Ca'Bianca — Restaurant in Santa Rosa

We were in Santa Rosa for a weekend trip and decided to try out this highly rated Italian restaurant. The restaurant was busy on a Friday evening, I definitely recommend reserving a table a day or two in advance!

The restaurant had such a beautiful ambiance, lots of elegant and somewhat private outdoor seating with beautifully tall rose bushes around the seating area. The decor makes it the perfect date spot.

The 2 of us ordered 2 appetizers and 2 main dishes:

1. Complementary bread and vinaigrette (10/10): the highlight here is definitely the balsamic vinegar which had a strong boozy / alcoholic taste. I’ve never had anything like this and thought it was fantastic!
2. Impepata (8/10): this is the clams & mussels in tomato sauce. This dish was wonderfully garlicky, we used the bread to soak up every last bit of the sauce. My only complaint is the insufficient amount of seafood in this given the price.
3. Parmigiana (10/10): this is the layers of eggplant with cheese and tomato sauce. The eggplant was perfectly cooked, and layered into a lasagna fashion. This was perfect.
4. Rigatoni (7/10): the rigatoni dish was quite standard. We enjoyed eating it except for the sausage bits which I thought would’ve been better if it was replaced with a different type of meat or even omitted from the dish.
5. Carre’ d’Agnello (3/10): I loved the presentation of this dish, however the taste was subpar. The lamb texture (medium-rare) was fine, but the flavor was really odd. The brown sauce was on the sweet side, while the lamb was heavily under-seasoned. We didn’t end up finishing half of the lamb; it was a huge disappointment especially given its price point.

Overall the ambiance of the restaurant was fantastic. We enjoyed most of the dishes except for the lamb. Service was quite slow but that could’ve been due to a large group hosting an event at the same time...

I’m very surprised that this place has such a high rating. We had a reservation at 445 and we had no idea where to go so we followed the signs and the. That led us to the courtyard. No one was there so we walk further and a server had to interrupt his customers to tell us where to go. Said wait at the stairs and a hostess will greet you. No one was there and no one came. We walk into the house and still no one was there and no one came. Then finally someone came and we get walked out to our seating. Garden was beautiful. Linens were wrinkled and not steamed. Tables were way too small, could barely fit out bread, tiny plates and glasses. Waiter was nice but the service got increasingly worse. For was decent but don’t order the salmon. It was not cooked well and it tasted very fishy. Salmon should not have a taste if it’s fresh. Then we got our second round of bread and you could tell that they had just microwaved it since it was super hot when it came and then a few minutes later you were breaking your teeth on it trying to chew it. Our waiter told us the specials and then left and didn’t return for a long time. Then he took our order and things came out in a fine order. Then he disappeared again. I had to ask for a refill on my drink 3 times before it actually happened. Soda was not good and barely had any carbonation. I’m not sure what this place is thinking but for a party of 3 and the bill being well over $200 I was expecting much more. I definitely won’t be returning here. Definitely a one and done, good thing they add a 2% back of house fee because the service was not good at all they have to make up the money some how. They probably know the staff aren’t good and they were...

I’m honestly surprised by the high ratings this place receives. As someone who has managed a restaurant, I have certain expectations — and unfortunately, this place fell short on several fronts.

My wife brought me here for my birthday dinner. We checked in with the hostess and were seated outside, where there were no heaters — unlike the deck section, which did have them. It was a chilly evening, and that already made things less comfortable.

Shortly after being seated, we were served a baguette — it was tasty, but oddly came without butter. Since our food was delayed, we asked for a couple more pieces. The second batch was so hard we couldn’t eat it. Our server noticed, apologized, and brought out more — but unfortunately, the next round was just as inedible, so we gave up on the bread altogether.

We were seated at 7:00 p.m. but didn’t receive our appetizer until 8:00 p.m. — a full hour later. We also ordered two cocktails: the house margarita and something called the “Smoky Babana.” Neither was enjoyable. My wife actually sent hers back and ordered a glass of wine instead.

Timing of the courses was completely off. We were supposed to get the gnocchi as a separate course before the filet mignon, but both came out at the same time. To make things worse, the $46 filet — ordered medium rare — came out medium. The cut was not impressive, and the overall quality of the meat was disappointing.

The only redeeming quality of the evening was the ambience. The atmosphere was lovely, and the space had potential. But food, service timing, and overall execution missed the mark for what should’ve been a special evening.

Unfortunately, I won’t...