Sebastiani’s Italian Bistro

Best Italian Restaurant in HB! The wife and I eat here on every special occasion. We split Lasagna, empanadas and house salad. Perfect!

Had the best meal of any kind in years at this place! How lucky that it is across the street from me! Wow it was great.

Authentic Italian food. Finally. (I’m an Italian who can appreciate a good stuffed ravioli). I love the small dimly lit atmosphere. Makes it comfortable. Wine bar is pretty awesome too

Came here on a Friday night before a movie. The vibe is a romantic one with live music. We sat in the wine bar section. Tables are a tad bit small but definitely a cozy environment. The food was amazing. We had the linguini pesto with shrimp and a filet steak that was wrapped in bacon with pasta and marinara sauce… yumm. And the carrot soup… what can I say… it’s the chef’s specialty… and that’s sayin a lot because I don’t like cooked carrots… but this was delicioso! And now to the wine… we had a Chardonnay from Sonoma which exhibits aromas of limes, orange blossoms, peaches and toasted almonds with a bit of spice from the
barrels. Flavors of red apples, pears and cream follow.
The service was good. Overall a romantic place with delicious food. Would definitely recommend taking a significant other. It was an amazing night for me which ended with a kiss… that’s right… a kiss ;-)

Yummy. They can be a tad understafffed at times. A nice local restaurant!

I just happened to walk into that place without knowing what it was. I was pleasantly surprised. The employees were so friendly and approachable. Sunday night they have live music. Totally adds to the ambiance. I will be coming back!

Pablo is the perfectly gracious host who takes pride in the details of his craft! I haven’t found a transient dish on the menu. Be brave when you order here and experience something new… Osso bucco, spaghetti bolognese, rigatoni di Lauren, and the carpaccio are my favs… prego…

I find it very interesting that people that give this a one star and nasty review are one review people. Can you say fakers who are probably competitors that this restaurant is kicking your ass?

This place is a small business gem!
I have eaten here several times and I particularly loved the spinach raviolis, salmon dijon and osso bucco. DELICIOUS!!! Half of the restaurant is a wine-​bar style venue but they serve the full menu on both sides. There is live music (café/​easy listening when I’ve been there) on the weekends. They have a really good wine selection and it’s more affordable than other wine-​bars that I’ve been to in the area. It’s a great place to get a good dinner, a unique bottle of wine and enjoy live entertainment. I will continue to frequent this place.
On a side note, I noticed a review where someone complained about the bread. I have to say, the bread is free with dinner so I don’t know how you can complain lol.

My husband and I were very excited to try this place after all the great Unilocal reviews, but unfortunately our experience wasn’t worthy of a 4 or 5 star review. The place smelled very strongly of cleaning product. Not a whiff of garlic or onion or any type of food. Just a strong chemical smell. Usually this would make me turn away but I was so excited to try the food. It was a Monday night and there were about 5 parties seated and one waitress. She was very nice but service was slow. The bread was not great. Very dry and no flavor. Seemed like it had been frozen. The carpaccio was fine. My husband had the ravioli special which was supposed to have meat sauce but had just plain marinara. He said it was just ok, but was not served hot, lukewarm at best. I had the risotto special which was ok but didn’t taste fresh. Our impression was that nothing tasted fresh. The sight lines of the restaurant leave you looking at the plastic bins for dirty dishes and the small toaster oven that they heated up the old bread in. Overall, not terrible but definitely not a fine dining experience.

If your in Huntington Beach you need to go have dinner here
The food and wine is the best in the OC

Had dinner here last night. The food was amazing, the service was spot on, and even the prices were reasonable. This is a place I plan to return to ASAP.
Two of us had the Chicken Marsala, it’s served with vegetables and roasted potatoes. Another friend had the chef special, salmon which came with vegetables and a salad. She split the salad with me, awesome dressing. I will be sure to order that next visit. She said her dish was fantastic.
We split a bottle of wine and of course a dessert. The tirimisu was delicious but way too small to split three ways.
The restaurant was simple, quiet enough to have a conversation, and once again, excellent service. Thank you

How did I not find this place before???
Pros:
Great local Italian food! Runs circles around the other Italian places in the area.
Small, quiet, quaint!
Stuffed meatball appetizers were A-​MA-​ZING. They are a little spicy, but the food is ALL made from scratch! They will make things less or more spicy by request. Tried the fall butternut squash ravioli and was blown away. Perfect blend of savory and sweet.
Outstanding wine selection.
Friendly, helpful staff.
Live entertainment on the weekends.
Cons:
None that I saw.
Bottom Line: My new go to Italian place!

Fantastic salad, bread, spaghetti, chicken piccata and desert. Great service and friendly atmosphere. Good prices too!

