I Gatti

I Gatti is an OK «Italian» restaurant in the Los Gatos, CA area.
The ambiance is decent, but the people at the small bar area can get quite noisy and it distracts from the romantic feel the restaurant is going for.
My bf and I ordered some alcoholic beverages, which both were just fine. He thought my pinot grigio was a tad boring, but I liked it. It believe it was $ 10/​glass. We also ordered 2 appetizers, 1 Caesar salad, and 1 gnocchi plate. These appetizers took around 20 minutes+ to come out. At that point I could have just skipped them and went straight to the dinner. The salad was very boring. It wasn’t bad per-​say, it just wasn’t blowing my socks off. It had crispy romaine lettuce that tasted quite like iceberg, with a pinch of mini croutons, low grade Parmesan, and a distasteful dressing. The Parmesan looked like it wasn’t very fresh, especially since it was pre grated and very evenly grated. The dressing just wasn’t my favorite. It had a hint of anchovy taste, but not in a good way.
The gnocchi on the other hand we both thought was a winner. I liked the brandy sauce that it was in. The sauce added a kick to the gnocchi. The gnocchi were also cooked perfectly, not too soft, nor too hard. I was pleased with this appetizer and would get it again.
Our main courses we were definitely split on. I ordered the special of the day which was the truffle mushroom pizza ($ 14) and the BF ordered the veggie lasagna with garlic bread ($ 23). The pizza had a lot of potential, but fell flat. The crust was too thick, which is why when it came out it was undercooked and too doughy/​soft. I also noticed that there wasn’t too much truffle flavor on the pizza. The very top of each slice had a hint of truffle, but it was brief. The following day I took the leftovers and heated them up on the stove to get it warm and crunchy, also adding a pinch of truffle salt, and the pizza did a 180. It finally had the crunchy and truffle taste that I had expected from the night before. I would say I’d order that again if it came out like how it did from my kitchen.
The lasagna was much better. I think the bf said he enjoyed his lasagna, but thought it was more like an eggplant Parmesan with lasagna noodles than an actual lasagna. That didn’t stop him from enjoying the meal though. I did have a taste his garlic bread, and didn’t really get much garlic taste in my mouth. I think the bread was just oily, without being garlicy. That is something that can easily be fixed. For the sauce of the lasagna, there were actually two. One was a red tomato sauce and the other was a white creamy sauce on the side. The bf preferred the red sauce, and was a little perplexed why there was two on the plate.
Finally, though I was already a little upset with the restaurant, due to my previous courses, I decided I had to get the chocolate lava cake. Lava cakes hold a special place in my heart and tummy, so I was hoping that I Gatti could redeem themselves with this dish! Unfortunately, it was just OK. In fact, I will say they failed at making it a «lava» cake. It was more like a warm brownie with chocolate sauce on top and on the sides to mask the fact that it did not ooze out chocolate. I was surprised at how quickly the dish came out, which made me wonder about it right off the bat. I assume they just over cooked it. It comes with a scoop of raspberry ice cream, which I think they were out of that night. We ended up getting vanilla with it, which was pretty good. I’m not saying the lava cake was bad, but it wasn’t as advertised.
Overall, I don’t think I’ll be back here anytime soon. The prices are a little high for the quality of the food. There needs to be some minor improvements to their dishes to bring this from a 3 star restaurant to a 4 star restaurant in my book.

This is such an elegant and delicious restaurant! The food was so spectacular, the staff was delightful and prompt, my food came out hot, and the presentation was perfect. I wouldn’t recommend kids, but there are kids in here and they have a kids menu. It’s not as small as the restaurants as the other ones in Los Gatos; bigger but not too big. I recommend reservations because it’s gotten busy, but we walked in at 6 and got seated right away. Wonderful!

Cute place in Los gatos. I had some Parmesan fries yummm. I got the linguine nere which is squid ink with seafood. I adored the pieces of buttery salmon and clams. The mussels tasted and smelled a bit off. I finished it off with the basket ice cream. It was good but the toffee sugar basket was a bit too much. Overall yummy!

Great vegetarian options. Great romantic ambience and nice décor. In downtown los gatos. We liked the service, the chef came out to greet us. Would come back again.

We stopped in for a drink last night. The staff were all incredibly nice. It felt like everyone really cared & wanted to be there. We’ll definitely be back for dinner!

