Truly a fun place to dine. Come for the excellent Italian food and cocktails and there's a Fiat 500 and Fellini films projected on the walls. Busy and for a good reason.
Sherry Fan
honestly a really bad experience. the food was good but to me a crucial part of the restaurant experience is the service, which is as some of the worst i’ve ever had.1. we were seated at 7; the free bread took 50 minutes to come out and was cold and stale. we were starving at that time as we had waited 50 minutes just to get the bread!!2. our table was not ready (despite having a reservation), so they put us at a table of 3 when we had 4 people. no one brought over a chair or utensils for our fourth person; we had to flag down a waiter and ask.3. no one came around to top off our water. when we tried to flag down a waiter to ask, he just looked at us then walked away, completely ignoring us.4. everything was so slow. as mentioned it was 50 minutes before we got anything on our table. the food took another 40 minutes after that and even the check took a good 15 minutes to get to our table.5. our waiter tried to take away our food before we were finished. he didn’t bother asking if we were done.for a place that markets themselves as upscale this level of service is unacceptable. we also felt particularly snubbed because we saw tables around us being seated after us and getting much better service (water topped off, bread out immediately, food served before us, etc). not sure why the waiters were being particularly rude to our party :(
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 3
Service: 1
Giuliano Cortopassi
Unfortunately we had a terrible experience, Sat down at 7.30 and after ordering some appetizers that we received around 8:30. It took another 12 minutes to receive our silverware. Then the first coursearrived around 9pm I think that if your kitchen can handle 100 people, you should not book 150 or 200. Guests get frustrated and mad, so i the end, it is not good for anyone.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 1
G Lee
I love this tucked away bistro. I’ve walked and driven by it so many times but never thought to enter.We had a large party of 10 for this visit. And it was PACKED on a Saturday night. It was pretty cramped because of the crowds and they have a lot of tables.The owner/manager suggested we order family style instead of individual portions. It’s not in the menu but you get larger portions and the benefit of sharing.Started off with their INCREDIBLE garlic oil and bread. It was so good we bought suns to take away! Their house wine was also so good as bought a couple of those to take home too!Appetizers were Caesar salad,Main courses were Ravioli Porcini Trifolati and Ragu di Maiale. Oh man those were good ravioli. Stuffed mushroom ravioli, sautéed in a white wine and sauteed onion’s. And the Ragu was off the hook with homemade pappardelle with slowly braised pork, homemade sausage, and other goodies.Another main dish was Stinco d'agnello which are some delicious lamb shanks, but I’ll admit I liked the other two dishes more for flavor.Too full this time but next time we’ll get dessert. Waitress service was spotty but when the manager/owner served us directly, it was fantastic.Can’t wait to go back! A really great find in the gourmet ghetto.
Disappointed with dinner last night. I had a 6:30 pm reservation for 8. When we arrived on time told we would have to sit outside as there was a big party even though we had reservations. After asking to sit inside we had to wait for close to hour to be seated. No utensils or napkins until asked for and we never had a waiter assigned to the table. Food mediocre. All in all a bad experience with invited guests.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 1
Cynthia
I really feel that there were too many guests and the kitchen could not sustain the orders. The waiter was also overworked. We had been there before from San Francisco and made the trip again but clearly , it makes us not want to return.
Disappointed with dinner last night. I had a 6:30 pm reservation for 8. When we arrived on time told we would have to sit outside as there was a big party even though we had reservations. After asking to sit inside we had to wait for close to hour to be seated. No utensils or napkins until asked for and we never had a waiter assigned to the table. Food mediocre. All in all a bad experience with invited guests.
CeliaK
What a fun and yummy restaurant. It's our go-to celebration dinner place. Owners and staff are so friendly. Italian movies screened on the walls. Whenever weather permits, we eat outside. Everything we've ordered has been very tasty whether it's pasta, meat, soup, salad, etc. I'm a big fan of their soup. Most recently, I ordered the lamb shank and it was excellent.
AraI
Great food, they seem a little overwhelmed with the crowd. Service was slow, they ran out of bread. The food is great, every time we come to visit our son at Berkeley we make an effort to come here. Be patient and enjoy your food.
