Trattoria Uliveto — Restaurant in California

In this crazy world we live in, it is such a blessing to have a restaurant, in your own city, that truly exemplifies what a dining experience should be like.

The entrance should be landscaped and well groomed. There’s nothing more annoying than walking up to a place of business and they have dead flowers or uncut grass, or trash laying around. It’s a dead giveaway as to how they keep the inside of the building.

It should be clean, and this is a huge factor when it comes to anything that serves food or that you rest your head on. I want to feel comfortable knowing I can sit down, and enjoy myself without having to wonder if they’ve correctly sanitized the area.

The staff should be welcoming, but not overly nice where they come across as being fake, and you know they’re just using their customer service voice. Which is better than being rude, but I want someone who is genuinely interested in how we’re actually doing, and how they can make our dining experience better. When we get a server like this, we tip nicely, we know the food and restaurant business and we know how hard it is.

The atmosphere should be alive! Return customers usually come back with more excitement to try different specials, and you can feel that energy in the air. Paired with the great waiting staff, it’s what draws people back over and over again.

Of course, last but not least, the food. I’m not a food critic, and I’ll never claim to be, but the food has to be memorable. Memorable in a good way that is. A bad dish can also be memorable, as my stomach turns thinking back on a few bad decision orders, from not so great restaurants.

Tonight’s experience was one to remember. The chairs and tables have moved outside under a tarp in a well built area, with heaters spread evenly around.

Jennifer, our waitress, was so sweet and genuine. What I also loved seeing were the bus boys working together as a team, to me it reflects well back onto the management team.

Even though we were outside, I kept looking at the table looking for something to nit pick, even the forks and the glasses, but I couldn’t find anything! Either they know I’m the one who goes and writes these long reviews, where I go on and on about my expectations and how disappointed I was about cleanliness, or they just run a well managed restaurant that deserves my 5 stars.

Before I forget, the food was so yummy! I ordered a salmon dish with potatoes, that had this crispy skin but soft texture inside. The zucchini and carrots and were spot on, they weren’t over cooked where they taste more slimy or mushy than having an actual texture. The salmon had this amazing crunch to the top of it, I just wanted to get a bite with everything in it, but my fork just couldn’t handle the work load! Oh yeah! The capers were the perfect addition to salmon, like sprinkles to cupcakes. Oh and probably one of my favorite, ever, was the artichoke hearts, that’s all that needs to be said. There were so many different elements to this dish and I loved it! We also got an appetizer, it almost tasted like a focaccia bread with mozzarella stuffed inside and what had to be a whole fresh cut tomato with herbs in the middle, that was gone real quick.

I hope this restaurant continues to grow with Old Orcutt, because we really need more like them. Every experience that I wrote about, and expect, was well exceeded. If the owner is reading...

Granddaughter came home from College on break. Family dinner!🥰 Food was great, brucheta is much more like pizza as opposed to bread , typical brucheta. Different, not typical, good. We were at a table for six to the right of the entry door. 6pm was hard on one granddaughter who had the sun coming from some obscure roof skylight? Poor kid had to move right to left for the better part of the first hour, dodging the sun blaring in her eyes, quite distracting. Maybe someone could look into that. Hard to relax & enjoy when one of your party is unable to enjoy. Not trying to be mean by any means, just an FYI, for management. As a family we literally had to move the whole table trying to get her out of the glaring in her eyes. No, sunglasses are going to shield that 😎. Thank you, please be aware. Finally we had a wonderful evening. Everything else was wonderful! Food is really amazing! The online menu has changed from previous online versions. So, if you have favorites, maybe call ahead. I would have liked a soup. No soup. Chiopino(sp?) a sea food soup, essentially was the only soup option. Sometimes they do soup options, as specials, just not at this time. I would definitely go back, just request a different seating position & possibly call for what may be listed online, that may not be on the menu in actuality. A Lobster bisque is what we would have loved, however, not available. Maybe update website menu. Still fabulous top notch Food. Rissoto with Bolenese was so good, not typical!...

We were a group of six celebrating a birthday yesterday, Sept 19. Some time had passed after having finished the first serving of bread and eventually we were asked if we would like some more. At first we said no, then changed our minds and flagged down the server. What happened next, or what didn't happen, was a sign of things to come. The bread was delivered, and even though it was obvious everybody's oil dip was gone, it was not replenished. Nor was an offer made. This is somthing I would expect from a lower class eatery. Not from a place purporting to be of a higher class. Everybody ordered. Took about 45 minutes for the food to arrive. I had the Linguini Volgado. Clams in a white wine sauce. Was informed they had no clams. When asked if they could substitute mussels, they said no problem. The mussels were dry and cool, as if they were cooked ahead of time and reheated. The white wine sauce, which was excellent, was hard to find under the piping hot linguini. It was as if the linguini was the star of the meal. I asked for some more sauce, which i much appreciated. Even though it didnt help the mussels any, I had something to dip my bread in. They appeared to think a serving of Tiramisu would make everything fine. Mom's pizza was soggy and the birthday lady's chicken was completely overpowered by sage. One star and a five dollar tip on a $200+ dining experience is only because of...