Visited for 2^nd time last night. First time for me was last weekend. The Gnocci with speck was very, very good. Last night the seafood ravioli tasted as if it was just made, with the freshest of seafood ingredients of scallop, shrimp, lobster. For me the cream based sauce, was a bit heavy. My wife loves the veggie lasagna.
The décor is really beautiful, really a cozy and intimate, just stunning to look at the detail of the stone work and faux wall treatings. The wait staff was very attentive… So, why not a higher rating?
The place is small, and because it has a small bar section just feet away from the last booth (where we were sitting), it can take on a «neighborhood pub atmosphere». Nothing wrong with pubs per-​se, its just that it really takes the ambiance in a very different direction when a few seemingly loud talking bar patrons and ex-​workers (?), start drinking and chatting it up with the staff. Last night one of them for some reason actually felt the need «call out» to the dinner patrons to thank them as they left… not really what we went there for. A stronger management presence could correct this.

This is a good restaurant. The appetizer (We had fried calamari& artichoke) was the best! And our dinner equally delicious. What a a hidden gem!

Instead of a larger restaurant, this small place was picked exactly for 10 of us, so we could enjoy the last dinner with the ladies here just talking, eating and spending time together. Worked so well. We were well taken care of.
I’m not big friend of clams, but their sauce was excellent. We had a bit weird combination of calamari, lamb lollipops and hummus as starters. But everyone liked something. I loved the sauce with the clams and enjoyed it with my calamaris.
The food was tasty. Risotto looked wonderful, and my small combination of prociutto and asparagus was delightful. Gelato was good, of course. The hard candy basket bit too sweet, but that’s just me, I guess.

Awesome small town place!!! Been coming for years and can’t explain how awesome the food and service is !!
We always ask for Corinne to serve us, she has so much knowledge about the food and wine they serve.
We ordered the new gnocchi and it was so amazing! They mentioned a new chef and we love all new items !!
Can’t wait to come back next week

We’ve seen this place for years and years and finally decided to give it a try.
As other reviewers have mentioned, the food is OK — not stand out, but not bad either and a good price point.
Service could be better. We were here on a Thursday evening, sat on the patio, and were forgotten about for a good twenty minutes. Once our server remembered us the meal went smoothly. But she forgot about us again at the end and we waited for days for the check.
Probably won’t be back, but glad to have given it a try.

LOVE THEIR LINGUINE NERE (squid ink pasta)! My partner said it’s better than the ones we had in Italy! LOL
We come here, sit down and food comes automatically. We always order the same thing haha. Trust me, their linguine nere is truly heavenly.

I think this Italian restaurant is solid, but doesn’t have the wow factor. We sat at the bar and received great service. The small bar was probably the best part of our night. The spaghetti and meatballs (diff name on menu) was good, but no major flavor profile that I couldn’t duplicate at home. I like more of a Northern Italian style and this didn’t do it for me. Thanks!

Another great dinner at I Gatti, great services, great food, we are going back soon .!

I Gatti has a 3.5 star rating on Unilocal.I would upgrade that to 4 from my experience.
Everyone loves the atmosphere – we did too. It’s cozy, somewhat cramped, but cozy.
Here’s what we ordered:
SPAGHETTI CON POLPETE — My daughter’s order. Nicely done, al-​dente, good sauce. I liked it and I grew up eating my Italian mom and grandma’s food, so that must count for something!
CALAMARI — Good job on the fry. Loved it.
GNOCCHI — The winning dish. Everyone took a bite and wish they ordered it. The size of the gnocchi were a bit on the larger side, but that didn’t bother me. When we go back, I’ll be tempted to order this again, although an Italian menu causes me to fickle.
I love everything so much, I can’t make up my mind!
No dessert for us tonight.
Everyone agreed this was a restaurant we would like to return to.

Yet another successful Mom/​Daughter lunch and this time it wasn’t directed by a Unilocal recommend as much as a twist of fate. Initially going to a popular Los Gatos haunt that ended up being closed for a holiday break, we wandered down the street looking for an interesting late-​afternoon lunch spot to replace our first choice. As we approached I Gatti, the outdoor patio was a friendly welcome, but the posted menu sealed the deal. The offerings were simple, yet diverse enough to guarantee something delicious to end up on our table.
We entered the tastefully decorated restaurant only to find that it was woefully understaffed causing us to wait an unusually long time for a table. We weren’t in a hurry and didn’t mind the wait and we were glad our patience paid off in the end.
We helped ourselves to a corner booth that perfectly suited our needs for a quiet place to talk. We ordered a few glasses of red and swapped tastes, pleased with both the house red and its Sonoma counterpart. The appie of the day (for us) was a delicious gnocchi. I’m not a huge gnocchi fan, but I was overjoyed when Mom said she didn’t want to fill up on the starter and gave me the larger portion. The sauce was heavenly and the gnocchi perfectly prepared to melt in my mouth. A must to order if it’s on the ever-​changing menu.
Mom loved her Mushroom Raviolis and my Steelhead Salad was perfectly prepared. For desert we shared another glass of red along with a Lemoncello (Mom’s favorite). It wasn’t homemade, but delicious nonetheless.
Aside from great food and a hard-​working waiter who single-​handedly took care of the lunch rush, we were most impressed by the fact that long after everyone else had left, we were allowed to linger and enjoy our leisurely meal well past the lunch hour and almost into the dinner rush. They owner was more than gracious with us and our Mother/​Daughter lunch was one of the best because of her graciousness.
I Gatti has zoomed to the top of my list of heartfelt restaurants that care as much about their customers as they do about their food. Oh yeah, and ladies, give a knock on the wall when you’re in the bathroom if you want to get a laugh from your friends and the staff. Just don’t tell anyone I said to do it.

