Trattoria Laurellinos

I am also equally disappointed that this place has closed…
I was going to take someone here only to wonder if I am lost…
Like Linda L says it was a great place for delicious, unpretentious Italian food…
So sad!!!

I can’t believe it’s gone!!! This was by far, one of the best places to eat delicious, unpretentious Italian food. Another poster wished the owner a long vaca and a speedy return. I sure hope this comes to be. I will be praying, rooting, meditating, longing, wishing, and finally, hoping you DO COME BACK.
PEACE AND WELL WISHES

I’m very sad this place has closed. When I wanted good pasta and a portion for the next day, I would always come here for a to go order. This sucks b/​c it was really good! I’m wondering if they will pop up in the future! For my taste buds sake, I hope they will :-(

Closed.
I tried them a few weeks before they closed, partially to pointedly note to a friend just how many amazing restaurants were within walking distance from her.
Service was friendly but not overbearing. And there was a cheery atmosphere to the whole place.
the entrees were a little lopsided in quality, but I’m sure they didn’t have their hearts in it anymore. The artichoke dip was amazing. the bread was lovely. the mac and cheese was not tasty to me, and the gnocchi in gorgonzola sauce was amazing, but overly salty, but the pork was delectable.
Here’s hoping the owner takes a long break, and comes back refreshed. Good atmosphere neighorhood restaurants are hard to find!

Almost one year ago, my fiancé proposed to me here. We took up almost half of the restaurant and the owner/​chef, Terrell, was incredibly gracious and honored us by greeting the table. We frequent this local gem for the incredible cream sauce in the Carbonari. My veggie fiancé often orders the Mediterraneo. I last ordered the Maiale (pork chop) which was to die for and I’m bit of a pork snob. The Tiramisu and Rum Cake are made in house.
We just got word that this fabulous restaurant will be closing on June 30^th. Please please please support them one last time. Let’s give Terrell a wonderful send off. You are incredible and will sorely be missed.

One of our favorite local spots. On a recent wild Monday we returned for dinner and were pleased once again. We called it the All Special, ordering everything off of Chef Terrell’s specials that night: Hot Crab Dip with sourdough, bowtie steak pesto pasta, and a ridiculous chicken paillard with spicy pancetta sauce — basically a spicy chicken parm — it killed. It was my wife’s birthday and Terrell, whom we don’t know personally, ended our meal with a champagne cheers, flutes filled to the brim, and a housemade tiramisu. I’m not a big tiramisu guy but this one was good — fingers of sponge cake.
Come out and support the Laurel District. Laurellinos is a casual, quality, Italian delight.

Very tasty no-​fuss Italian. Service was not pushy; we were able to relax and chat while enjoying our ample dinners. Will go back.

There are 4 other trattorias in Alameda Cty we go to. Ranked in order, Riva Cucina/​Berkeley reigns supreme as upscale regional. Italian Colors/​Oakland runs a close second, and is by far one of the best Italian-​American trattorias in the entire Bay Area. Viva Voce (under new owner) is most similar to Laurellino’s but prettier, cleaner, and with slightly better food. Corso/​Berkeley we loathe, having gotten a meal so salty that every course was virtually inedible, except for dessert which was vanilla ice cream offered six different ways, a travesty when there are so many great pastry chefs here.
So Laurellino’s ranks fourth on our list, but against tough competition. It’s a modest, friendly place, and Chef Terrell Santiago cares about serving good food. But the neighborhood is rigorously price-​sensitive, and so corners are cut in a lot of little ways: the focaccia is stale; the soup is housemade but bland and cheap; the pasta dishes are massive because the diners would rather pay for quantity over quality.
We dine out a lot, and spend a lot of money doing so. We’re glad to see the neighborhood supporting Laurellino’s…but in truth, if you have a choice, a less than 10-​minute drive to Montclair gets you better food.
But it’s clear from the reviews here, that the Laurel won’t support any higher price point. Chef Santiago deals with the hand he’s dealt, and does a good job doing so.

Ordered takeout from this place and was looking forward to eating it… I love pasta and Italian food. However, I HATE cheese. I hate the smell of it, the texture of it, and the taste of it.
When I opened my box, which was a brown paper box with slick lining (but the paper box itself still got oil stains), I was disappointed to find oily cheese on everything despite my specific «no dairy» instructions in the order and the fact that I had substituted the cheesy sauce with tomato sauce.
I was only able to eat ¼ of my food, which was really difficult to do in the first place given the awkward paper box with the sides sticking up into your face. It was too fatty and oily and it was pretty disgusting when I transferred it into another container and saw how much oil it had been swimming in at the bottom of the box.
Also interestingly, we ordered the bruschetta pomodoro appetizer, and they said, «we don’t have bruschetta but we do have pomodoro, so we’ll put that on your order.» We opened the box and it was the pomodoro PASTA. Umm… I have no idea if we ended up paying for that since I wasn’t the one who paid, but we probably did. Miscommunication caused us to have a whole extra entrée of cheesy oily carbs. I ended up taking it home and feeding it to my not-​as-​picky boyfriend, which worked out pretty well though.

