Lococo's Cucina Rustica — Restaurant in Santa Rosa

We had a reservation and arrived even early. Unfortunately due to how busy they were combined with our table immediately in the front made it a bit of a ridiculous process. Due to the cold weather and strong wind, no one wanted to wait outside and preferred to cram themsevles inside congesting the entire entryway and area around the first tables. There is NO waiting area. There is no designated waiting area, no seats or bench, no clearing or space to stand aside, no outdoor heaters to allow waiting parties to wait outside. I strongly suggest they look into that! Because of this, we had to deal with parties talking loudly as they waiting for their table while literally (zero exaggeration) their backsides were in our faces and any jackets would smear across our glasses touching our glasses/tables. We tried laughing it off, you know?? It was so crazy and funny initially.....after the millionth table bump, purse or elbow bumping the back of my head or side of my face from the oblivious patrons yapping away it started to get reeeallly old and annoying. Finally after ordering, it took 45 minutes to get our food, so we had to just 'deal' with the entertainment for the evening. The waiting patrons would continue to open the door and stand in the entryway, keeping it open as they continued talking. The waiters were actually quick to call out and ask for the patron to please close the door immediately due to the cold and wind rushing in. Upon opening the door and holding it open, would bring in a blast of cold air to us all in the front tables and the wind would make stuff on the tables fly or flap around. 😖 We did ask politely if we could be moved, we were a parry of 4, but super unfortunately they couldn't accommodate. I ordered the chicken picatta, which was very tasty. The sides were soft baked potato pieces and some steamed dark green veggie. Both sides were good but it felt like the combination was off. I seriously think if they had just thrown in plain boiled noodles, it would have paired better than those two sides with the chicken. Everyone else LOVED their meals, the amount of food we were served was great, and the staff were all truly AMAZING. We had an attentive, knowledgeable, awesome waiter! I would just highly recommend to make a reservation beforehand, inquire about the dinner rush and plan accordingly!!! Do all yoy can and try to get a table anywhere except the very front especially if it's busy, cold, or both! I'll be giving them another shot now that I...

Once again as a reminder I fly professionally as a corporate pilot.

So blessed is one of the best descriptions.

I have had Italian food from coast-to-coast and I have posted about some other very good Italian restaurants Chicago, Las Vegas, etc.

LoCocos, here in Santa Rosa, it is by far one of the best!!!

First of all, I had lasagna which was flawless. Much of the time lasagna served with way too much ricotta cheese, or the noodles are possibly burnt on the edges or not all the way done. And sometimes the sauce is not all that great.

The chef here nailed it! Not one thing wrong at all. Not only that but it wasn't until I was nearly finished that it dawned on me that the spices were a perfect mix! Yet you could sense on the pallet the different spices in the dish. Which was fairly amazing to me.

Secondly the wait staff was awesome! I was going to put forth our waitress that we had who was absolutely perfect in her service, her suggestions, and her knowledge of the menu was top notch.

But she has a boyfriend she said so I'll probably leave it like that! Haha!

That said, you need to ask for Jonnie the waiter! He told me that the lasagna served there was the best FROZEN Costco Kirkland served anywhere!

😂😂

Well that was one of the best comments I've had from a waiter in a very long time! This guy was hilarious and sharp as well.

I had a wonderful visit with the manager Luca, who is from Italy himself!! So he knows his way around Italian food!

If that's not enough to help you decide to dine here, you may want to know that this is a fairly popular haunt by iron chefs of Food Network fame.

I laughed even harder at Jonnie' "Costco Comment" because if one has watched Restaurant Impossible, with iron chef Robert Irvine, one would know right off the bat that you never ever ever serve anything that was frozen to begin with! Ever!

Well? As I understand it, and I saw the pictures to prove it, from Luca, that iron chef Irvine had dinner two nights in a row at this restaurant!! That is impressive to say the least!

If that's not enough Guy Fieri, has been to this restaurant on multiple occasions!

You're still reading this? And you are not on your way over there? Seriously?

You will need reservations and it is way worth the wait. My copilot and I actually sat at the bar. Which bypassed the reservations as we were short on time.

So go there and please tell them Mark the Pilot sent ya! Both Waiter Jonnie, and Manager Luca will get a kick out of it and...

Summary: Friendly service, high quality, good sized portions. Very loud and chaotic, but inviting (like an Italian kitchen). Prices are a bit on the high side and we were somewhat neglected by our servers after our food was served, but it was still a solid Italian experience. Street parking only. Reservations advised (the place gets crowded).

I went here with my wife and her parents after another day of wine tasting. We found it via Yelp (as usual). After we found some parking along the street, we checked in (fortunately we had made reservations because the restaurant was full), and were soon seated. Our server was an older Italian gentleman with a thick accent. He went over the specials with us and then took our drink order. After he departed we started looking around the restaurant and observing other tables. Everyone was super loud, servers were hugging diners and vice versa, Happy Birthday was being sung, etc. It was dark, festive, and red.

Eventually our server made his way back and took our food orders. Two of us got the linguine with shrimp in a spicy tomato sauce, one got the shrimp in a lemon cream sauce, and one just got plain linguini with tomato sauce. All dishes had perfectly al dente pasta. Firm, not hard, and not over-cooked. The shrimp were big and delicious. Perfect texturally, but few in number. We had to flag down a passing server to get some more bread and some crushed red pepper since ours was gone for a while and didn't deliver our food initially.

Ultimately, the food was all very good, the service was friendly whenever they checked in on us, but $18 for a pasta dish with 5 or 6 shrimp is a bit on the high side. Despite, we would consider coming back again if we wanted Italian when next...