Poggio Trattoria — Restaurant in Sausalito

I did a lot of research before coming to this place and checked the menu ahead of time to make sure they had something my husband would like, and I saw they had steak that looked great. We had dinner reservations for Sunday night at 7 and they were out of steak, which was a big disappointment. He ordered the pork chop since he felt pressured to choose something else on a whim (and this is no simple menu) and he did not like that at all. It was raw in the middle and he Gave up on it halfway through.

Our server was constantly by our table, but never checked on us unless we managed to flag her down. We would have loved to order dessert, but just felt the service was too unpredictable to do so. Like maybe we will have to wait 10 min to order it, and then 10 more minutes for it to arrive, and we were just ready to go.

I had purchased a gift card before hand since we were traveling from out of town, and apparently these must be used at the hostess stand. This is just a really flawed system our server did not even understand, so we had to leave our table when SHE was ready (I just had to grab all my stuff real quick and go to the host stand, not having a chance to put my coat on or anything) and then wait an additional 5-10 min for the server to find the manager just so I could tip her on top of the gift card for such mediocre service. We also could barely hear anything she was saying because of her extraordinarily thick mask which was not even more protective than a simple disposable mask, so we had to ask her to repeat half of what she said, and she had to get closer to our faces to repeat what she said which kind of defeats the entire purpose?

The best thing I think we ate was the artisan bread and organic butter, which is plain bread and butter- and you have to pay extra for it. At this super fancy Italian restaurant, they make you pay for bread.

The food was pretty decent as far as what I ate, but not worth the price tag or the frustration.

The hostess was great though. She asked how our night was and we just lied, because we didn’t want to upset her. But it wasn’t! It sucked. But the hostess would probably make a...

Poggio said they were making a new start when they brought back Peter McNee. Well, based on our experience tonight, McNee delivers on his part of the bargain and the restaurant decor is quite nice, but unfortunately the management thinks they are operating a cafeteria. I risked booking our 16th wedding anniversary dinner on their representations of a new start. We got off to a bad start when we were seated between the main restaurant serving station and a secondary serving station in what was clearly the "not so important customer seats." But despite the unfortunate seating, we were focused on having a good time and were doing so until virtually the entire wait staff of the restaurant sat down at the round table next to us, while we were commencing our desert, and stacked up piles of napkins and starting folding them - and another person started counting money from the cash register! ! I couldn't believe that I was in a restaurant purporting to strive to be one of the better restaurants in the Bay area. I felt like I was in a road side diner in Amarillo, Texas (apologies to road side diners in Amarillo). It completely ruined our evening. It was obvious that Poggio hasn't changed its culture and it's still just an easy downtown Sausalito food trough. Unfortunately, Poggio cannot be regarded as a serious Bay area restaurant. Peter McNee can do better than be part of this.

I did not leave a gratuity under these circumstances, because it only rewards the restaurant for egregious management practices. However, our waitress deserved better because the bad management is not her fault. So if Poggio had any sense of responsibility it should take part of our tab and pay it to the waitress. So my advice is: if you happen to be in Sausalito and want good food and you have low expectations on the ambience, then Poggio will suffice. If you are looking for a restaurant that provides the type of overall top level dining experience one expects in the Bay area,...

We had Poggio provide the food and drinks for our wedding next door, at Casa Madrona, and were extremely happy we did. They provided beer, wine, soft drinks, and hors d'oeuvres during cocktail hour, then a full family-style dinner during our reception, plus continued drinks into the evening, and service of a cake we purchased elsewhere. They also provided all of the tables, chairs, tablecloths, centerpieces, etc. This was all for about fifty people.

The planning process was easy; we worked with Suzanne who was very communicative and struck a good balance between making recommendations based on her experience while also letting us pick what we wanted. She facilitated a tasting for us ahead of time at no extra cost, which was a great opportunity also to just sit down and talk through every last detail of the plan.

Then of course the food was delicious. I think Poggio does a great job of balancing some classic dishes that are classics for a reason, with some other more creative dishes that are a bit more their own, but still with wide enough appeal for an event like a wedding. The fragola salad, the salmon with lentils, asparagus and oranges, the mashed potatoes, and the spinach gnudi were particular standouts for me personally. But for every other dish I probably heard at least one compliment for some guest.

And I definitely want to thank all of the staff - waiters, bartenders, anyone else - who did a fantastic job the whole night. Everything was served exactly on time, glasses were kept full, and they even helped us box up way too much leftover wedding cake so that we had several days worth of dessert to look forward to after...