Ippolito's Trattoria — Restaurant in California

We came here on Saturday (5/11/24) evening for an early Mother’s Day eve dinner outing. It’s our first time here however I am familiar with this location. It was previously String’s, another casual Italian restaurant.

We had reservations for 6 PM and had no issues getting it. In fact, we probably did not even need reservations, for when we arrived, there were plenty of open tables around.

The restaurant itself is located in Bradshaw Square which is just off highway 50 but not very visible so may not generate a lot of traffic.

Our server was pretty good. He was friendly and tentative to us, but not over bearing. After placing our orders, our food arrive within 15 minutes hot from the kitchen. Our orders for the evening included the Chicken Alfredo, Tuscan Chicken and Shrimp, Spaghetti Salsiccia, and Chicken Parmesan.

The dishes came out fine, however, the taste was underwhelming. It lacked flavor that I would expect in a well crafted Italian dish. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t spectacular either. Portion sizes are fair. In fact, all of us had leftovers to take home. But that could be from the complementary bread that they serve that we filled up on.

We also ordered a couple of glasses of wine that came out pretty good. Don’t remember the name of it but at a cost of $12-$14 each glass is on target for what I would expect.

Our total for the evening came out to be about $250 with tax and tip for five which is about $50 per person. This did not include dessert.

Here’s my overall impression:

Service 5/5. Food 3.5/5. Atmosphere 4/5. Value to price ratio 4/5. Overall experience a 4/5.

Ippolito’s Trattoria is marketed as a casual Italian restaurant. I would say it definitely fits this category. It’s not super fancy, but it’s not your fast food either.

There’s plenty of parking around; the restaurant itself is located in the area that isn’t super busy. The food is good, but not exceptional but you do get a sizable portion that will curb your hunger. The price point is acceptable given what you get. Service is great. Staff is friendly and hospitable.

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Atmosphere. This restaurant was a mix of an Italian restaurant with its half bar and its open concept. It was also a mix of a dinner/bar. They had a few TV's showing sports at the time. That is all good, but some employees were watching the TV most of my visit. The employees we also talked loudly but not yelling at the game happening, ruining the vibe of the Italian restaurant. It was more like a cheap Italian restaurant due to the number of tables present, also with the design of the place.

I would rate the Atmosphere 4 stars.

Service. The servers for this restaurant were nice and welcoming. Open seating, and waited for us to get settled down before asking us what we wanted, all very nice. But they didn't have any sort of item to write stuff on to take our order, but their memory. We asked about some dishes and if we could have more bread, we never got an answer nor our bread. Had some typos in their menus and on their google website for the restaurant. The servers were new and almost spilled soup on me.

I would rate the service 2 stars.

Food. It was me, my mother, and my grandparents out on a family dinner. We had calamari and minestrone soup for starters. The calamari sauce had too many red chile flakes inside it to handle. The soup was probably the best thing there. I had a plain pepperoni pizza, my mother had the Veal Piccata, my grandmother had the Artichoke Ravioli, and my grandfather had the Shrimp Scampi. My dish was too greasy to digest well it was also undercooked. So badly that it gave me food poising, they preasured me to finish my meal because it was, Hand made. My mother's Veal was overcooked, the potatoes tasted old, and the vegetables were undercooked. My grandmother Ravioli was overcooked with too much sauce. My grandfathers shrimp were just a little overcooked, and the pasta was undercooked and doughy. Dr. Pepper also tasted like pale ale.

I would rate the food 0 stars. The cook needs to be replaced or go to a cooking school.

Overall experience was a 1 star rating.

Would...

Friday, 1/06/2023 - Went to Ippolito's Trattoria restaurant for dinner tonight. This restaurant is located in a small plaza on Micron across from the Hobby store. Address is 9500 Micron Ave, Ste 128, Sacramento, CA 95827.

Upon arrival...

Pros

1. lots of parking!
2. restaurant looked very clean. Tables nicely set up. Tables, chairs, plates, cups, utensils were all clean.
3. our server Elijah, was super nice, attentive and had great customer service. He was soft spoken and checked on us several times to make sure we got everything we needed.
4. Elijah told us every food dish was made in the restaurant from scratch and the fishes dishes were wild caught. I forgot which fishes though.
5. we got the minestrone soup on the house. This soup was so good! They also serve bread rolls with the dip. Dip is red wine vinegar and oil. It was so good.
6. We ordered the Filet Mignon and Lobster Ravioli + added prawns. Food presentation was great. The sauce tasted good. Both plates were delicious! No complaints.
7. we met the cook. Maybe he was the owner. He came to welcome us and said hello. Where did my manners go!? I was enjoying the delicious meals so much, I totally forgot to introduce myself and asked him for his name.
8. we ordered strawberry gelato. This gelato was friggen good! It was creamy and even had slices of strawberries in it!
9. there's a beautiful mural at the back of the wall going towards the bathroom. Please don't touch it.
10. women's bathroom was so clean!

Cons

1. absolutely no cons!!!

Conclusion Oh my! I really liked this restaurant. Service and customer service were great!! The foods were nicely presented and soooo good. Glad they made everything in house and fishes are wild caught. Love that there's tons of parking spaces. Next time I will definitely try a different dish and try a different dessert. If you haven't tried this restaurant yet, please go try them. I highly recommend them!

Update: just saw today, 1/07/2023, they are now serving brunch too! Yay! Saturdays and Sundays...