Il Fornaio

It has more than one location, so that sorta technically make it a chain, no? Well, for a chain, the menu’s quite impressive. Particularly their set menu (they call it a tasting menu for some reason — it’s not), which offers some of the best items for a mind-​bogglingly low price. So let’s start from the top. We were promptly seated, no waiting when we arrived around 5:30pm. Drinks came quickly but the water took a while. I ordered a negroni, which was easily the poorest part of my meal: watered down, it had cherries, lemon and lime in it when all it needed was a slice of orange and equal parts gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth — it’s not that hard to make. We then got to the food itself. The apps showed up in reasonable time. Fried calamari, and some amazing soup. Then we had a pretty long wait for our main courses. My first course was a seafood-​filled cannelloni. The seafood was only mildly discernible but the cheese smothering the cannelloni had an interesting smoky flavor. For my second course, my server knowingly recommended the rack of lamb. My plate arrived with four generous ribs of lamb, wonderfully crusted and nicely rare. The ribs far exceeded my expectations, and that made the meal for me. The icing on the cake was when the manager came by to show a magic trick to my kids — nice hospitality. All in all, yeah, it’s a chain, but as chains go, it’ll do nicely. Especially if you’re coming from a long day of shopping on Rodeo.

Service was superb but food was on the salty side. Will definitely revisit but will take the necessary precautions. Bön APPÉTIT!

Totally ridiculous. I came I at 7 to put my name in and the very rude hostess said they don’t take reservations. So I assumed there was no wait. Come back at 7:15 to sit down and was told there is an hour wait and that they do take reservations. The hostesses were very rude. I’m a regular here and will not be coming back or recommending it anymore.

This had all the aspects a Thursday night date night spot needs. The different parts of the menu made sharing food very easy.
We were particularly pleased with the Christina pizza (prosciutto with truffle oil) Only a 20 dollar corkage fee.

Man it’s so disappointing when you just want some food Italian food and it’s just eh. The servers here were nice but the food is just eh. Plus side is that it’s big so you can get a seat and could bring a group or something for a meeting or bring family. It looks fancy but don’t be fooled this is a chain masquerading as fancy. By the way the «small» versions of the pastas are plenty.

Had a great dinner here for Restaurant Week! I ordered a flatbread to start, salmon and vegetables for the main entrée, and cannoli for dessert. The food had a beautiful presentation. Staff is extremely attentive, as we had multiple employees check on us and ask how we are doing, from the person who refreshed our drinks to the manager himself. They were kind enough to wrap up our food for us from each course, as we had very generous portions. The only reason I took off one star is because we walked in and saw several empty two seater tables, yet we were told we would have to wait to be seated because we didn’t make a reservation, and the only table available to us immediately was less than a foot away from another table, so we wouldn’t really be able to have private conversation. Fortunately we didn’t wait too long, but we thought it was a bit odd.

I came here for Dine LA for the first time and really enjoyed it!
One of the people in our party is a picky eater but this place was just right and rather accommodating!
Location: right on the heart of Beverly Hills in a prime location.
Ambiance: fairly intimate but bright (not your dim lot type place)
Service: our waiter was fantastic! He was the right amount of attentive which was greatly appreciated. He knew his wines (major plus!) and knew the menu very well (also a plus for a picky eater)
Food: I was really happy with our choices for dinner. The menu isn’t extensive (I really like that) but everything tasted fresh and hot. We ordered a bowl of thick pasta with garlic, basil, and tomato sauce (while it’s a simple dish the chef made it with a lot of flavor in the fight proportions), salmon with a side of vegetables and potatoes (highly recommended!), a house salad, and for dessert canolies and tiramisu (both major yum!)
I can’t wait to come back and am excited to see what else the chef has on the menu!

Decent Italian food at a slightly expensive price. I went with my parents. The service was excellent. We ordered Caesar Salad, Margarita Pizza, and Seafood pasta. All dishes were great but salty. The bread is delicious. The food is great and the portions are reasonable.

Good grub.
Crappy service.
What happened to this place?

I go there very often for the Esmeralda salad, which I love!!! I like the lunch menu better than the dinner menu. I went for dinner once hoping to eat my favorite dish (Esmeralda salad), but they don’t have it for dinner. Darned! I ate another salad and added shrimps, which was terrible. I like the pastas, very Italian, and the pizza is good too. Customer service is excellent and the ambience is more casual than other places in BH, which I prefer.

