Il Borgo

Este é um verdadeiro restaurante italiano! A dona é italiana e toma conta de tudo, falando em italiano direto com os funcionários e os clientes. É ótimo!
A comida é muito saborosa. Dá pra sentir pelo sabor que a massa é fresca. As opções do cardápio são muito boas, mas segui o conselho de algumas reviews no Unilocal e provei o ravioli de alcachofra e a lasagnetta. Ambos pratos são deliciosos! Também provei uma pizza de salsicha italiana e cogumelos que é gostosa, mas não me impressionei (salsicha/​linguiça nos EUA é tão esquisita!).
Os pratos não são muito fartos. São pratos individuais que você certamente não pode dividir. O preço não é caro (mais ou menos US$ 13), mas também não é barato. Estava esperando mais comida, no entanto foi bom porque deixou espaço pra sobremesa.
Retornarei e recomendo!

First time and I really enjoyed it. Very authentic Italian food and a great ambiance. They say it’s romantic which it is but I went with two other business colleges and it was fine, family seating at a long table. The waitress might own it I forgot to ask but she speaks Italian to you to make you feel like your there. I ordered a regular salad, which had quite a lot of garlic on it. I like garlic but not quite that much. The veal saltimbocca was fantastic and we got a side a spaghetti to share between us which was also unbelievable. My colleges got chicken saltimbocca and a fettuccini which they both raved about. We washed everything down with a cheap $ 8 glasses of Chianti and had a great evening. Thank you for a great experience and a place we will return to.

Il Borgo is one of my all time favorite places in San Francisco. It has a really nice, intimate, neighborhood/​local vibe and the food is amazing. The owners are an Italian family who are always so incredibly nice and extremely hospitable. Everything is made fresh everyday, including the pasta. And boy can you tell!
Highly recommend.

One of the best authentic Italian restaurant in San Francisco, complemented by best in class service! We had Carpaccio and Bruschetta for appetizer and Lasangeta Al Vegetali, Lobster Ravioli and Fettuccine Del Borgo for main dish. All tested very good. The portion was good as well. Most of all, what a great environment!

We were not familiar with Il Borgo but a good Open Table rating and the availability of reservations when our «usuals» were booked enticed us. The space itself is cute — reminded us a bit of the late and lamented Little Italy out in the Noe Valley — and surprisingly quiet for a San Francisco restaurant. Our greeter was our server and she was pleasant if not remotely fawning; pretty businesslike on the whole, which is not surprising since she was the only server in the restaurant.
We were enticed by the pasta offerings, so did not go too far into the menu, ordering only salads and pasta. More specifically, my wife and our friend both ordered the house salad for a starter and I had a caprese. The house salad was somewhat bitter because it was almost entirely radicchio but the dressing and gorgonzola were lovely My caprese had heirloom tomatoes, something I don’t often see, and excellent fresh mozzarella, but, to quibble, the dressing was a bit too herbed for my taste.
We each had a different pasta. Our friend wanted her salmon pasta with penne rather than standard spaghetti and I wanted my puttanesca with spaghetti rather than the standard penne. The server assured us this would not be a problem. My spaghetti was cooked absolutely perfectly and the puttanesca was a good version with a strong taste of kalamata because the olives were nearly whole rather than pieced. The salmon in our friend’s dish was extremely moist, which made it enjoyable, and my wife’s penne with sausage and mushroom had a lot of both signature ingredients, making it probably the safest dish to recommend of all that we had.
Prices were beyond reasonable. While the salads were pretty conventionally priced for the Hayes Valley, the pastas were $ 13 and $ 14 and the portions generous. I haven’t paid that little for pasta — especially good pasta — in years. We are adding this one to our rotation of pre-​SFJazz concert dining spots in the Hayes Valley/​Civic Center area.

Atmosphere cozy on a cold fall evening. Food was even good, especially the homemade pasta. Linguine bologna (without meat) was a bit overpriced at $ 12.50, not including even the tiniest salad or cup of soup. Service could have made up for this scant serving, but the only waitress/​owner? was cool and indifferent, a real spoiler. We were in the city for medical procedures and needed a smile. We got friendly service and plentiful, delicious food the next day at Via Veneto.

