Sarafina's Italian Kitchen — Restaurant in Angels Camp

I clearly do not see what the locals or tourists see in Sarafina's. I have been there three times, and have been disappointment all three times. Not only is the local Dogwood much better, but here are much better restaurants in Murphys, and I would prefer to travel the 20 minutes it takes to get there for good food than put up with mediocre in a heartbeat.

Sarafina's is not bad, but with every item I ordered, there was something just 'off' about it. The appetizer shrimp was over cocked, and tough, so did not pick up any of the taste of butter or garlic in the sauce. The calamari was very good but the dipping sauce was just weird, not compatible with calamari at all! And the Marsala sauce on the chicken was so sweet it tasted like it was infused with maple syrup.

The service is prompt in that they keep your water and wine glasses filled, but they do not seem to noticing if you aren't enjoying your food. Which is weird because they must have filled our water glasses at least four time during our first course. Our waitress did ask if we liked our choices while she removed our appetizer dishes.

When we did mention our disappointment with the shrimp and calamari sauce, our waitress told us she 'could' have brought us another sauce for the calamari...but my husband had finished the dish! She said nothing about my shrimp. For the sake of return business, I would think that replacing an undesirable appetizer with another is worth it!

But I am sure her management would rather her get us moving along, as my husband's main course had arrived, and later reservations lined up to immediately follow our departure. I don't remember a time when we did not tip 18 to 20%, but this was all such a mediocre food experience we only left 15%, and told our waitress why.

But Sarafina's is not hurting for business, so I will leave Sarafina's to others as I have a higher expectation of 'acceptable cuisine' than I can get at this establishment. We are currently living full time in Arnold, and will happily give my business to Dogwood and/or drive the 20 minutes it take to get to Murphys for...

Date: September 4, 2020

Pros: Lovely ambiance on outdoor patio, surrounded by trees; large wine pours and local wine offerings; yummy food; attentive and friendly service; easy parking; easy to make a reservation; appreciated the paper runners on each table that were replaced in between guests

Cons: We were surprised and concerned that restaurant staff were not consistently wearing face masks—both outdoors and indoors. Our hostess, server, and the person who delivered our food were not wearing face masks. This is particularly concerning, considering that just a few days ago there was a sign on the front door of the restaurant that stated one of the restaurant’s employee’s family members had tested positive for Covid and they were temporarily closed while everyone was being tested. I DID appreciate that our server seemed to notice that we put our own face masks on each time a staff member approached our table, and she adapted accordingly to keep her distance (still less than 6 feet) and minimize the length of our interactions without compromising attention to service. We would have given 5 stars if not for this inattention to safety and public health.

Conclusion: We didn’t leave, but we will also not be back until/unless the restaurant becomes compliant with Covid-19 state masking guidelines. If you’re really in the mood for Italian, I’d recommend take-out to minimize potential risk and exposure. If the people out front who are interacting with the public aren't wearing masks, how on earth can you have faith that the staff ''behind the scenes'' are...

Avoid during Covid since Sarafina's is ignoring most Covid rules. Specifically, none of the employees wear masks! The hostess did not have a mask, nor did any servers or any of the cooks or anyone in the kitchen, not did the bartender.

We visited there on Valentine's Day 2/14/21. This restaurant has one entrance that leads to the hostess and the bar, before you can enter the restaurant. Surprisingly they were allowing indoor dining, but I don't know if this county allows that or not.

However, the bar area was wall to wall people including people eating at bar tables, people waiting to order drinks, and people waiting for food pickup or to be seated. Many were not wearing masks and all were very close together. Not good!

When we left, we had to pass between people on both sides of the entryway to get out the door and none of those people had masks.

The only Covid guidelines Sarafina's does appear to follow is spacing tables indoors. Those were 10 ft apart, but then the wait staff serves you without masks. One person overflowing from the lobby began standing next to our table and they were talking on their cell phone but not wearing a mask. We called over a server and asked them to have them moved away from our table. The waitress told us "there's no place for them to stand", to which we replied "how about outside?!"

We then asked for take home boxes and then left.

This kind of mismanagement is exactly why Covid spreads. Sarafina's is a ticking time bomb for a Covid outbreak--it's just a matter of time before many people get...