The Italian Homemade Company — Restaurant in Berkeley

I am a big - make that a huge - fan of the original Italian Homemade Company on Columbus Street in San Francisco. I used to live around the corner and spent many evenings in this unassuming yet excellent restaurant. The lasagna was my favorite, with pasta that was pillowy soft that you could cut with a fork while being ridiculously delicious. All of the food rivaled what you would find in Italy, and it often surpassed it.

I was happy to hear that the business was expanding, and it ultimately opened three more locations of which am aware - in the Marina, near the Civic Center in SF, and in Berkeley.

I’ve since eaten at each of those restaurants, and have been sorely disappointed at each. The Marina location - the first one added - seems to be the most true to form, yet it still falls significantly short of the original. I’ve only eaten at the Civic Center once, and it was not bad but nothing special.

I’ve eaten at Berkeley three times now. Since I have moved to the East Bay, I keep on giving it another chance. But this may be my last. The first and third visits, I ordered the lasagna. Unlike the pasta in Columbus Street, it was heavy and very rubbery. As good as Columbus Street was, this was bad. It also consisted of layer after layer of this rubbery pasta simply stacked on top of each other. The second time I was here, I ordered the gnocchi. Instead of pillowy puffs, they were thick and chewy. Such disappointment.

I have tried to guess as to why something so good can turn so bad. The only reason i can think of is that the staff making up the original location - which were as authentic as they come - simply can’t be replicated at other locations. How can they fix this? Maybe by having their original staff doing long-term rotations at the other locations and (this is important) teaching the other staff. And it’s important that they fix it quickly. The people who are currently being introduced to the brand are not going to be impressed, and you can never have the chance to make another first impression - especially if they don’t return.

I really want to see this franchise do well, and I still hope they can. But they need to replicate the quality of food at their original location as soon as possible lest their expansion efforts result in failure.

I soon plan to make a pilgrimage back to the Columbus Street location and am desperately hoping that they have maintained the quality and magic that I used to experience there on a regular basis....

Bad customer service!! We ordered through apps and they gave our order to the wrong person and blame us for not picking it up earlier!! She only offered to reorder it when 2 out of 3 stuff that we ordered are sold out. I quote she said “our meatballs has sold out all day” then why can we still order it through the app if it’s already sold out? The girl who deal with us clearly do not have any empathy at all to us. Clearly it’s their fault to give the wrong order to the wrong person without double checking their order, and now she doesn’t want to be responsible for it. When we asked for a refund she told us to do it ourselves through the apps. I’ve ordered from many restaurants and this is one of the most disappointing experiences during this pandemic.

PS: our favorite part is that when she knows she gave the wrong order to the wrong person, she told us “you should come earlier” when the apps told us the order is ready at 8.05pm and we...

This place is…fine. The service is really poor. The young woman at the counter knew very little about what she was doing. I asked if I could get a few tomatoes, which were listed in salads and appetizers, to get added to our dish so our child could have something in addition to pasta; she said “no. The chef doesn’t do well with substitutions.” The way she said it she made it seem like she either didn’t know or didn’t want to ask. I even said “I just want to buy extra veggies for the baby” and she still said no. The tables and chairs are really uncomfortable. The pasta dishes are WAY over sauced and we heard others saying the same and leaving ALOT of their sauce behind. The pesto was bland but the salt shakers were rock hard. And you bus your own table and no one comes behind to wipe up a dirty table. Not...