I was craving Italian and remember their lobster ravioli being decent. I don’t know what happened but this place has gone down hill really fast. I asked for merlot, she gave me chianti. Everyone who came later got their food before us, and when I asked one of the workers about our food, the waitress yelled across the restaurant «it’s coming!» When the food came, it was so bland I didn’t want to waste the calories on it… and I never skip on pasta. Never coming back.

Great people, great food. Be prepared to wait if you don’t get there early. Pizza, pasta, wine, dessert, it’s all good.

Gnoochi was so soft and good

This is a little unassuming restaurant in Hayes Valley, run by a super friendly Italian woman and feels very homey.
I’ve ordered the Lasagnetta basically every time I’ve been and it’s absolutely amazing! I’ve had bites of food from other people I’ve gone with, and while everything was good, nothing compared to the lasagnetta. Order that and you won’t be disappointed!
It is cash only, but there’s an ATM in the back.

Food tastes microwaved. The chicken was lukewarm on the outside, refrigerated on the inside. And if you happen to use a credit card, you’ll get an earful from the Italian woman! I could look past this, but the food is just meh.
It’s San Francisco; there are literally a hundred other Italian restaurants to choose from, this one’s just not worth it.

I’ve passed this place for years with a skeptical eye for some silly reason and man, I wish we had gone years ago!
Tasty, comforting Italian food at a decent price in large portions. The Lasagneta with proscuitto was DELIGHTFUL and the Gnocchi with pesto — hoooooly cow. I literally rolled my eyes in pleasure every time I took a bite. Soft, pillowy, cloud-​like gnocchi goodness. You can choose other sauces for the gnocchi if you’re not into pesto. The Lasagneta is in a sauce similar to a vodka sauce, which come on, is never a bad thing.
The bread they give you in the beginning is so soft and served warm, its a great start to the meal. So why only 4 stars? Negative points for cleanliness. Coulda been the people who sat at the table before us, not sure.
The rest of the meal was so good we could overlook these elements… definitely going again!

Horrible service, and DIRTY utensils. As everyone else has noted. I rarely write reviews, let alone bad ones… but I must share this one:
I found egg ‘caked’ onto my fork from the dishwasher, I requested to get a clean utensil. The waittress didn’t apologize or anything, yanked the fork and gave me a new one. We ordered wine. She brought me a glass, and the glass was filthy. It literally had a layer of soap caked onto the wine glass both at the base, stem and actual cup. It was so thick, that it actually had rough texture that can easily be felt. I didn’t really want to drink from a dirty wine glass. No big deal — ask for a new one, right?
So I did, and instead of apologizing, she just mocked me in front of my date. She said «How do you deal with someone so picky? You must be so patient?» I couldn’t even get a word in. She just kept confidently insulting me.
On top of that, she didn’t even come check to see if our food was good once throughout the meal. (quality check)
The food is the most redeeming part — and it’s still average at best, there is a good reason to go here.

15.06.00 First Visit
Food — — — — — — - 3 ½ stars (overall)
Food/​Price — — — – YES (bang for the buck)
Let’s be real
Most of us can’t eat 4 – 5 stars everyday
Unless u are borned with a silver spoon
Able to enjoy the basic to fancy (diversity) is good
Solid Italian food
Generous portion
are u tired to eating $ 18 pasta dishes w half the portion of this place?
sometimes I wonder about those places
Mushroom Pizza was pretty good.
Lobster ravioli
was very good for me.
can’t wait to get it again!
Simple, Bang for the buck
Interior …
A place I would revisit time to time
good taste
reasonable price

Just OK. Waitress was nice until she said that she didn’t accept cash «when shes busy.» Overall, bread was amazing. Pretty authentic Italian pizza (:

