Lago Di Como

We were over the hill in Santa Cruz and thought we’d try this for Valentine’s Day on account of their advertised Prix Fix menu for the holiday. It was a strange experience, and especially so since we paid about $ 210 for the special dinner for 2 counting wine ($ 35) and tip. The atmosphere and service were friendly but extremely casual. Used silverware was left on wooden table tops with no place mats or tablecloths, and at one point we went 20 minutes with no silverware, Chef came out to greet friends in white tee shirt with dirty rag in his back pocket and sat down 3 feet from us that way. Staff sat down for family dinner at about 9 PM while we were halfway through. Food was just okay, with odd double-​pasta and double-​protein rounds of small plates. We asked our waiter about the best wine pairing for the menu, and he was completely clueless (Uh…do you like red wine or white? Yeah, man!”). We will come back and try this casual, neighborhood place once more on a regular night, as we hear that the pizzas and gnocchi are excellent, and everyone is friendly and welcoming. No full bar, but some really nice Italian wines at moderate prices.

Best Italian restaurant, outstanding customer service, food and wine menu are excellent, buenisimo!

I’m upgrading to 5 stars because these folks have been consistently excellent. The service is always great, the food is delicious, I like the wine choices, and I look forward to trying the specials — which can be hard to choose from because they all sound so good.

Great bread as a starter, but after that our meal was too heavily salted all around, almost to the point of being inedible. Ordered the creamy polenta which had a beautiful nutty flavor, but was so drowned in butter we could only eat a few bites. Also the piccatta was overwhelmed with just too many capers. The location had charm and service was decent but the poor food will likely prevent us from returning.

Excellent hidden gem! I’ve been here a handful of times, & it’s my new favorite SC Italian restaurant. The service & ambience are great, & they have some of the best gnocchi on the planet. They even have a legit Italian server!

I love this restaurant. It has always been outstanding but tonight it wasn’t good. Food, especially the pasta had no flavor. It’s as if the pasta wasn’t cooked in well-​salted water. I had the squid ink pasta, which I’ve had before and loved. Tonight it was starchy, too al dente and lacked any flavor of the shellfish or salt. Totally blah. Needed garlic, butter, parsley, lemon and shellfish broth. The pasta pomedoro and the risotto respectively were also lacking in any flavor and also starchy and tough. Three out of our five dinners weren’t good. Perhaps it was because Giovanni was not working that the food was so lackluster. Matt our waiter was excellent and very sympathetic but no adjustments were offered. I’m hoping this was a one off. It’s in the neighborhood and always good, but tonight it was really not good.

I had the gnocchi, a cup of minestrone, caesar salad, and I was pleasantly surprised at how delicious the food is here. It’s hard to make a truly great gnocchi and the sauce was perfect. I couldn’t finish the salad or gnocchi, I can’t understand why someone said it was too small. That just isn’t the case.
Good service, thanks Matt. I’d been wanting to come here since it opened and now I regret putting it off so long.

I am not big on Italian food. But the food and service were awesome. I look forward to eating there again.

We’ve been to Lago di Como a couple of times before and really enjoyed ourselves, but this time we shared a prosciutto and ruccola pizza as well as ravioli. The pasta is always great but the pizza was fabulous!
We’ve been to Lago di Como lake and had many terrific meals in Italy. This pizza was the first we’ve eaten in the US that compared with the real deal in Italia. Really good.
Update:
We had to wait 20 minutes to get our reserved table due to a screw up with Open Table. One of the owners came by to apologize and brought us a calamari appetizer. He didn’t have to do that but boy we were sure glad that he did! Best calamari ever! And when we finished dinner he brought us a tiramisu… fabulous!!!
We really love this place, especially the people!

Our new go to place in the area. We are locals. Never had a bad meal here. Service is great and food is amazing.