The restaurant is on e main in the middle of downtown LG. We chose this place on Saturday noon to have lunch with our dog so sitting outside in lovely sunny day. The bread served to the table was great. I took the ravioli mushroom which was great but size petit which was not enough for me. Other at the table took the trout which the cook felt it should not have left the river and kept it in a watery sauce including the rice. The paela was the disaster.
Service was good. The waiter deducted the paela from the bill without us asking for. We asked for more bread and we got as much as we asked for. Since food was bad we ate the bread and loved but is it a reason to dine there?
So 2 stars for the service and oh the bathrooms are clean.

We’re absolutely going back but we need to try something different.
We got the risotto and the sea bass, but sadly neither were that great. We saw so many awesome plates go by the table we have to give it another shot.
That said, the wine selection is very nice and the drink prices were reasonable. Loved the crab cake and the caramel basket was pretty good too. I’d recommend this, but go in with reasonable expectations, this place probably won’t blow you away.

I have been coming to I Gatti for years and have always enjoyed the food and service. I was in the mood for veal parmesan and decided to come here last weekend. My luck, when I arrived they no longer had the veal parmesan or the osso buco, which are 2 of my favorite dishes here. Let me walk you through my experience.
Appetizers (this was probably the best part of my meal)
–They came out with some fresh hot bread with a side of oil/​vinegar mix. I had to request the cheese spread, which is really good or else they were not going to bring it.
–Crispy Calamari — How could you ever go wrong with calamari, right? It was good as usual
–Beef Carpaccio — This was my first time getting this. It was good. Nothing extraordinary
–Roasted Organic Beet Salad — The goat cheese was really good, but the beets seemed old and were not that great
–Soup of the day — it was like a mix of a minestrone soup with lentils. I liked it.
–I normally get the gnocchi, which is usually pretty good, but really heavy and I wanted to have room for the entrée and dessert.
Main Course:
–I ordered the Linguini Nere. The pasta in the dish wasn’t so good. The shrimp was and fish were tasty, but the mussels and clams were fishy and not good at all. I was very disappointed, because I love mussels and clams.
–My wife ordered the chicken parmesan. It was smaller than I remember it, too thick and not enough sauce and cheese. Really disappointing.
On to Dessert:
–I had my heart on the Tiramisu, but my luck they ran out. They offered me any dessert complimentary since they were out. I honestly didn’t feel like anything else and asked for their recommendation for a different dessert. I ordered the caramel basket. Honestly was nothing special. The vanilla gelato ice cream was good, but I didn’t care for the caramel cookie.
Service:
The busboy was amazing and made sure we had fresh hot bread and flowing water. The waitress pretty much ignored us, since we arrived at 8:30PM and they close at 9:00PM. She was busy taking care of other things. The place was empty. It was just our table of 4 and another table of 3, so was really no excuse for the bad service.
Overall, we all were not so happy with our food and it will be pretty hard to convince my family to come back here. I really was looking forward to a good meal, but nothing really went well, except for some appetizer items. I wonder if they changed ownership or the chef, because this wasn’t the experience I am used to at I Gatti. I honestly don’t know when and if I’ll be back. Maybe if I see some good reviews I might come back, but there are so many great restaurants in Los Gatos, so I Gatti may have lost me as a customer.

We just had the most amazing lunch here at i gatti. The salmon panini was out of this world and the service from Joe Difu and his staff were five star.
The next time you are in Los Gatos for lunch, make sure it’s here at I gatti

I wanted to be wow’d — however I’ve never been more disappointed in a dish than here. Okay, that’s a stretch — I’ll qualify it. I haven’t been more disappointed in a dish this year, than i gatti. I posted pictures back in January.
I ordered the saffron risotto, and my best friend ordered the lasagne. I NEVER order lasagne because who is going to make it better than mom? Exactly.
The risotto was flavorless, dry, and made me sad. The saving grace was the pear carpaccio salad.
My friend’s lasagne on the other hand — REALLY good. I mean, the few bites I scored from his plate rectified the night. It was a solid portion, half doused in red sauce the other in a mornay (bechamel + cheese). *drool*.