Il Fornaio — Restaurant in Sacramento

Disappointed is not even close to how I felt last Friday night! Embarrassed, mad, upset; pick any negative adjective you like!

It was my boyfriend's birthday and this was the first year we are celebrating his birthday together. I planned his party and made a reservation way in advance. I honestly think the reviews have been fluffed up by friends/family of the owners or are pre-Covid because I can't believe a restaurant with such a good rating would deliver such a horrible experience! I was nervous about the birthday party going well so I called to confirm the reservation twice in the week prior to the day. It was a surprise party and I wanted to make sure they would be able to accommodate us even though we were only a party of four. It was a special occasion and their reviews led me to believe they would be a great place to celebrate in!

They seated us at a small table by the patio seating where the servers walked back and forth from the kitchen. The door was kept open. It was cold and breezy at the table. Now I can understand placing people at that table when busy, as every table would be in use however, that was not the case that night. There were at least 10 other tables open at the time and no one else was seated close to us. We very much felt like we were put in the back corner like undesirables. At one point a server hit my boyfriend’s foot with the food cart he was pushing. The server was in a rush and because we were seated so close to their walkway to the kitchen, he stumbled into my boyfriend’s foot. Barely an apology before he was back on his way. We felt completely in the way.

We ordered some non alcoholic drinks and pizzas to start and asked for water as we waited. Most Italian restaurants offer bread but there was no mention of it to us. We only noticed when bread was brought out to another table as soon as they sat down. The water we received was practically all ice and when we asked for a refill, the server put more ice and barely any water in our cups. It was very frustrating because we felt we were being ignored and the server did not appear to be helping any other table. Was she serving only us or did she have a whole section in the other side of the restaurant that kept her busy?! If so, why give her one table away from her section?!

Our four pizzas arrived after 45 minutes and they were all cold! The pizzas with meat had pools of grease on them like you see when pizzas are placed under a heat lamp “to keep them warm.” Except they weren’t warm. My friend tried the pizza she ordered (Fradiavola) and it had a spicy sauce on it that overpowered everything else on the pizza and effectively ruined it. This was not what you’d expect from an Italian restaurant! We asked to speak with the manager and he seemed to be deliberately obtuse. He offered to have the pizzas remade but given the service we had received, we had no inclination to wait another 45 minutes for what we feared would be the same thing all over again. He offered us nothing else for the inconvenience.

The evening was ruined by the long wait and poor service. We didn’t even stick around for the main course. We were ignored and marginalized and the nice birthday surprise was ruined. We left to go to a sports bar nearby and had a much better experience! Il Forniao is generally seen as a nice fancy restaurant and yet what we experienced is in no way up to...

On 10/04, I came in person to view options for my wedding dinner party of 7. I met with events coordinator, Beverly Chipman and she personally showed me options. We agreed to garden room, table set up with cloth, closed off entry to other side. Fast forward, I call and agree, Card is ran, we book, and are set to go. Red flags I should have taken into consideration was her lack to follow through, not once but twice to send the email she talked on the phone about that would detail the reservation. I call her 2 days (10/19) before wedding to confirm menu options, decided on open menu due to small party. She reassured me everything was set to go. To our disappointment, when we all arrived day of the wedding 10/21, the staff had no clue of our reservation, in fact, the room we supposedly booked was not EVEN SET UP as they tried to seat us at a regular dining table. The host was very accommodating and reassured us that she would correct the mistake and Beverly’s lack of communication. They quickly set up the room after I showed her which one we had agreed to. Our waitress was incredibly nice, We had a pleasant evening as the manager became involved and service was overall very pleasant after we were seated. I do recommend the restaurant for dining. I do also recommend for management involvement in all communication as clearly their event coordinator is incompetent with her role or duties so this does not happen to your party the day of.

If your here for a smaller party for dinner, food is delicious. Drinks are great, would recommend for a night out or date night.

Update: Manager Walter has reached out 12/05. We discussed issues and also he mentioned that Beverly’s excuse was that she mixed up the time with the amount of people (again this employee not taking accountability). I explained to Walter that she had used that excuse on me when the Open Table app had sent me a reservation and she had out party of 4 at 7pm. That this discussion was made and corrected before the event and I have the open table reservation change on text to reflect that, also want to remind that we had also discussed wedding being at 12 and that we wanted to go right after to dinner at 4pm, that 7pm would have never made sense knowing the situation. Regardless, it’s now in the past, it worked out but just something to consider when running this location as an option for parties. Walter offered a gift card to be sent for the inconvenience. As a night out, I do plan to continue to come here on a...

Really delicious food! My husband and I went with our friends and their 3 year old.

So we ordered the calamari, which was the perfect texture and had great flavor with a housemate marinara. And we ordered 2 orders of the bread that comes with olive oil and vinegar (sad that it doesn't come complementary like most places). I ordered the seasonal dish which was the ravioli with butternut squash and the most delicious sauce! And my husband ordered the vodka pasta dish with bacon, which was tasty as well. Our friends ordered the gnocchi bolognese and a pizza with ham, artichoke and some other ingredients. (Our food came out surprisingly fast too!)

I was so hungry and excited to eat I forgot to take pictures of our other foods.

We also had dessert, our friends ordered the stuffed cannolis, but the shell was a little too hard for its size. It was REALLY crunchy. I think the shell needed to be just slightly thinner to make the cannoli perfect. The flavors were good and light and honestly the best part was the candied orange peel bites. My husband and I had the gelati trio. Which was chocolate gelato raspberry sorbet, and a vanilla bean Gelato. All three were delicious, but I slightly favored the raspberry sorbet more!

Highly recommended! Our totals spil in half was decent as well. The only downfall was they cleared our plates without asking if were were done (I was working on my ravioli sauce with the bread and I had to ask for my plate back because I was still scooping up the tasty sauce). They also took our calamari which had 3 pieces left, that we would have eaten, but they just cleared it without asking. A minor detail, but it makes a difference!

Also the staff was great with helping out with our friends 3 year old. Unfortunately the 3 year old wasn't feeling well and threw up, and the staff was quick to find us something for the little one to dispose of.

Recommend this place, but just make sure you have a reservation so you don't have to wait (it saves you and the...