Quaint little café in the heart of East Oakland. Owned by a BLACK MAN!!! :)
Beautifully decorated with side and rear parking. (rare for this area)
Busy on weekend evenings (plan a wait).
Food is delicious but the prices are not cheap. Plan on spending any where from $ 15-​$ 20.
Here is where it gets good… the sizes are huge! Easily enough for 2 to share. The chef comes and speaks to everyone when things start to slow down! NICE!
Minus one star due to having to pay for additional bread baskets. :(
Really?!? It takes a while to fix that much pasta. If you are hungry you are going to want more bread. I really did not like that Laurellinos but i will return.

I have dined at Trattoria Laurellinos before. The food was very good. The service not so much. However, I have hit rock bottom with this place after the FAILURE of my date night. We will start from the beginning.
Living Social coupon — $ 25 bucks for $ 43 worth of food and two glasses of wine — available Sunday — Wednesday.
Thursday — I call for a reservation for Saturday. I explain to the guy who answers the phone that my husband works on Sunday and weeknights — so we wouldn’t be able to enjoy the living social coupon together. Would it be okay if we came in on Saturday instead and be able to use the coupon. I was told — «Sure, I don’t think that will be a problem at all. See you Saturday.»
Reservations 6:45 p.m. Saturday
We walk in with a couple of four and a couple of two behind us that did not have reservations (but they’re locals).
We are told — «Please be patient with us — this Living Social coupon has us very busy». This was the greeting from the owner/​chef Terrell (I think that’s his name).
We are seated at 6:55 p.m. (No problemo) The people behind us are also seated.
7:10 we notice that everyone that was seated behind us had water, bread and had ordered. 7:15 we stop the young man who’s been serving water and bread if we could please have water and bread and menus. He says sure.
7:20 — people seated after us are eating their salads. We still have no water, no bread no menus.
7:30 — little guy arrives with water and bread — no menus. Bread cold.
7:35 — waiter with the braids says «Oh do you need menus». People seated after us are now eating and enjoyinng wine.
7:40 — waiter comes back and takes our order. I also explain to him that I’m the person who has the living social coupon who needed to come on a Saturday due to work conflicts. He says okay I’ll let Terrell know.
7:43 — owner/​chef walks to our table and says «Who did you talk to on the phone about your reservation?» NO «Hi thanks for joining us. My name is blah blah» none of that. Just «Who did you talk to on the phone». I replied with «The person who answered the phones and took my reservation. I have no idea who your employees are.»
Owner/​Chef: «Oh well I can’t honor that Living Social coupon on a Saturday. It specifically says Sunday. So I don’t know who you talked to but I don’t think they told you you could use your coupon today.»
Me: «Well, if that was the case — we wouldn’t be here.»
Owner/​Chef: «I can’t honor that. The margins will be off.»
Husband: «It’s cool. We’ll just go ahead and stay — no biggie»
Owner/​Chef” «Okay» and walks away.
7:50 our order is finally taken.
8:20 waiter comes over and says — «Your order fell behind on the line and its going to be a while before we can get your food out to you. Owner/​Chef would like to offer you a free appetizer.»
Husband: «Why can’t you just move our food up on the line to where its supposed to be? It’s been half an hour»
Waiter: BLANK STARE…“do you want the appetizer?“
Husband: «No thanks –we’re leaving»
So here’s my review:
First of all — if you’re going to do a Living Social coupon — I need you to have your staff in gear.
Secondly — if you can walk your pompous ass out from behind that kitchen counter to tell me we can’t use our living social coupon that your STAFF said we could use, I’m going to need you to be able to come out from behind that same kitchen and let us know our food is delayed instead of sending one of your minions.
The food here is great. The atmosphere is what you make it. The staff sucks donkey balls. The owner/​chef has a pompous, self serving, non customer service type of attitude.
As much as I love to support African American owned businesses — I can’t do so for this one. I understand that we all get busy — especially when we are slammed — but the food is not that great to wait almost two hours for a «sorry you’re food is way back on the line».
If you’re going to go here — make sure that its a night where they are not busy or you will be waiting fore eons for your food — and might suffer at the piss pour attitude of the Owner/​Chef.
That is all.

The 2 stars is based on the chef’s response to the waitress’ mistake on our order. Apparently the waitress incorrectly took down our order and then tried to blame us for it in a very accusatory manner, then tried to retrack by saying it was a busy night and could not get her orders right. Nonetheless, the appropriate thing would have been to apologize and give us our correct order. Anyway, the chef did come out to apologize and comped one of our orders.
Onto the food, the Cesar salad was good, but the eggplant dish was very salty, and the gnocchi was way too mushy. The other pasta dishes were bland. The end.