Came in on a quiet Saturday evening for a calm dinner with two friends and wow! This is a cozy little neighborhood Italian restaurant tucked in a corner where you might overlook it, but make the effort to find it and you’ll be rewarded with incredibly good food!
There were three of us for dinner and we each tried all three of the individual selections we ordered. The lasagna was very, very good. The meatballs are a meal in themselves but with pasta and a fresh marinara, they were excellent! And the rolled and stuffed steak (cannot spell the proper name of the dish) was tender and so very well prepared.
We were welcomed and quickly settled at a table kept well supplied with oil and balsamic vinegar, and the staff kept us patient with a basket of focaccia that negated any wait time for our entrees.
Such a comfortable setting and friendly but not intrusive staff. I’ll be returning often!

We made a reservation for 10 in the wine bar.
Ambience (4 stars): great live music, the room was a bit dark for me, but it wasn’t terrible. It’s a small room, but it didn’t feel crowded. I love finding a place that has good food and live music.
Food (5 stars): the food was delicious. I was able to substitute gluten-​free noodles in the Rigatoni di Lauren, which was bursting with flavor. Everyone else enjoyed their orders too (lasagna, fettuccine with mushrooms).
Service (3 stars): requests were missed (forgot to bring more wine), slow to refill waters, and figuring out the check took forever. Granted, we should have asked her to spilt the check when we ordered, but it took about 30 minutes to get the bill sorted out. We weren’t in a hurry, so it wasn’t a huge deal, but something to keep in mind if you have a large group paying on separate checks.

First, and foremost the food at this local Italian restaurant was excellent! The wine tasted wonderful and the ambiance was nice and modern. Here’s the issue here. The service sucks!!! I experienced horrible service at this local establishment. Let me start with a short list:
1) Three different servers brought me my wine, appetizer, and food
2) The young blonde male server did not decide to take my table and I was simply ignored and left to the bus girl who gave me decent attention and was friendly.
3) The owner brought me my food and simply did not attend my needs. When I asked for the check, he decided to wait on 3 other tables, pouring wine, laughing with libation, and serving dipping sauces and bread.
4) No one should wait 25 minutes for the bill!
The result– A very low tip and a bad review! To anyone who is going to visit this local establishment, please be aware that you run the risk of having very slow and unprofessional service for a restaurant in Huntington Beach. The reality is… there are more than 5 other local Italian restaurants in the area, so therefore this restaurant will lose business.
Please, if anyone decides to visit this restaurant leave them a low tip, because they are not worthy of anything over 10 percent.
Beware…The servers seem to hand pick who they wish to serve and in this country could be seen as discrimination at it’s best! In better words, a violation of discrimination laws. Think twice before you visit Sebastiani’s Italian Bistro.

The food is a nice change up from the other Italian places on town. There is a chef special page that rotates, with an occasional smoked salmon that is delicious (smoked in house).
The owner is almost always there to great you and the staff is extremely nice and helpful.
The scene is a bit on the older side with a lot of locals frequenting.
There is a nice wine selection.
It’s a bit dark and the sun shines through the windows at dusk and can be quite annoying so try to come after dusk.

Came here because Ceppo was closed today. Here’s what I ordered:
1. Signature salad — nothing special
2. Calamari — did not enjoy. The calamari was not fresh and the breading lacked flavor
3. Minestrone soup — delicious! Burned my tongue eating it too fast
4. Rigatoni di Lauren — definitely recommend this. menu says spicy but it wasn’t that spicy. Packed with flavor, sausage, and bacon
Service was good although they seemed short staffed due to food coming out very slow

Thank you Unilocalers! I’m not one to dine in the OC but some times I got pay homage to the area and visit some life long friends. Well, I will admit this was not our first pick but, we weren’t going to wait 45 mins to dine with a toddler. So we Unilocaled the nearest Italian place with some great reviews and here we are…
AMBIANCE: 4 stars
Located in a strip mall inland Huntington beach and adjacent to a wine bar. The décor was simple, some what dated and the ambiance is good for dates, good for families and good for a small crowd. Quiet yet cozy and not for the hipsters.
FOOD: 5 stars
I didn’t know what to expect but my co pilot and I were both surprised by the quality of our meal.
SERVICE: 4 stars
Friendly, attentive, but the dishes came out really slow. I’m not sure if this is their regular speed or if there were being courteous because we were catching up and trying to feed my nephew. Other than that superb!
PRICE: 5 stars
For the quality if the food, and the service level — this place rocks! I’m not form the area but I believe my dining partner is a fan!
Overall, you can feel that this is a family run place and that the people who work here care about their patrons. On a Friday night, it wasn’t crowded or noisy and just a good place to grab dinner and catch up with an old friend and her little one. I would give this place 4.5 stars but ill round up bec it’s worth another visit.