Based on previous reviews my family of four decided to eat at Lago Di Como last Sunday, this was a big $ 130 mistake!
Pro’s:
–The restaurant itself was inviting, the gentleman who sat us was very friendly and the young man who brought out the food had a fun sense of humor.
— I ordered one of the specials of the day, a mixed seafood style stew. It was pretty good and the portion size was fine.
— They brought out extra bread when we asked for it. That’s it for the Pro’s.
Con’s:
— Although the table was set with all the right dishes, one of the wine glasses was dirty, how dirty? It still had about ½ inch of wine in it from a previous diner, yuck!
— My husband and 12 year old daughter both ordered the Penne alla Mamma Gianna, the description on the menu looked delicious, sadly it was a total disappointment. The portion was ridiculously small, even for a 72 lb, 12 year old little girl! When the server brought the dishes out they looked as though they had been sitting around in the kitchen for a couple days, totally dried out and tasteless.
— My 17 year old daughter ordered the Gnocchi and enjoyed it but again insanely small portion. She ordered from the dinner menu, but the amount of food was more of a appetizer portion, no kidding!
— While we were waiting for our check, a person sitting at the table next to us (I believe this group of diners were locals, hmmm.?) received their order of Penne alla Mamma Gianna. Her plate had TWICE the amount of food as my husband and daughters and did not look as though it was yesterday’s leftovers. Surprised (ok, shocked!) at the obvious difference in the two dishes, I asked the server if this was indeed the same dish. She confirmed it was and dismissed the difference by telling us that this diner had ordered gluten free pasta instead of regular pasta. Seriously? Like that makes it right to have served my husband and child small portions and the other customer (a local, hmmm?) a reasonable amount of food that was freshly made? That obviously makes no sense what so ever, totally lame and insulting answer.
So what did we get for $ 130? Three small pasta dinners, one seafood stew, three glasses of wine and two sprites. We did NOT order any appetizers, salads, soups or desserts, nor did we order the more expensive meat dishes. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem paying $ 130 for a good dinner for my family, but this dinner was definitely not worth it.

Just had the gnocchi. Really surprised by last review. Can only assume she’s never had it in Italy. Or maybe she’s use to eating chunky cheese, because this place has only gourmet food. Eaten here a few times, yet keep getting surprised, it’s so fantastic. Definitely a place I’d like to be taken on a date.
Amazing food. Great service. Wish I could give a 6 star. Try the calamari, thank me later.

Lovely Dinner
A group of friends and I gathered for dinner. For most of us, including myself, this was our first visit to Lago Di Como. We were quickly and warmly greeted and escorted to our table which was very welcoming, clean and nicely set. Our server, Marco, was absolutely wonderful. He was quick to explain specials as well as answer questions regarding their wines. He was attentive, quick, friendly and had a very charming Italian accent which all the ladies at the tables seemed to swoon to. The food… amazing. This is my new favorite Italian restaurant. I had Carpaccio di Manzo, thinly sliced raw beef sirloin lightly drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and served with fresh arugula topped with our lemon dressing. The beef melted in my mouth and the arugula was perfectly dressed with a capers. Amazing way to start the meal. My main was the Linguine al’ Nero di Seppie, fresh homemade squid ink linguini sauteed with mussels, clams, olive oil, garlic, white wine, & chili flakes. The pasta was cooked to perfection, and had a lovely subtle flavor that sung wonderfully with the olive oil, wine and chili. The mussels and clams were also exquisitely cooked, succulent, flavorful… bliss. Other entrees ordered within our group included the fillet, and lamb shank… all were extremely happy with their choices. There was a lot of silence and anytime that happens with a table food of opinionated pals — the food is spot on. For dessert, I had the Tiramisu which was a lovely ending to a perfect meal. It was decadent but at the same time, not too sweet — perfectly balanced. I would highly recommend this amazing restaurant to anyone who appreciates good, fresh food cooked with experience and LOVE.

After a nice beach day with my boyfriend we found ourselves a more than a bit hungry and just a tad far from home, so we resorted to a round of Unilocal Roulette to wrangle up dinner. Unfortunately, we lost the game tonight because despite the four star review this place has, this is one of the poorest dining experiences I’ve had in a while.
The good first:
They had a reservation open 45 minutes in advance for a Saturday night and even seated us before our reservation time when we arrived a few minutes early. That’s the end of the positives.
The bad:
We waited between 5 and 10 minutes to be acknowledged by anyone. Eventually we were given slightly burnt bread with oo/​balsamic and glasses of water. Several minutes after that our server came over and took our order. A while later our entrees came out and they were underwhelming at best. I had the artichoke ravioli which visibly had sage and garlic garnish, but tasted like almost nothing. My boyfriend had the four cheese gnocchi which had a bizarre grainy quality to the sauce and was totally bland except for a strange fishy aftertaste. Twenty minutes after we finished eating (yes, literally twenty) our server came back within attention grabbing distance and we asked for the check. Another 5 – 10 minutes later he finally brought it and then 5ish minutes after taking it away he came back with the card and receipt.
In summary: one hour in the restaurant was divided into fifteen minutes of eating food we didn’t like and 45 minutes of waiting for various things. What’s up with that?! Definitely not coming back to this place. Hoping for better luck on our next round of roulette…