It was my friend’s birthday and I decided to organize a very last minute birthday dinner for 19 for him. We’re students at Berkeley and we all wanted to escape that place for once. so I looked up Italian restaurants in Oakland on Unilocal,and only Trattoria Laurellinos was able to accomodate a party of 19 on short notice. The person who picked up the phone was friendly, and later when I called again to add 2 more people (it was 17 at first), he was very nice about it (I’ve had instances where hostesses give me a really hard time for making a large party even larger.)
It was a rainy night when we went, so the restaurant was a little hard to find. But theres a good size parking lot — always a major plus in the bay area! The restaurant isn’t very big. Aside from our big table, there were maybe only 5 to 6 other small tables. The first feel I got from the restaurant was cozy and friendly with an old fashioned décor. Our waitress was really friendly, efficient, and patient with us being a very undecisive bunch.
Our waitresses recommended family style and we all liked the idea, so we ordered 1 salad, and 5 types of pasta. From my previous experiences with family style, usually they double/​triple up the portions to give the party enough food. I asked her a couple of times if that will be enough food for us, and she reassured me that the portions will be big, and enough to share. The wait time was reasonable, but when the food came, we all were disappointed because the portions were so small. Even though we ordered family style, each pasta only came in 1 plate of a regular order, so its like 19 of us sharing 5 regular orders… uhh… not enough food! So we ordered 5 more different types of pasta immediately and hoped it won’t take too long to prepare the rest.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
These pastas we liked most:
Vesuvio — Shrimp, zucchini, mushrooms, fresh tomatoes, basil, chili flakes and linguine tossed in a garlic wine sauce
Pesaro — Marinated chicken, sweet red peppers, peas, garlic and fettuccini tossed in a roasted red bell pepper cream sauce
Genoa — Marinated chicken, fresh tomato, pine nuts and fettuccini in a pesto cream sauce
Glorioso — Sautéed mushrooms and asparagus with lots of garlic, chili flakes and gemelli tossed with extra virgin olive oil
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
These pastas we didn’t like as much…:
Carmen’s Piacere — Shrimp, clams, bay scallops and linguine tossed in a spicy tomato sauce (very bland)
Creolla — Spicy smoked sausage, shrimp, marinated chicken, mushrooms, smoked fresh tomatoes and gemelli tossed in a garlic cream sauce (very creamy, and we don’t even know why we didn’t like it. we just didn’t.)
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -
I must tell you the bread is really really good. Its something like a cross between a corn bread and focaccia, not too dense and plenty savoury (very salty I mean). The only thing I didn’t like about it is we didn’t get very many at all, and an additional basket of 5 pieces is 95 cents. And if you don’t like garlic, tell them! Everything has a lot of garlic. And the ones that are described on the menu as «lots of garlic», you better expect A LOT of garlic. Every dish was on the salty side, and if you’re not ok with that (hypertension or what not lol). tell them!
Overall, the food was tasty and reasonbly priced. And the waitress was actually right that the portions are big, for 1 person. But we all thought the order would be double/​triple sized to feed all of us, so the regular portion was obviously not enough for all of us to share. I would recommend this place, especially if all the other Italian restaurants you had in mind are packed. But I would call ahead to make a reservation anyway. I think we got very lucky with being able to reserve a table for 19 people at the last minute.
PS theres a sign that says no cell phone inside the restaurant. And if they do see you on the phone, they will nicely ask you to step outside. Texting seemed ok =)

I usually shy away from going out to eat at Italian spots but have been meaning to give this place a try for a while. After a long day and with an even longer weekend looming, a big ol’ pasta dinner sounded spot on.
The staff was very warm and friendly as was the overall vibe. The «Eat, drink and be merry» spirit was definitely alive and well. The prices were very reasonable and to my suprise, the portions were HUGE. Everywhere I looked, people were digging in to some giant dishes.
I ordered the Creolla… a spicy, creamy shrimp and sausage dish. I would have loved to have had someone snap a picture of my expression when they set my plate down.
«Oh my god… Becky… look at her plate.»
So much food. The flavor was great but as a fair warning… if you like your dishes spicy but not 4 alarm fire spicy, you may want to have them take it down a notch, which they’ll happily do. I liked the level of spiciness but I think most people would have been on fire after a few bites. I definitely put down quite a bit of bread to cool things off. There’s a small fee for extra bread but considering the pricing of the dishes, paying a bit more for the foccacia style bread was no sweat.
Next time we head in, I think we’ll probably go with an appetizer, salad and one dish to share… unless we’re looking for some serious leftovers for the next day.