My wife and I had dinner with another couple on Saturday 11 April at Il Borgo Italian Restaurant. We had a 5PM reservation and the restaurant was empty except for one couple when we arrived. By the time we left, all the tables in this small space were filled and a group of 3 was waiting for a table to become available.
The red checked oil cloth covering the tables and walls with painted murals give the impression of a stereotypical Italian restaurant. Three people run the front of the restaurant — seating, taking orders, bringing food and tending to intermediate needs of the diners. The service was good although possibly could have been a bit more attentive, but since the room is small it is easy to gesture for attention.
We started with 3 salads ($ 7-​$ 9) and a bowl of minestrone soup ($ 4) — not on the menu. I had the Caprese salad ($ 9) that was served with heirloom tomatoes and a generous portion of fresh mozzarella.
The main dishes ordered were Artichoke Ravioli ($ 13.75), Spaghetti Carbonara ($ 12.50), Fettuccine Bolognese ($ 12.50) and a pizza Napoletana ($ 12). The pasta servings were quite generous and were enjoyed by all. I had the pizza Napoletana, one of two pizzas I use to judge a pizzeria — the other is Margherita. The pizza had a thin crisp crust and an adequate amount of sauce and cheese. Almost every slice had two pieces of anchovies.
Note — all of the above prices are $ 1 or $ 2 above the prices on the Il Borgo Italian Restaurant web site menus
Also, credit cards, at least Visa, were accepted.
Overall a very nice dining experience that merits a return visit.

My first impression was that it was kind of a cozy, traditional Italian restaurant, even though I found the décor to be a little cliché.
After being seated and looking over the menu, we were hungry and also getting excited to eat. So the waitress came to our table and greeted us, and told us she’d be back to «take our order.» …Then disappears for 15 minutes? We had to hunt her down again place the order. I had a bad feeling at this point, thinking that most likely the food would also be delayed (me and my boyfriend were already starving). But fine, the waitress finally returns and we place our orders. I ordered the Chicken Piccata, one of my favorite dishes at some of my other Italian spots we go to a lot.
Sure enough, we had to ask for order updates 3 times! And when my Chicken finally arrived, it was tasteless, but I was so hungry I ate about half. Plus, the food wasn’t warm, it was kind of cool and that made me wonder if our order had been finished sooner, and just forgotten about? The wine was passable, maybe the best and most nutritious part of our meal.
Here’s where it gets strange: once we received the bill, my boyfriend put down his credit card. Casually, my eyes wandered across the room, and I caught a glance of our waitress — watching him place his credit card into the check… and she rolls her eyes! Only to make her way back, after a purposefully long wait, and still has the gall to furiously ask us to pay cash? First we thought it was a joke, but she really was insisting on cash! We refused several times before she spun around in a temper tantrum to go swipe his card.
With a little effort this place can do a lot better, please work on customer service, food timing, and credit card processing.

I was really disappointed with this place.
First, we arrived at 6:30 and had made a reservation through Open Table (via Unilocal) for 2. The host was super rude and kept saying he didn’t have us in their system until 7:30. I gave him my name and showed him my email confirmation with the date/​time.
He still made an unnecessary scene and soured my experience there right off the bat.
Luckily, there was a table for 2 available and we were seated after reservation-​gate.
It took a while for us to get water for the table and my glass was empty multiple times through the evening.
The food was pretty disappointing too. Bruschetta was only good bite (and I’ll give this place one star for that). The bread that came to the table was cold and pale/​sad. The gnocchi and pesto sauce I had was flavorless and overcooked/​mushy. I only ate about a fourth of it.
I won’t be back. Much better Italian food and service elsewhere in the City.

Decent Italian traditional dishes and no frills restaurant. There are murals painted on the wall, dim lights in the evening, Italian music, and delicious aroma.
Service has been generally friendly, except on the last occasion the service was questionable. Our server wanted us to pay cash, when they clearly take Visa and Mastercard advertised on their storefront. She also made a comment about one of my friend’s nationality, and he was a good sport and could have taken offense.
The bread is very good, and it’s easy to scarf down. Their pasta is cooked al dente. I enjoy the carbonara their though the pancetta quite has a bit of fat. The spaghetti and ravioli dishes are tasty. Their tiramisu is made in house and quite delicious.
It is a little bizarre to find a random plush Mickey Mouse sitting in the corner of the restroom, facing the toliet. Not sure how the Disney theme fits with the traditional italian ambiance, but it certainly is a conversation piece.