Minx
This restaurant, to me, feels comfortable, yet slightly indulgent. The food is rich, but never too, with a large wine selection offering various ways to accent or counterpoint flavor and textures. Agrodulce also has a warm ambiance featuring exposed brick interior walls and open shelving. Overall it's combination of rustic Sicilian dishes and and unpretentious vibe hits the date night sweet spot
We were a table of four, with two of us ordering the Zuppa de Pesce, one pasta and one secondi - food was delicious and good value, as well as very fresh. Very friendly and attentive staff. Only downside (Saturday night) was noise level. We had a 6 pm reservation and left around 7:30 pm, likely primetime - the dining area was packed with a line waiting to be seated. Great neighborhood vibe and overall ambience.
paulm
The restaurant was very crowded, no doubt because the food is so good. Regardless, the service staff did an excellent job despite the crowd and made us feel like valued customers. We'll be going back to this venue
PeninsulaDining
Food was delicious!! The only part that was not ideal is that we had a reservation and had to wait an additional 15 minutes for our table and then we were seated outside. They have heaters, but it was NOT warm. Other than that, the food was so good I would still return but definitely not to sit outside on a February night.
DJShammyShams
Awful reservation and seating system - had a booking and waited an addl 30 min + those who came after us were seated because they were crowding the poor hostess. Payment system also went down so had to leave and come back with cash. Service slow for utensils and basic water and bread. Food average with all that context. Go to other neighboring options on this street.
Melissa Gutierrez
We were here recently for my brothers birthday, a party of 8 with reservations.When my sister arrived the host and server did not show her to our table but instead told her your table is down to the left.When we were sat we had no idea who our waiter was and when we asked the young lady replied “I’m not your waiter, he is”So service wasn’t welcoming or helpful.The ambience was very crowded like not crowed in a good way, like you would imagine a place is just busy. It was difficult to get around other folks tables because of spacing. I couldn’t sit in my chair because I would be asking the person behind me to move out of the way so instead we moved the entire table to gain a few inches and not get in the way of the servers who were picking up food at the window.Also there is only one restroom for a the entire place so head ups.The appetizers were delicious but the entrees were okay. The salmon was undercooked the lamb as well, the ravioli was delicious but the ragu was too sweet for our preference.I think over all we didn’t feel welcomed and we weren’t sure why we were treated differently when we arrived. It really sucks because I still feelObligated to tip but not because it was a good experience but because it’s just expected nowadays.Wheelchair accessibility: No way is this place wheelchair accessible. My sister was in crutches and they gave her the stink eye when we showed up.
Truly a fun place to dine. Come for the excellent Italian food and cocktails and there's a Fiat 500 and Fellini films projected on the walls. Busy and for a good reason.
honestly a really bad experience. the food was good but to me a crucial part of the restaurant experience is the service, which is as some of the worst i’ve ever had.1. we were seated at 7; the free bread took 50 minutes to come out and was cold and stale. we were starving at that time as we had waited 50 minutes just to get the bread!!2. our table was not ready (despite having a reservation), so they put us at a table of 3 when we had 4 people. no one brought over a chair or utensils for our fourth person; we had to flag down a waiter and ask.3. no one came around to top off our water. when we tried to flag down a waiter to ask, he just looked at us then walked away, completely ignoring us.4. everything was so slow. as mentioned it was 50 minutes before we got anything on our table. the food took another 40 minutes after that and even the check took a good 15 minutes to get to our table.5. our waiter tried to take away our food before we were finished. he didn’t bother asking if we were done.for a place that markets themselves as upscale this level of service is unacceptable. we also felt particularly snubbed because we saw tables around us being seated after us and getting much better service (water topped off, bread out immediately, food served before us, etc). not sure why the waiters were being particularly rude to our party :(
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 3
Service: 1
Unfortunately we had a terrible experience, Sat down at 7.30 and after ordering some appetizers that we received around 8:30. It took another 12 minutes to receive our silverware. Then the first coursearrived around 9pm I think that if your kitchen can handle 100 people, you should not book 150 or 200. Guests get frustrated and mad, so i the end, it is not good for anyone.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 1
I love this tucked away bistro. I’ve walked and driven by it so many times but never thought to enter.We had a large party of 10 for this visit. And it was PACKED on a Saturday night. It was pretty cramped because of the crowds and they have a lot of tables.The owner/manager suggested we order family style instead of individual portions. It’s not in the menu but you get larger portions and the benefit of sharing.Started off with their INCREDIBLE garlic oil and bread. It was so good we bought suns to take away! Their house wine was also so good as bought a couple of those to take home too!Appetizers were Caesar salad,Main courses were Ravioli Porcini Trifolati and Ragu di Maiale. Oh man those were good ravioli. Stuffed mushroom ravioli, sautéed in a white wine and sauteed onion’s. And the Ragu was off the hook with homemade pappardelle with slowly braised pork, homemade sausage, and other goodies.Another main dish was Stinco d'agnello which are some delicious lamb shanks, but I’ll admit I liked the other two dishes more for flavor.Too full this time but next time we’ll get dessert. Waitress service was spotty but when the manager/owner served us directly, it was fantastic.Can’t wait to go back! A really great find in the gourmet ghetto.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 4
Recommended dishes: Lamb Shank, Papardelle Campagnolo, Ravioli Porcini Trifolati
Disappointed with dinner last night. I had a 6:30 pm reservation for 8. When we arrived on time told we would have to sit outside as there was a big party even though we had reservations. After asking to sit inside we had to wait for close to hour to be seated. No utensils or napkins until asked for and we never had a waiter assigned to the table. Food mediocre. All in all a bad experience with invited guests.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 1
I really feel that there were too many guests and the kitchen could not sustain the orders. The waiter was also overworked. We had been there before from San Francisco and made the trip again but clearly , it makes us not want to return.