Sadly I have yet to find a really good Italian Restaurant in Oakland. I didn’t have high expectations for this place due to the area it was located in. The restaurant met but did not exceed my expectations.
Food:
The fried calamari was the best I’ve ever had. Everything else was okay. The Creolla was a bit too spicy (and I like it spicy!). The food itself had a southern touch to it. Even the bread tasted like it was corn bread… and yes that makes it weird.
Service:
Waited 30 minutes before our entrees came out. I kept starring in the kitchen and they were making a bunch of to-​go orders. For who? There was no one there before we sat down.
Environment:
There’s parking and the place is nicely designed. The place is pretty small considering they have a parking lot. The area seem to have slummed down over the years. It actually looks somewhat scary to walk around here.
Price:
Moderately priced for an Italian place.
Food: 3
Service: 2
Environment: 3
Price: 3
I’ll keep looking for the «IT» Italian spot in Oakland. If you guys have any recommendations PM me.

The best thing about Trattoria Laurellinos is the food. Incredibly warm, decadent Italian cuisine at a reasonable price. I love the Pesaro Pasta with it’s creamy garlic sauce infused with a red bell purée, generously served over delicious grilled chicken and fettuccini. Last night, our waiter gave us a complimentary order of Tartufo Limoncello, a perfectly well balanced desert to end the meal.
This is a small family owned establishment whereas you feel a vibe and comfort level reminiscent of a friend or family members dining room. Chef Terrell makes it a point to come from the kitchen and greet guests as most appear to be regulars.
Day by day, meal by meal, I’m becoming more critical about dining establishments and those I choose to frequent. The only reason I can’t give a five star rating to Trattoria Laurellinos is because the ambiance, wine choice and service lacks the refinement and detail required, otherwise this place has the charm and food to satisfy even the harshest critic.

Trattoria Laurellinos is a hidden treasure. In fact, I didn’t even know this place existed until one of my students recommended we eat there. Imagine, getting foodie schooled by a 16 year old. *the shame*
I’m not sure if this is a chain restaurant since there’s another Trattoria’s in Berkeley that’s out of this world delicious, too. Either way, please check it out, you won’t be disappointed!
The food is plate-​licking good. The salad, the pasta, the panini sandwiches. Divine.
I’m just bummed that I no longer work in this area. Oh well, guess I’ll have to find another excuse to make my way over to Laurel Heights.

I’ve been to this place twice. The first time, I had cappelini pomodoro, paired with a Sterling Chardonnay. It was so good that I went back a couple weeks later with high expectations.
This time, I had their 4 cheese fettuccine pasta, paired with a Zinfandel and felt a little like I was going to pass out from over-​deliciousness.
I didn’t know what I was getting myself into when I ordered the flourless chocolate cake as dessert to share with my boyfriend.
I nearly cried. That good.
This place is in a quiet little neighborhood, far away from anything else fun or hip. But it’s worth the short drive from anywhere in Oakland and the people who work there are super nice.

Couldn’t decide on what to eat, so we turned to Unilocal.Who knew there was such a cute little Italian spot in Oakland’s Laurel District.
They have a little parking lot with some outside seating. The restaurant itself is pretty small! The biggest table seats 4 and it seems as though all the tables are pretty close together because they’re trying to pack so many tables in one itty bitty space.
We were seated right away, given water and menus. We ordered the steamed clams for appetizer and a Mediterranean salad. They brought over some bread and it was pretty tasty! I ate about four waiting for the appetizer and salad. SERVICE IS SLOW HERE! I think we waited about 30 minutes for the salad and appetizer and another 15 minutes for the entrees. We were there for almost 2 hours! Goodness! I was STARVING when we got there and the wait was torture.
The steamed clams were GOOD! The sauce was delicious! Pretty pricey for some tiny clams, but they were very flavorful.
The mediterranean salad was YUMMY! The cured olives and artichoke were a nice touch — and the huge slices of tomatoes were JUICY!
I ordered the hanger steak medium rare. It came with roasted potatoes and flavored with pesto. The steak was MOIST AND JUICY but the edges may have been on the grill was too long — I don’t like my meat crispy, so I was a little turned off.
He ordered the lamb leg special with a side of fettucini pasta. I don’t eat lamb, so I can’t comment on the meat — but the sauce was pretty flavorful!
No room for dessert.
We talked about coming back to try the other dishes that we considered, so we’ll see how it goes next time!

I have to agree with other Unilocalers that service wasn’t the best. Or maybe it was just our waitress that wasn’t the best. Our waters weren’t topped off, it took a while to take our orders. The complimentary forracia wasn’t given to us until after we ordered. Food was okay, i ordered the «creolla». It was too spicy for my liking. My date ordered the «bolognese», which i thought didn’t taste too spectacular. It is true that portions were big and they charged for extra forracia. They had 2 bottles at every table, olive oil and balsamic vinegar to make your own dipping sauce.
Note: wasn’t allowed to be on cell phones inside the restaurant.