Well worth the drive from Redwood City.
We know one of the owners (Giovanni) because we ride motorcycles (Italian, of course) together from time to time, but I mention this out of full disclosure and I wouldn’t tie my name to this review unless I honestly felt he, the cooks and waitstaff deserved it. The other reviews you’ll read here only reinforce our experience here. In addition, he left the kitchen several times while we were there to check in with other customers and ensure people were satisfied.
Giovanni knows he is represented by the meals he serves and he wasn’t aware my wife and I were there until well into our main course this past weekend. Regardless, our generous Antipasto alla Giuliana (Bresaola, Robbiola e pomodoro), house salads and primi (Mezze Lune ai Carciofi e Fontina and Spaghetti alla Carbonara) were nothing short of exceptional. We were too full for a secondi piatti…
Add to that a $ 40 bottle of wine (the 2012 Chianti Classico, Le Fonti — fantastic!) and we staggered away stuffed with only a bill of $ 110!!!
Reservations are really the only way to go here as the place can seat a good-​sized crowd, but it is too well known to just walk in and expect to find an empty table most of the time. Use their OpenTable service to ensure you get a seat. Also, in true European fashion do not just expect to «squat and gobble». This is a place to take your time, enjoy the food, drink some wine and have a conversation with the person (s) at the table with you (put the smartphone away!) and wrap it up with dessert and an espresso or cappuccino. Perfetto!
Salute e mangiare!

Finally a real Italian restaurant on the East Side… and SC for that matter!
–Pasta is fresh. Gnocchi brought me back to Italy
–Pizza is legit Italian style and priced very reasonably for the quality
–The restaurant is definitely not cramped, maybe compared to Dominos?
–Busy? Yes, a reservation is smart.
–Surprised there aren’t more 5 stars, this is a place that has food to SF standards without the costs.
–My dad wasn’t impressed with the portions, but you get what you pay for and honestly they could charge more if they wanted to filter out that customer type.
–They have a great business going and I hope they keep up the good work and don’t change too much to accommodate complainers like a neighboring ex-​Italian restaurant…

The owner and staff are very friendly. The food is top rated and the lasagna will melt in your mouth. The other dishes are outstanding as well. I highly recommend it.
Not sure what to order? Ask Giovanni the chef/​owner. He always has great suggestions. We had a bacon wrapped salmon over grilled tomatoes that was delicious.

Great little local Italian restaurant here, definitely a hidden gem. The prices were reasonable and I enjoyed the daily specials (as they truly changed every day). The service was excellent and and the food was might tasty as well. I ordered the house bolognese along with a cup of the minestrone soup. The pasta was delicious but the cup of minestrone soup was flavorless and needed some salt and other spices. The wine selection was also great and I enjoyed a glass of Pinot noir.
Would definitely recommend this restaurant to anyone looking for delicious Italian food. Will be back here again in the future.

On a whim, we decided to try Lago di Como.
What a nice surprise! Our server, Matt (Mateo)
was fun and gracious as well as helpful in making
suggestions. We started our meal with
Insalada cesare (Cesar salad). We both had
the specials of the day: Ravioli with
lemon sauce and fresh porcini mushrooms,
Swordfish with salad and roasted potatoes.
Both were very tasty. Ended our meal
with a homemade tiramisu and chocolate
soufflé! Great meal, nice attentive service.
We’ll be back !

To be consistent with my rating scale, I am giving this restaurant a 3. All their food was pretty good to eat, but none of it warrants a return visit from me. We started with mixed imported salami, Antipasto alla Giuliana, calamari and grilled octopus. All are worth ordering. For the main course, we split the filet, the pork scaloppini, and the carbonara pasta. All simple and good dishes. Went with the canolis and tiramisu for dessert. Neither were too good.
Service was alright for the most part. They forgot the food for one member of our party, which is pretty bad. I’m not sure they offered her anything for that either– I could be wrong. So we had to wait around for her dish to come out and she had to eat by herself after we were done, lol.