IL Fornaio — Frequently came here for lunch and had their Seafood Risotto or the Penne Arrabiata. Manuel always provides the best service when I am there, and always remembers me when I join them for lunch. They have the busiest in the area so make a reservation for lunch.

My friend had invited me to join her for dinner here one day in Santa Monica, so even though it’s a bit of a drive for me factoring in traffic, I was totally down.
Il Fornaio is located between Colorado and Broadway street across from the Santa Monica Pier. It faces the ocean, so naturally, you’ll get a great view depending on where you sit. I’ve eaten at the location in Manhattan Beach with good experiences, so I was definitely curious to try the one in Santa Monica.
We ordered the calamari appetizer to start with. When our server came, I ordered the cod fish serve with tomato chunk with olive and lemon sauce. I opted for sliced pan-​fried potatoes and steamed vegetables as my side orders. My friend ordered the grilled salmon fish with vegetables. I really enjoyed my food. Their dessert selection is also great! My personal favorite is their crème brûlée!
This is a good place to go if you wanted to try specialty Italian food. It’s been around for over 30 years now, originally from Italy and had opened many restaurants in the Southern California area since then.

We made a lunch reservation at Il Fornaio in Beverly Hills for and requested a table in the rear of the restaurant as it’s usually quieter and we wanted to hear each other. We were escorted to a table in the front. The manager stepped in, noticed diners had just freed up a table in the back room, had it cleaned immediately and had us seated quickly. From then on the experience went downhill rapidly.
Our waiter, who, per our check, was named Rino, was, perhaps, the most unpleasant waiter I have ever had serve my table. We opted for tap water, rather than bottled water, while looking at the menu and that seemed to set Rino off. He was not only a poor waiter, he was condescending and nasty. Rino’s comment was «Fantastic!» That was all he said to us at the top of his lungs during the rest of the meal service: «Fantastic!» We brought my 91 year old friend out for lunch and were so disappointed that her experience was so awful.
We ordered an appetizer, Rusticella, for the table. Then we each ordered an entrée. My husband ordered a pizza but Rino said the appetizer, was like a pizza so he changed to the lobster pasta special. The Rusticella did not arrive before the salad. My husband and I split the salad. Usually it is split in the kitchen or by the waiter but his time it was not, even though we told Rino we would be sharing it. We had to ask for an extra plate as none was offered. When the entrees arrived the appetizer still had not made an appearance. I asked and was told it would be there in three minutes. I told Rino we no longer wanted the appetizer as the entrees has already arrived. His response: «Fantastic!»
The lobster pasta special my husband ordered instead of the pizza he had wanted was a joke. It consisted of a small amount of spaghetti, pedestrian tomato sauce, 4 previously frozen medium shrimp and a tiny whole lobster. The lobster’s tail yielded two forkfuls of meat. It was pathetic. We don’t know how much the restaurant charged for this «special» as we were charged $ 29.95 for «salmone.» The «salmone» on the lunch menu is $ 19.95 so it’s unclear what we were charged for. We didn’t notice this until we got home as we wanted to pay quickly and leave.
We passed on dessert and coffee as we didn’t want to hear Rino yell «Fantastic!» at us too many more times. I paid the check and left a 10% tip, frankly more than the service was worth. We sat at the table talking a bit after I had settled the check when Rino came over and started fishing under the napkins on the table to retrieve the completed check. He just could not wait until we left.
$ 85.00 for three entrees and a beer, and an unpleasant dining experience like this is a travesty.

The food was good, flavorful and good portions but not amazing. But the reason for this review was for the excellent service. Our server was Larry and I must say his service was exceptional. It is rare you have a good meal and great service to accompany it, it was because of Larry that it made the experience at this location much more enjoyable. Everyone seated in his area shared the same feeling with his service.

For rodeo drive visitors, this is. Solid lunch choice
Large open kitchen with skylights over te chef and prep stationa, well worn wood plank fllora and white linen table cloths. You do feel like your no longer on thenhectic rodeo drive (except for maybe the stack of shoppig bags hittinf your chair from the table behind you
Dishes I would come back and order again:
Carpaccio
Freah bread
Tagliatelle alla bolognese
Pasta special requests were taken and filled with ease, dont be afraid to request something a little off the menu, the chefs are very adaptive

It’s pricey and food is okay… Just okay and doesn’t live up to the price. Servers had forgotten our order so we waited long and i still tipped very fairly.

