Acqua e Farina — Restaurant in Hayward

My step-mom selected this restaurant for hey birthday dinner. In attendance was my step-mom, dad, wife, and myself. The restaurant is average-sized, and (from what I was able to tell) has three dining rooms. Upon entry, you walk through the first dining room, which is also the bar. Upon arriving at the back of the first room, you find another dining room to your right (slightly longer than the first...it appears they took over the retail space next door, and converted it into a dining room), a third dining room behind the first, and the kitchen to your left. The ceiling lighting in the second dining room is color-coordinated to the Italian flag (green, white, red).

The food is spectacular...honestly, among the best my family has had. From the appetizer (calamari), to our entrees, to our desserts, everything was outstanding. The calamari was like, very tender, not oily in the least...just perfect. Instead of covering each entree (all 4 were different), I'll just suffice it to say we were all extremely pleased...portion size was more than adequate, while quality & temperatures were about as perfect as they could get. Desserts were all excellent...my step-mom's creme brulee was one of the best any of us (ok, my wife didn't sample it, but everyone else did) had ever had.

The only "down side"...and, the reason I gave only a 4-star rating...was the service. While it wasn't 'bad', it certainly wasn't great. Even saying it was 'good' would be an overstatement. The waitress wasn't exactly what I'd call "attentive"...the gal refilling waters, coffee, etc, was FAR more attentive than our server. Even though this was on a Saturday night, our reservation was early enough that it wasn't overly busy. I'd estimate her section was no more than 75% filled. The only items arriving in a timely manner were the desserts. I will state that we never felt rushed...but, when you wait 10-15 minutes for your soups & salads to arrive after your appetizer plates are taken away (which was at least 5 minutes after we actually finished the calamari), that's a bit long. Having worked in restaurants, i know this is unacceptable.

Honestly, I'd have no problem returning. The food is fantastic, and the ambiance is quite nice (almost forgot to mention, it's fairly quiet). I just hope that, upon returning, we have a different (ie....

This restaurant is a hole in the hall of hayward where you can get delicious home made Italian food! The house bread you can get plain white bread or this amazing focaccia bread! Olive oil is already on the table & balsamic provided on request, its great!

-House bread (Focaccia) 5/5 Amazing but they only serve it while they got it. If it's late and they ran out you'll just get the plain bread.

-Calamari 3/5 It's good but nothing special. It tastes like every other calamari I've tried. It's served with a cocktail sauce and a delicious chipotle sauce, I liked the chipotle sauce over the calamari.

-Lasagna 3/5 I'm not a huge fan or lasagna but my boyfriend absolutely loves the lasagna. He claims you can really taste the amazing wine sauce inside.

-Gnocchi 4/5 It's made fresh & huge! They melt in your mouth with every bite. The original red sauce is good but for a 5/5 get the vodka cream sauce instead! Amazing! The only down fall is after a few bites it can get tiring.

My favorite! I request for this every time (Not on the menu) -Fettuccine with mushroom & sausage with the cream vodka sauce! 10/5!!! Another yelper requested it on yelp & it sounded really appealing and I was blown away! It was amazing. The sauce is extremely creamy & the sausage is sliced thinly so every bite is perfect & not overpowering. Every person in my party took a bite and said it was the best!

-Creme brûlée 4/5 It's good but nothing special.

Overall, I gave this place 5 stars for their vodka Cream sauce. Also because if you see any photos on their yelp page you wanna try & it's not on the menu you can request it & if they have all the ingredients they'll make it for you....

Came here on a Saturday around 4:30 with my boyfriend, hoping to beat the dinner crowd, which we did, but we are now wondering if a shift change might have negatively impacted our experience. Nevertheless, service was attentive. Food was sadly mediocre. Bread basket was dry or old. Bruschetta was dreadful with dry bread that tasted like it was leftover stale complementary table bread, and tomato mixture on top had no flavor nor olive oil. Did not even want to eat it, and at $9, I expected a larger amount. Spinach salad was a real joke, barely enough for even one, and it only had 5 pinenuts, a few pancetta bits, and we could not even taste the brandy wine dressing. Pasta with clams was underwhelming, but never had this dish before anywhere else, so nothing really to compare it to, but I would not eat it here again based solely on this experience. Salmon was tasty, but again, it was way overpriced for what you actually get, and it was a bit overcooked; side veggies with fish were also underwhelming. Dessert was okay. Space is very large, pleasantly decorated, clean and not busy and did not feel overly crowded even during the rush times, which is so much appreciated in a pandemic or even post-pandemic world. Loud-ish after 5, but I did not mind that night. Pretty sure we won't be back for the food here, but we wanted to give a shout out to the servers, who all seemed very good, including ours, who got all the other details right and both were very courteous. Sad to say this, but Olive Garden would have been a better choice for the food given what we ate last night at Acqua e Farina....