Il Fornaio — Restaurant in Roseville

When i first heard about this restaurant i had no expectations whatsoever, not a single idea about the atmosphere, service or even food. The only thing i did know for certain, was that it was located in the galleria mall so it was safe for me to assume that it wasn’t going to be the greatest dining experience of all time. Though i was pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere itself when we walked in leading me to believe that the food and service would not disappoint but unfortunately i was wronged. Everything was going well at first, we were quickly seated as it wasn’t tooo busy and got a chance to look over the menu. We ordered our appetizers and food and it was safe to say that everything was “so far so good” and i had no doubts as to how the waiter could possibly do us dirty. Our appetizers were delicious and we ate every bite leaving our knives and forks on the plates in front of us but what happened next still sends shivers down my spine nearly 24 hours later. Our waiter comes around and takes our plates along with our silverware which puzzled me and my party. I tried to take the fork off the plate or atleast whatever i could salvage from this wreck yet the waiter assured me that they would bring more silverware to us. I felt a wave of relief wash over me yet it didn’t last long. Not soon after they came out with our (hot) food (as it was plated a couple minutes prior) and asked if we would like some cheese. Keep in mind we still had no forks or knives so we are unable to try any of our food without looking like complete savages. A couple minutes goes by as our server first come to us with cheese ready to grate then decided that it was almost at its breaking point and ran off to get another. A few more minutes go by and they return with cheese ready to be grated. The grating goes well and the waiter begins to walk off stating that they will get us some more lemonade. If we had not abruptly stopped them reminding them of the silverware they had promised to provide us after taking away the previous ones we would have sat there not being able to touch our food for another 15 minutes. Once our forks were given i tried a bite of my food and to no one’s surprise it was cold. A mound of pasta had gone cold, i was disappointed to say the least but the pasta itself was decent and it would have been more than decent if it were warm. The ravioli wasn’t the best with a strange after taste and texture, the margarita pizza being the only thing that made up for all our waiting as it was the only item that can be possibly eaten, cold. Once we were practically done eating our waiter decided to make an appearance with our lemonades in hand, that we were unfortunately unable to finish because we were ready to leave. leaving me and the rest of my party disappointed mind you this was not a busy day there were plenty of staff around and not many tables occupied so our waiter was fully capable of bringing our much needed silverware out to us preventing any...

This was my first time eating here. We took my father for his 80th birthday. To start, this restaurant is enormous - it's the perfect place for large groups of people (we were a group of 10). The atmosphere is lovely but not stuffy, the staff were excellent and attentive, and, overall, the food was amazing. To start, the fresh bread with olive oil and balsamic is wonderful. We ordered calamari and some salads. The calamari was the tenderest I think I've ever had and the light breading was perfect. The pear+gorgonzola salad was divine. I ordered the linguine mare chiaro. The sauce was amazing and the seafood was even better. Tender and delicious scallops, plump shrimp, and excellent mussels and clams. I'm getting that dish again (and again and again). It was very large so I took half of it home. The only disappointment was the rigatoni alla vodka. It's extremely bland and has far too much cream. We ended up asking for some marinara sauce on the side and mixed the extra red sauce into the alla vodka sauce - bam! It was the much-needed missing ingredient in that sauce. We added some red pepper flakes into it as well and had a rigatoni alla vodka arrabiata 😁. If anyone decides to try that dish, know that on its own it is overly creamy and bland for a vodka sauce - so be prepared to doctor it. Oh and their tiramisu is phenomenal - finally a place that understands we want to taste the coffee and wine/liquor not sugar, in our tiramisu. My father, who is not a sweet eater, nearly ate the whole thing himself. Even with the disappointment of the vodka sauce, everything else was so wonderful that I'm not reducing the stars. This is a restaurant I will be very happy to...

First off, let me say that the one very bright spot about this restaurant is the outstanding staff. From the moment we walked in to the time we left they were the best. The maître d' was very pleasant, professional and took the time with us as out of towners to seat us, explain things and even chat a bit. He also authorized a free dessert at the end of our meal that was absolutely delish. Our waitress, Emily, was just outstanding. We wanted to chill before ordering and have a couple cocktails and she managed that whole time very well, always checking back to see when we were ready to order. Water glasses never go empty and dirty dishes never sit in front of you because they have bus boys that handle those chores. and are always on the spot. The menu is not inexpensive and has a nice variety although not much in the way of beef for you carnivores. There are a couple beef items on them menu but one was not available when we were there. Cocktails were excellent. We started with the CALAMARETTI FRITTI and it was quite tasty. My wife had the INSALATA DI PERE which she very much enjoyed and I ordered the POLLO AI FUNGHI, a spin on chicken marsala. The only issue with the dish was that the sauce was quite greasy/heavy in my honest opinion and it detracted from the overall finish because after awhile it was hard to keep going. It was tasty but eventually it weighed on you. The Tiramisu which came as a surprise was out of this world. Take my review on my dish with a grain of salt as I am quite the food snob. I would go back and maybe try another...