Was staying in BH and decided to stop by for breakfast. I ordered the poached eggs with pesto, smoked salmon and goat cheese and the bf ordered eggs benedict. His turned out much better than mine, I wish I had taken a photo of mine but it was the strangest presentation of food I’ve ever seen.
The two poached eggs looking a little testicular (hey, it’s true) were in a little dish, there were two rolls of salmon (goat cheese wrapped in smoked salmon), a little dish of pesto and then the potatoes were basically french fried potatoes but browned on the flat top.
So I put everything together and it tasted just as strange as it looked plus very oily and rich.
Coffee was good and everything else was uneventful, just as breakfast should be.
Will I be back? I don’t think so…

I had one of the worst dining experiences of my life here. Horrible service and even worse food. I noticed they had Chicken Milanese on the menu but not Veal Milanese. I asked the waiter if it could be done and he said not problem. When it came out it was 95% breading and 5% veal. There was so much breading you literally couldn’t taste the veal. The waiter disappeared for a whole hour and left us with empty drinks. He finally comes back and asks how everything was and I explained how bad the veal was and he took the dish away that I literally ate two bites from.
The check comes and the veal was on there! I called him over and asked why he charged me for it and he said «because you never said anything.» Keep in mind he never checked in with us once and I even asked two waiters to grab him and both did not.
I will never return here again and will definitely stick to Dan Tana’s and il Pastaio. Never again!

Typically I go for lunch and buy one of their wrapped sandwiches and have them warm it up. The people behind the counter are always so nice and attentive and their hassle free service is one of the reasons I go there.
For breakfast try their Chocolate Croissant, and if you are lucky you will catch them out of the oven in which case you died and went to heaven.
In the dining room their wait staff is equally as attentive and courteous. They know the power lunch crowd frequents this place and they don’t have a lot of time. They are always on their game, and never leave you wanting for anything. There is always a server or a waiter attending to your needs.
Great service, great food, local, hassle free.
I’m there!

This is a review for DineLA lunch.
The best part of our lunch was the table bread and guys who brought it out. This was a one star review but the bread servers deserved better.
Hostess greeted us without a smile, asked if we had a reservation without a smile then took us to our table, you guessed it w/​o a smile. The table was fine enough, she split a four top into two two tops. She didn’t offer a DineLA menu so we had to ask the server if it was even taking place at this location. I don’t know if he was miffed that we asked or that our lovely hostess didn’t do her job. No problem we’ve got a nice olive foccacia and slices of Italian country bread to dip in olive oil and balsamic. There were 3 choices for appetizer of which we ordered bruchetta and caprese. Although the fresh mozaralla on the caprese was soft and delicious, there were four very small slices of heirloom tomato in red and yellow to go along with it. More like 4 quarter slices. That equals 1 slice of tomato or very small appetizer, meh.
The bruchetta although well put together with 3 decent size slices well topped, fresh and flavorful was cold, very cold, like fresh out of the fridge and not appetizing. More table bread at least.
There were 5 choices for entrees, a couple salads, acouple pastas and a italian burger. Oh wait, after ordering the burger they said they were out. Suspicious or down right pathetic. Maybe that hostess could have mentioned it through her frown. No problem, one chicken pasta, one angle hair will suffice. I ordered a glass of wine to share as well to complement the meal.
It took For Ever for the entrees to arrive, 25 minutes plus and still no glass of wine. Then they came out, expediter took a look at the table next to us that came in after us and already had their main dishes then bolted back to the kitchen. 5 minutes late the exacting staff at Il Fornaio deliver the pastas. Still no one, but the waiter finally remember and brought it out, one clean glass one dirty. I’m going to save you the time and descriptively blaz’e review on entrees. Cold chewy pasta shells and salty chicken. The angle hair was awright.
We had been wanting to come here for sometime while visiting BH regularly lately. «Ill 4» is always packed, but we won’t be back. Too many choices out there for this type of complete inconsistency and failure.

cuisine basique, service correct, salle trés bruyante