Diners' Choice: Italian restaurants in San Francisco Bay Area

OpenTable

Updated October 05, 2024

Looking for restaurants with the best overall Italian cuisine in San Francisco Bay Area? You’re in the right place. Each month OpenTable analyses more than 400,000 new diner reviews. We sort the results by category to help you discover new favourites. It's a great partnership: you reserve, eat, and review. We listen...and deliver the results for all to benefit. Enjoy!

Cafe Pro Bono

4.9

4.9 (1406)

$30 and under

Italian

Palo Alto

About the restaurant

Cafe Pro Bono stands as Palo Alto's premier destination for exquisite Italian cuisine. With a legacy spanning over 30 years, we take pride in offering a diverse array of authentic and reasonably priced Italian and European dishes, each crafted with a dedication to freshness that is evident in every bite.

Whether you seek a romantic evening or a casual dinner, our menu features a wide selection of traditional dishes at accesible prices. From beautifully presented appetizers to homemade pastas, daily fresh seafood, quality meats, and indulgent desserts, complemented by expertly crafted cocktails we strive to ensure every visit is a memorable culinary experience.

Consider our Private Event Room for your next rehearsal dinner, birthday celebration, baby shower, family gathering or business meeting. Our full bar offers a variety of cocktails, including alongside domestic and international wines.

We look forward to welcoming you soon to Cafe Pro Bono.

Buon Appetito!!!

Top review

Sandravip

Dined 5 days ago

Quiet, great service, super food! Always a pleasure to eat there…

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Popular dish

Rigatoni

Polenteria

4.9

4.9 (142)

$31 to $50

Italian

Los Gatos

About the restaurant

Nestled in downtown Los Gatos, Polenteria serves up Italian cuisine, that is Celiac safe.
We are a small 22 seat restaurant, that is very intimate. With a European feel, many of our guests proclaim that they have been whisked away to Italy or France. We love that!

Many accolades from the SF Chronicle, and the Mercury News as well as Eater SF hail Chef Yvonne and her team at Polenteria for being on the cutting edge of the Gluten Free Movement, and more importantly providing a safe space for those with Celiac to dine without hesitation.

We are a small restaurant and therefore we do have a strict no show- cancellation policy. we need 24 hours or more. Please be considerate of this.

We thank you and look forward to being of service.

Top review

OpenTable Diner

Dined 1 day ago

Absolutely incredible meal, from the ambiance and staff to the out of this world food. My husband has celiac, and bread is one of my favorite food groups, so it was wonderful to have a restaurant experience we both could enjoy sans anxiety. The bread plate was SO tasty, and the bruschetta flight was fun and delicious. The pork chop (the special) was phenomenal and perfectly juicy with a lovely complementary sauce and polenta to soak it all up. However the star dish was the gnocchi with fried mushrooms. Wow. Crunchy fried mushrooms, pillowy soft gnocchi, and the best sauce I have ever had in my life. We ended up soaking up the rest of the sauce with the bread. Our server was perfect and the ambiance was cozy, exactly what we were looking for. I can’t wait until we can return and try one of the many other options. It was a delightful and tasty experience for the both of us for my husband’s 40th birthday.

Baci Cafe & Wine Bar - Healdsburg

4.9

4.9 (3650)

$31 to $50

Italian

Healdsburg

About the restaurant

Baci Cafe & Wine Bar invites you to enjoy its fine regional Italian and Mediterranean food, paired with wines from Sonoma, Napa and Italy, in a casual dining atmosphere.
Baci's wine list is thoughtful and well-priced, and features many small artisan wineries. Baci's menu is creative and offers a large selection of dishes. It's focus and commitment to local fresh seasonal ingredients has made it one of our Sonoma County favorites.

Top review

Jennifervip

Dined 6 days ago

Beautiful experience! From beginning to end, we felt welcomed and cared for. Being celiac makes dining out difficult at times (especially during travel), but this place is ran with love and knowledge of celiac. Our meals were just delicious and Nino took great care to pair our wines too. We’ll always come back and suggest to others! Thank you 🌸🥂

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Popular dish

Spaghetti alla Bolognese

Popular dish

Gnocchi alla Bolognese

Popular dish

Carpaccio

Serafina SF

4.9

4.9 (415)

$31 to $50

Italian

Downtown / Union Square

About the restaurant

Serafina is a little gem of a restaurant, perched on top of Nob Hill, with views overlooking the city and Bay Bridge. Serafina was owner Maurizio Bruschi’s grandmother, and the name of her eponymous restaurant in the heart of Trastevere (Rome), where Maurizio first began making pizza at the age of 14. The executive chef is Umberto Cannarsa, a successful chef from Rome, who left his own restaurant in Rome to work with Maurizio again. The menu offers everything, including vegetarian options, but specializes in innovative Italian fish dishes, including fresh calamari, stuffed with olives, escarole, anchovies, drizzled with a potato leek sauce, as well as homemade pastas and dolci. The space is warm and elegant, where neighbors and friends can come together.

Top review

Bev

Dined on Sep 29, 2024

If your looking for homemade Italian pasta, this is the place to go, great service and great food

Valenti & Co. Ristorante

4.9

4.9 (826)

$31 to $50

Italian

San Anselmo

About the restaurant

Welcome to Valenti & Co, Northern Italian Restaurant and Wine Bar in San Anselmo. Farm-fresh Italian Cuisine, thoughtfully sourced local ingredients and wines.