Disappointed with dinner last night. I had a 6:30 pm reservation for 8. When we arrived on time told we would have to sit outside as there was a big party even though we had reservations. After asking to sit inside we had to wait for close to hour to be seated. No utensils or napkins until asked for and we never had a waiter assigned to the table. Food mediocre. All in all a bad experience with invited guests.
What a fun and yummy restaurant. It's our go-to celebration dinner place. Owners and staff are so friendly. Italian movies screened on the walls. Whenever weather permits, we eat outside. Everything we've ordered has been very tasty whether it's pasta, meat, soup, salad, etc. I'm a big fan of their soup. Most recently, I ordered the lamb shank and it was excellent.
Great food, they seem a little overwhelmed with the crowd. Service was slow, they ran out of bread. The food is great, every time we come to visit our son at Berkeley we make an effort to come here. Be patient and enjoy your food.
This restaurant, to me, feels comfortable, yet slightly indulgent. The food is rich, but never too, with a large wine selection offering various ways to accent or counterpoint flavor and textures. Agrodulce also has a warm ambiance featuring exposed brick interior walls and open shelving. Overall it's combination of rustic Sicilian dishes and and unpretentious vibe hits the date night sweet spot
Restaurantji Recommends
We were a table of four, with two of us ordering the Zuppa de Pesce, one pasta and one secondi - food was delicious and good value, as well as very fresh. Very friendly and attentive staff. Only downside (Saturday night) was noise level. We had a 6 pm reservation and left around 7:30 pm, likely primetime - the dining area was packed with a line waiting to be seated. Great neighborhood vibe and overall ambience.
The restaurant was very crowded, no doubt because the food is so good. Regardless, the service staff did an excellent job despite the crowd and made us feel like valued customers. We'll be going back to this venue
Food was delicious!! The only part that was not ideal is that we had a reservation and had to wait an additional 15 minutes for our table and then we were seated outside. They have heaters, but it was NOT warm. Other than that, the food was so good I would still return but definitely not to sit outside on a February night.
Awful reservation and seating system - had a booking and waited an addl 30 min + those who came after us were seated because they were crowding the poor hostess. Payment system also went down so had to leave and come back with cash. Service slow for utensils and basic water and bread. Food average with all that context. Go to other neighboring options on this street.
We were here recently for my brothers birthday, a party of 8 with reservations.When my sister arrived the host and server did not show her to our table but instead told her your table is down to the left.When we were sat we had no idea who our waiter was and when we asked the young lady replied “I’m not your waiter, he is”So service wasn’t welcoming or helpful.The ambience was very crowded like not crowed in a good way, like you would imagine a place is just busy. It was difficult to get around other folks tables because of spacing. I couldn’t sit in my chair because I would be asking the person behind me to move out of the way so instead we moved the entire table to gain a few inches and not get in the way of the servers who were picking up food at the window.Also there is only one restroom for a the entire place so head ups.The appetizers were delicious but the entrees were okay. The salmon was undercooked the lamb as well, the ravioli was delicious but the ragu was too sweet for our preference.I think over all we didn’t feel welcomed and we weren’t sure why we were treated differently when we arrived. It really sucks because I still feelObligated to tip but not because it was a good experience but because it’s just expected nowadays.Wheelchair accessibility: No way is this place wheelchair accessible. My sister was in crutches and they gave her the stink eye when we showed up.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 3
Service: 1
Recommended dishes: Ravioli Porcini Trifolati, Stuffed Zucchini Flower