Holy meatballs, I have never experienced such terrible service in a restaurant. First, here are the «pros»: good location, cute old school red and white checkered tablecloth, and the food doesn’t suck (note: that does not mean it is great, it just wasn’t terrible).
Now all of the cons, which are all service based. First, I should say the young woman who seated me, gave us our menus and brought us out our food was pleasant and helpful. That is where the good service ends here. First of all, this was obviously a pre-​7pm show crowd, and yet we had to ask to order a total of 3 times, and when the person we originally flagged over came to take our order, maybe 10 minutes later, he just said «okay, i’m here.» No apologies for making us wait. Totally rude.
Here’s where it gets creepy. I don’t know what his role was — bus boy or server, but this dude had to either be totally inappropriate, or, most likely, WASTED. At first I thought maybe his English just wasn’t that good and there was just a little lost in translation kind of thing happening, but no, he was wildly inappropriate and obviously drunk. When he uncorked our wine he just left it on the table… wasn’t going to pour any glasses… then he grabbed a bunch of our glasses to pour but he couldn’t seem to figure out how or which order to pour them in. So we asked him to just leave the bottle at our table, and we would pour it. Then he stood there, smelling the cork, staring creepily at us.. .we literally had to ask him to please leave us alone. I was ready to walk out, but thankfully he didn’t come back to our table after that.
Another gem: we asked for grated cheese. After about 10 minutes of waiting, someone just dropped off a giant hunk of cheese and a cheese grater at our table… what the actual eff???
Oh, and then when we paid, we found someone else’s credit card (in addition to ours) with our check, and they somehow combined our bill with someone else’s and split the charge, and we ended up with this poor guy’s card, who ended up being overcharged for his meal! We didn’t ask to split the check or anything, we literally handed them one card, and yet they couldn’t even handle properly charging us for our meal. We are nice people, and wanted to make sure this other guy wasn’t screwed, so we brought it to their attention before leaving.
Unfortunately I didn’t start reading the bad reviews about service until after I arrived and was waiting for my friends, but BELIEVE THE BAD REVIEWS ABOUT SERVICE. I will NEVER come back here, and unless you have absolutely no other options, do not waste your time here. There is absolutely nothing about this place that redeems that horrible service, it is inexcusable, and paying customers who were not once rude to any of the staff do not deserve to be treated like that. So absurd. I almost feel like I was being punked.
This restaurant would be an excellent candidate for Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares.

I wanted to like it — I really did. I love those old style Dago restaurants that I grew up on. They have all of the classics like Scaloppini, Fettuccini Alfredo, Carbonara, Saltimbocca, Lasagna etc.
I ordered the Chicken Piccata which should be pounded chicken with some cheese and a lemon butter sauce with capers. It was a big flattened piece of Chicken with cheese that had basil inside of it — kind of overwhelming unless you love basil that much. But more importantly it had this light brownish gelled or is it jello’d sauce on it — kind of like cold gravy but it wasn’t cold. It was thick and tasted like they didn’t wait for the sauce to get thicker but thickened it up with flour or cornstarch — but used too much.
My friend had the Lasagneta which is Lasagna — they roll a big piece then get slices and lay them on the plate — it’s a good idea but the sauce is more like a cream sauce with a little bit of tomato sauce added in not the other way around. I personally thought both of them sucked. Can’t be anymore descriptive than that — sure it was inexpensive if the dishes were decent but they weren’t. The prices are mostly $ 14 thru $ 26.
Good wine prices — I needed the wine to get through the meal. We also split a Carpaccio which was good and the bread was good too. And don’t ask the lady for wine advice — not a clue.