (when you know you know right?) I just knew it was the perfect venue to get married, the façade has so much character as well as the newly remodeled interior. But it was the garden that really sold me with the gorgeous pool and outside fireplace. Gia is the owner as well as the event coordinator. She made everything seem less, efficient and so memorable. All million thanks to Gia and her staff. I wish I could keep this little gem and secret, but it wouldn’t be right.

Wonderful food, beautiful ambiance and experienced wait service. An excellent place for a nice quiet lunch! Highly recommended!

Great family-​owned Italian restaurant that has delicious traditional meals and holds events. I had my wedding here in 2014 and it was such a warm, intimate experience. I came here for dinner a month ago and the same staff is still around and friendly as ever. The service here is great and everyone is quite attentive. I absolutely love this place and it will always have a special place in my heart.
Come on a nice day and dine out on the patio next to the pool!

Came here with my family for Easter brunch. Food was delicious! Salads were fresh. We sat by the pool… great ambience. The hostess was super nice and accommodating. The wait staff was slightly off but the hostess made up for it. It is off the square but worth the walk if you park out that way.

Fantastic experience at Depot Hotel. I highly recommend this place for a nice romantic night out…

We hosted our wedding rehearsal dinner here back in December and everybody had such a lovely time! The ambiance was perfect. The food was great — even my picky-​eating-​8-​year old nephew enjoyed his steak! And the wait staff was very attentive! My uncle who was visiting from Ohio told me that he never had his wine or water glass empty! It was such a happy start to our wedding weekend :) Our family and friends were full of compliments about this place and we definitely recommend it for small parties or any occasion where you want a great dining experience! A special note of thanks to Gia who helped us coordinate our rehearsal dinner!

When I moved to Sonoma about five years ago, I had two meals at the Depot. They were okay — not bad at all, but not so good that I went back.
Friends recently invited us to the Depot, and this time we really liked it! So much so that we went back a second time (about two weeks later) and we’ve got dinner reservations for a date next month. I don’t know what changed, but it’s really good now. I plan to explore the menu.
Nice ambiance. Kind of «old school» in looks. (If weather is nice, try to sit outside. If not so nice, try for the «garden room.»)
Service is good — water and soft drinks refilled, big basket of bread.
Waitstaff is efficient, personable, and unobtrusive.
Prices are reasonable. Portions are generous.
We’ve had the firtto misto appetizer on both recent visits. Very good. Not greasy or heavy.
Liver pâté app is good, too.
Best dish (so far) is the seafood penne in a red sauce.
Also very good were veal — scallopine or parmigiana.
Nice pizzas — crust is the way I like it – not too thin, not too thick. They’re 8-​pieces, so two people can split, or – take half home for later.
Didn’t try desserts (as we had dessert waiting at home), but other tables ordered them, and they looked delicious.
So glad we tried it again. It’s going to be a staple of our dining out in Sonoma.

Went here around Valentines day! Very nice outside area with fountain and fire pits as well as vines on wall! Some of the tables inside are a bit crowded and snug compared to the outside ones.
As for the menu, I wish they had more of a variety. I love pasta but most of the dishes in that section seem to have the same sauce… was kind of feeling for a creamy /​Alfredo sauce that day. And I assume the portions were a bit small for the meat dishes. I ended up ordering the seafood pasta with bigger noodles rather than penne, and my guest got a steak which was very well cooked!
I was pleased that they had a Unilocal offer special with a no corkage fee, PERFECT!
It was hard to find or get our server’s attention most times through dinner and he couldn’t hear anything I said… nonetheless pretty good food and very beautiful spot.

Food was a decent 3-​stars. The baby lettuce salad was kind of meh, but the canneloni was better, and the panna cotta was one of the best desserts I’ve had in a long time. All that said, the service was a total turn-​off, hence the two-​star review. I was out to dinner with a girlfriend for my bday, and it quickly became obvious that our server couldn’t wait to turn our table. First we asked to order apps first and then consider the entrees, and he insisted that we put in the whole order at once — «We don’t want to surprise the kitchen.» Um, there’s a MENU — how would we surprise the kitchen by ordering something from it? He could not have rushed service more; this despite being told by the hostess that they allot 2 hours to each reservation. When he dumped off the dessert menu, I swear he walked away for a total of 60 seconds, then seemed annoyed when I said we hadn’t even looked at it yet. I asked afterwards and was told his name was Mr. Matt (big guy, probably in his 50s) — not sure if that was accurate. It’s a shame, because I live in Sonoma and really wanted to like this place, but I won’t be back.

Definitely recommend this place for dinner. We had a wonderful salami board to start and the wine & beer selection was great … I had a butter lettuce Caesar salad that was delicious and it came with a little piece of grilled garlic bread. Homemade minestrone with polenta soup was tasty! The boys I was with both had steaks and they like them for sure… Cool sides like roasted broccolini, grilled polenta with tomato topping and cauliflower with capers. Dessert was a trio of delicious gelato-​like ice creams.
Charming old-​Sonoma atmosphere — table linens and low lighting in what was an 1800s train depot hotel — and decent service. Nicely done!

