Il Fornaio — Restaurant in Burlingame

You know, this is my second time coming here with colleagues and my second bad experience. The first time, in spite of the incredibly slow service, and how often we were waiting on our waiter for more than 5 and 10 minutes at a time, I refrained from leaving a negative review because I thought maybe they were just having an off day. Today, not only was the service incredibly slow, we each ordered drinks, apps, mains, desserts but before we could even finish our dessert, we overheard the staff right next to our table talking about us in Spanish that they were going to start to remove salt shakers and things from our table “so that we would leave.” I guess they didn’t realize that we all speak Spanish and heard them loud and clear, since they weren’t even talking quietly to themselves. We were honestly just a little bit shocked at how brazenly and quickly they were trying to force us out, even though we had spent so much money and we weren’t even lounging about. Why did you let us order dessert if you wanted to us to leave soon. We were enjoying each other’s company and buying drinks all the while. I guess they should’ve let us know that there was a time limit per table. Even more confusing was that there were many empty tables throughout the restaurant. If our waitress was checking out and needed us to pay our bill, they could’ve just let us know that rather than rudely, talking about us behind our back, and then very rudely reaching over and in between each of us to take items, so as to encourage us to leave. I guess once we ordered dessert, they didnt stand to get any more money out of us, so then they needed to rush us out. Some of the food is delicious, most of it is mediocre, and a couple of things were not good, … but that’s the case at almost any restaurant. What makes this place not worth the money is how slow and simultaneously arrogant and rude the service can be. I do not say that lightly and I can’t even think of another restaurant in memory where I had been...

We were there for Father's day dinner. I thought I made a reservation for 6 people but it was only for 5 and they were very accommodating to set up an extra place setting. The table was still spacious enough for 6 grown adults. We just ordered one bottle of wine, Alpha Omega red blend ($64). Yelp offered a free appetizer (fried calamari or bruscetta) when you check in. We opt for the calamari and ordered Fradaivola pizza to share. The calamari was perfectly crisp and not greasy. The marinara was delicious! The pizza had a spicy kick to it. It had Italian sausage, mushroom, red onion, bell pepper, and a chili oil/sauce. The crust is super thin and crunchy. The sauce and toppings did not make the crust soggy at all! Order #1 was the linguine mare chiaro (seafood linguine in tomato sauce). Lots of seafood (shrimp, scallop, clans, mussels) and the parts was al dente. Order #2 was the daily special of buridda, an Italian fish stew (similar to a cioppino but without the fennel. The soup was filled with fish, scallop, shrimp, mussel and clam topped with a grilled crusty country bread. Order #3 was the ravioli alla lucana. Filling if Italian sausage and ricotta topped with a spicy tomato sauce. Order #4 was the bacon wrapped veal with ground veal and pine nuts. It came with side of peas and sliced potatoes. The veal was moist and tender but the dish as a whole was heavy. Last order was the pecorino crusted black cod over potato and olives. Out of all the dishes I liked this one the least. The fish was really greasy and served into a bowl shaped dish where the oil from the fish collected at the bottom. Unfortunately the fish was under seasoned. The potato absorbed some of the oil which made it really heavy. I thinking the plating choice needed improving. This was the only thing we didn't enjoy and didn't finish. However, the table over had ordered the grilled chicken and the salmon and both of those dishes...

The shellfish ravioli (TURTEI D'ARAGOSTA) here literally put me in the hospital.

I dined at this location with two others on Saturday, June 21 and had the lobster, shrimp, and scallop ravioli. I didn't feel great after eating, but chalked it up to the richness of the dish.

Several hours later, I became violently ill. Debilitating food poisoning continued for the next 5 days, until I passed out and was taken to the emergency room, where I was diagnosed with dehydration and severe food poisoning and given anti-nausea medication and pumped with 2 litres of IV fluids before being discharged.

My mother, who I dined with that night, called this Il Fornaio and spoke to a manager named Joseph the day after we ate. He apologized and said they would take the Turtei d'Aragosta off the menu immediately, and said to call back if we wanted to file a formal complaint.

The day after my trip to the ER, I called and spoke to the general manager, Chelsea, who claimed they never received the previous report about this. She then tried to argue with me about what caused the food poisoning, asking what else I ate that day (freezer waffles and popcorn from a freshly opened bag), saying that it couldn't be from the ravioli because food poisoning doesn't show up for 24 to 48 hours, and mine started 9 hours later. (For the record, food poisoning can start almost immediately if the toxin load is high.) She said that they've sold a lot of the shellfish ravioli dish and had no other complaints (a quick search of Yelp reviews will show that this is false). She also noted that they have strict quality control measures in place, yada yada yada.

Despite doing her best to deflect any responsibility, Chelsea did finally agree to comp the bill for the meal, so 1 star for that. (Still, I'm sure the total is a fraction of the bill we'll get for my ER visit.) Suffice to say, we will not be dining at Il...