Top review

Michaelvip

Dined 4 days ago

We went to Valenti with our friend. Cristiano pleasantly greeted us and seated us at a table for four. . Duilio said he just received a shipment of fresh matsutake mushrooms. He said he would cook something for us if we would like. We started with the delicious home grown tomatoes in their panzanella salad and the radicchio and apple salad. We then enjoyed one order of their fabulous costletto and three orders of fettuccini with matsutake mushrooms. The pastas were out of this world because of the quality and fresh matsutake button mushrooms. After we were stuffed, we still enjoyed the home made gelato with fresh slices of strawberries and raspberries. Overall, it was a 12/10 dinner experience. The matsutake mushrooms ate very seasonal and if they don’t have a supply Duilio would make other home made pasta dishes! You would not be disappointed with ANY meal at Valenti!

Cook St. Helena

4.9

4.9 (1383)

$30 and under

Italian

St. Helena

About the restaurant

Specializing in elegant but straight-forward Northern Italian cuisine, created from local and seasonal ingredients.

A family-owned business, Cook St. Helena, is a neighborhood establishment through and through that continues to bring people together around fresh, handmade, delicious food in a warm, casual atmosphere. We opened Cook in 2004 to show the locals and tourists alike that food does not need to be complicated to taste great!

Top review

Celeste

Dined 7 days ago

My two friends and I had the Red Pepper & Olive Tapinade Panino sandwich. It was incredible. I could not think of anything I would ask to be changed about the meal and experience. It was all perfect.

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Popular dish

risotto

C29

4.8

4.8 (45)

$50 and over

Italian

St. Helena

About the restaurant

C29 earned its namesake from Capo, Chef Bruce Marder’s renowned long-standing Santa Monica restaurant, and the legendary Highway 29 in Napa Valley where the restaurant is located. The combination of culinary excellence and scenic beauty embodies the essence of C29, creating a unique and captivating experience for all who visit.

Top review

Michael

Dined on Sep 21, 2024

Amazing food and service. We met the owner and chef. Great guy who really cares and has hired staff who are very good. They want to want their guests have a five star experience. Highly recommend this place.

Cafe Tiramisu

4.9

4.9 (1544)

$31 to $50

Italian

Financial District / Embarcadero

About the restaurant

We are offering our food and services in a new way, one that safely creates jobs for our employees, and still provides that quintessential experience only Cafe Tiramisu can.
At Café Tiramisu our pasta, and salads as a takeaway experience with authenticity, carefully selected ingredients for maximum taste and freshness to provide healthier options for all of our customers to satisfy vegan, and vegetarian options! ready to be collected or delivered to you.
Remember to save room for one (or more) of our dessert options.

Top review

Georgevip

Dined 4 days ago

Always great, and it’s been too long since we’ve been. Thank you a great meal and experience.

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Popular dish

Pappardelle

Popular dish

Tiramisu "Pick Me Up"

Delizie

4.9

4.9 (645)

$31 to $50

Italian

San Carlos

About the restaurant

"Delizie" meaning delicious, is an enthusiastic endeavor to preserve sacred family traditions & bring delight to peoples’ plates far beyond Italy's borders. Hailing from Calabria, the infamous "toe" of the Italian peninsula where the mountains meet a breathtaking coastline, owner Francesco Ruggiero brings to life the richness of this southern region's culinary heritage, introducing & reacquainting others with an irresistible array of savory flavors & vibrant aromas. Using a combination of carefully selected imports & fresh, locally grown ingredients, you can indulge to your heart's desire in a variety of homemade pastas & traditional dishes. To render the meal complete pair your food with an appealing wine from a list featuring Italian & Californian wines that best suit your palate. The restaurant itself maintains a cozy, relaxed, yet elegant feel that invites others to join in the ambience that comes to life when the simplest things are brought to the table: good food, wine & people.

Top review

Christinevip

Dined on Sep 28, 2024

Amazing authentic Southern Italian food. Pasta is homemade, thin and delicious. The spaghetti with shrimp in a delicious sauce is over the top! Love the generous pour of red wine, unlike any other restaurant in SC. Truly a fun experience. PS The complimentary homemade focaccia bread & oil is delicious treat for a hungry diner.

Mamma Tanino's Ristorante

4.7

4.7 (1172)

$31 to $50

Italian

Sonoma

About the restaurant

Four blocks west of "The Square' tucked in the Sonoma Valley Center, Italian born chef, Gaetano Patrinostro uses a combination of the freshest local products and Italian imports to prepare authentic Italian cuisine. His pasta sauces are based on the region of origin, seafood and steaks are cooked to perfection and the desserts are not to be missed. Mamma Tanino's is an off The Square locals favorite and the at home feeling makes out of towners love this place.

Top review

Carolyn

Dined 1 day ago

Little gem with fabulous food! Definitely worth a visit! Nine of us had an outstanding experience. We were all pleased with our entrees. Authentic Italian food with fresh ingredients. The pork chop was delicious. Fish and pasta dishes, too. We enjoyed the appetizers of calamari and a fresh mozzarella plate. We shared cannnoli, tiramasu, and a sphere of ice cream with a hard chocolate shell for dessert-all yummy. I was initially hesitant to book a reservation as the website has very minimal info, but a search of best Sonoma restaurants inspired me to give it a try. I encourage you to do the same!

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