Amazing service and food thank you all so much we had a wonderful experience we recommend this wonderful restaurant to any and all

We had the perfect dinner here — I know, sounds strong, but every aspect was delightful.
Menu choices were varied so that each person’s desires were filled.
Service was above expectations.
Wine selected was not only incredible, it was also affordable.
Flavors blew me away.
Comfort was the only possible downside but only because the adjacent table had six «toasted» young ladies making their point with volume instead of wisdom — not The Depot’s fault.
We are Sonomans and we are spoiled with so many great restaurants. We had not been here in awhile and we enjoyed it in the past, but this time they raised the bar.
The Depot may be our new «Go To» in Sonoma.

Charming locals spot found about two blocks off of the main square in town. While we didn’t have reservations, my boyfriend and I were more than happy to wait at the bar for a table. For whatever reason, we couldn’t be seated until 8 even though there were tables available but they comped us on a drink and a little nosh and we felt totally taken care of plus we got to talk to the owner for a minute which was very cool. That was the beginning of a wonderful service experience and a tasty meal!
We shared a caesar salad to start and for our main we ordered a pizza similar to the Emiliana with prosciutto and roasted red onions. We only ate a couple slices of it as we had eaten a rather large lunch only a few hours previously but we loved it. The size was right and the flavors worked together. The only small drawback on the pizza was that the crust was slightly overcooked and had a few unpleasant burn spots, just needed a minute or two less in the oven. What we didn’t eat that night we had the next morning when we hit the road for the final drive of our vacation. It was so tasty even cold the next morning.
I would recommend this spot to anyone looking to dine in Sonoma on their next overnight in town or even to a local who hasn’t found out about this place yet!

Gia was flat out rude. I was the DJ for a wedding there just on the 11^th and she was extremely rude with her staff. Don’t come here if you want to be feel discriminated because of your appearance/​nationality.
1. As soon as I arrived, she had a snobby attitude towards my helpers and I. She had no interest in what I asked from her.
2. Venue wasn’t even tidy. Twigs and branches on the floor, leaves and dirt all inside the pool.
3. The wedding was stopped at 10pm. Who stops a full dance floor that early? The bride and groom were so upset and were begging me to continue but she was in my face basically forcing me to stop.
3. I was set up in the corner near the «fire place» with my table, DJ equipment (which took up all the space of the table) and two helpers. She didn’t even offer us a table or chairs to sit on? What were we supposed to do? I ended up taking a table for myself and one of the employees questioned me like I was stupid or something and I had to ask HIM for a table cloth.
4. As the wedding went on, and tables were being called to go for their food they NEVER acknowledged me or my guest to eat. She looked at me several times and not once even mentioned it. The workers had appetizers and didn’t stop for samples. They didn’t even provide us with water, utensils, or napkins.
5. The food that was served was mediocre and sad. The steak was bland and waaaay too chewy with their stale buttered bread and French fries haha.
Overall, I would never come back to this place nor would I suggest anyone else coming here ESPECIALLY if you’re a minority. If I could rate this place a 0 I would.

Praise — Upgrade — Praise
The hostess and the waiter were both wonderful. Very polite and prompt service.
The orecchiette pasta was bland and lukewarm. Way too much corn. The cannelloni was extremely salty and the tomato sauce did not taste fresh. We felt like we wasted a dinner here in Sonoma.
The patio dining environment was beautiful, though.

We really liked our experience at the Depot. We attended a rehearsal dinner there last week and the food was fantastic. The outdoor patio was very cute and set up nicely, with tables around the pool.
I ordered a chicken entrée and my husband got a shrimp risotto. Both were amazing… my dish was one of the best chicken entrees I have had in a long time. The cocktail hour was a little long, apps were average and service was okay. The food and setting are what nailed the experience and we would certainly go back.

We were considering the Depot Hotel as our potential wedding reception because from what we researched — looked beautiful. So this review is for their customer service and corresponding with Gia, the event coordinator.
I found Gia to be surprisingly rude and unprofessional via email. After thinking about it, I couldn’t see working with this person to have my wedding here so I crossed this venue out in a heart beat.
My reasons:
1. Not friendly in sharing avail dates. My initial inquiry through Here Comes The Guide was ¹¹⁄₇ (but we were open to other dates). She responds, «we’re booked that evening». I had to follow-​up with her and tell her that we’re open for other dates and ask what she has available. She says she’s booked up through ¹¹⁄₈ and am also concerned about my guest count. When I told her my guest count is 100, she replies, «Yes, in November 7 is booked at midday, but the evening is open.»
OHHH, so she did have ¹¹⁄₇ evening open…
I don’t understand why she gave a difference answer in the beginning. Does she not want business?
2. With her response to this one, I really shook my head…
With any wedding inquiry, it is common to ask usual questions such as «is there a tasting of the menu?» since many venues offer this and it’s for 100 guests and food is a particularly important for a wedding.
Her response?
«You may have not read the notes about the difficulties involved in tasting buffet dishes included in the package sent over… That said, I highly recommend that you eat in this restaurant, if you are at all uncertain about whether or not you should book an event here. The chef is incredible! After you taste his food, I really think you will stop worrying about the particular dishes involved in a menu.»
I don’t think I’m alone in thinking it’s quite important what dishes are involved in a large dinner party. I may have missed this detail in the package but this doesn’t mean she needs to be rude in her response.
I’m not sure how they run a business with this staff person to ruin their branding. Definitely sour experience and this is just the first initial steps of event booking with them– couldn’t see myself working with this person. Definitely telling any bride friends to stay away from booking their weddings here.