Cedro Ristorante Italiano

Unfortunately our experience at Cedro didn’t live up to expectations. We went there last night with a party of six.
We were seated ahead of the reservation time which was terrific but everything went downhill from there.
It all came down to our waitress. We were given menus by the person who seated us and we must have waited at least 15 minutes for the waitress to acknowledge we were there. Once there she didn’t offer any specials, which we knew they had because the bartender had raved about one of them. She never brought a wine list — I had to ask for it. She never refilled water, once again we had to ask, and she never checked in on the food quality once it was served. Actually at one point, I heard a voice ask if the food was good and I thought «finally she is getting her act together» but as I looked up I realized it was the hostess, not our waitress! Toward the end of the meal, we all started joking that this must be the kind of service delivered by a restaurant with an «automatic tip» policy but I actually argued against that as I didn’t think a small family run restaurant would have that kind of policy, especially for a party of six. Well, the bill came and I was dead wrong. We got just the kind of service you would expect from someone who was guaranteed their 18% tip. All in all, just a bad policy from Cedro’s. I didn’t mention it to the manager as we were there following a funeral service of a close family member and people didn’t need any more drama for the day. Overall food was pretty good but bad policies and poor service can make decent food taste very bad.

The veggie sandwich was drowning with low grade cheese, and they give puny uneatable sides. It is not even worth 14 bucks. I want a refund.

I believe this restaurant is closed. Too bad, they had some truly excellent food, but it was too expensive.

Friday night, looking for a nice, quiet place for dinner — craving some rustic italian… this is the place. It’s very quiant, off the beaten path. Right next to the Cal-​Train station. If you are looking for high energy, trendy, this is definitely not your place.
It’s small, not as intimate due to the size of the restaurant. Food was very rustic, not too cheesy, great portions.
Apps: Polenta Parmigiano — delicious, creamy, earthy; calamari — typical, nothing to extraordinary
Main entrée: (Good thing about this place — it offers brown rice pasta — which is really good if you are gluten free)
Matigliano with the Shrimp — EXCELLENT
Chicken Carbonara with proscuitto and penne — light, creamy, bacony flavor, very good dish as you can distinguish the flavor
Dessert: Chocolate Gelato — you can pass on that, tasted a bit gritty
I was really looking forward to some tiramisu, but they ran out
Definite «return» place.

Service: Friendly but extremely slow. Not sure if this is their way of keeping it as «European» as possible, but if I need to wave you down more than once to get your attention, I’m probably a customer that doesn’t mind getting checked in on.
Food: It’s not bad, but as a foodie I can’t rave about it either. I’d put this just a notch above a Macaroni Grill.
Kid-Friendly…sort of. There’s plenty of space, so that’s why it’s kid-​friendly. There’s no kid’s menu.
NOTE: It looks like most of the great reviews for this restaurant are from fake accounts.

It’s alright, nothing too special.
The atmosphere is nice — I like the patio-​like seating in the front of the restaurant. Feels kind of like eating in a garden.
Pasta was pretty good. The prices just seem to be a little bit on the high side.

**** Food ****
This is what we had:
Risotto Pisces (Seafood risotto)
Clam linguini (in white wine)
Veggies side
Tiramisu
I found the food quite average for the price range, and the tastes a bit heavy on cheese.
**** Service ****
Very friendly. It was a quiet Sunday evening with only a few customers, though.
**** Location ****
The restaurant is right beside Café Borrone.
**** Summary ****
We tried this restaurant primarily because we like to explore another option for Italian food. This one is OK, and I would probably prefer other Italian restaurants in Menlo Park and Palo Alto, especially Carpaccio.

One of the worst restaurant experiences I’ve ever had… And I’ve eaten at most restaurants in the Palo Alto/​Menlo Park area. I took out-​of-​town guests here, not a huge party, and all of us were extremely disappointed in the service, beverages, food, ambiance, and everything in-​between.
The restaurant lost our reservation, the waiter had little knowledge about the menu, they neglected to tell us there were specials, took 20 – 40 minutes in between bringing water/​wine/​bread/​salad/​food, the manager was apologetic but not helpful, and the food was terrible. Lumpy dense polenta, cold chicken, over-​cooked shrimp, gummy risotto, mostly inedible. We left two and a half hours later, still hungry.
Definitely skip this restaurant if you like food and decent service. There aren’t many good Italian restaurants in the area, but anything is better than Cedro.

I was debating between two or three stars for this place.
The main reason I’m two-​starring it is due to the service. They weren’t mean or rude or jerks or anything. Everything was just exceptionally slow. We got seated, and didn’t see a server for 15 minutes. We got menus, and didn’t see the server again for another 15 minutes. Got our orders in, and waited at least half an hour. I started timing a little late.
I’m not particularly sure what the holdup was. Perhaps they were understaffed? They weren’t very busy either, at least when we got there (6:30 about). After 90 minutes, it started to pick up.
We ended up taking almost 2.5 hrs for a meal. Some of that was our fault (we got dessert, maybe took 30 minutes?). But still… just so slow. I don’t know if that’s the pace here, but it was confusing.
Food was pretty good, but not spectacular. Maybe I was grumpy because of the wait. I’d recommend the lasagna.

I love Cedro’s. The food is absolutely divine every time. Everything I’ve ordered has been perfect.
I like to meet girlfriends here for a leisurely lunch where we can talk and not feel pushed out the door.
Great to wedding reception dinners too.

Impressive… food is very good.
Got started with a nice bottle of pinot gricio. We ordered the plenty and cares for appetizers. Very fresh and light not heavy at all.
For the main I ordered gnocci. I recommend!

If you want real Italian food without having to go to San Francisco, this is your spot! I’m constantly amazed that it is not more crowded; there have been times when we are one of only a few tables occupied. Better for us I guess in that we get the truly personalized attention of this wonderful family ownership. However, I worry about how they will be able to stay in business.
The pasta dishes are superb — we’ve tried almost every one, and have not found one we haven’t loved. We lived in Italy, so we’re a tough sell, and even our Italian friends have marveled at the taste and quality of the homeade fare. My daughter cannot get enough of the Gnocchi al Pesto; my husband and son go back and forth between «Giuseppe’s Signature» Lasagna and «Nonna’s Signature» Tagliatelle Bolognese. I can’t help but try a new dish every time, although I often come back to the true comfort of the Penne Cristallo. And if you’re not in the mood for pasta, my father swears the Veal Scaloppini is one of the best he’s tasted. You will not be disappointed!
Finally, this is a fabulous place for a large family gathering or celebration. We celebrated our son’s 16^th birthday here, and they went out of their way to make this a special event, including — without me asking — making up personalized menus with my son’s name on it.
We look forward to the day when we need to call ahead for a reservation. Until then, we will relish in the fact that we have to ourselves this little slice of Italy right around the corner.

So I walk into the restaurant and notice that there are literally 0 customers in the place at 7PM other than myself and my coworker. This had me a bit concerned, but I went with it anyways. The staff were friendly and attentive although this wasn’t much of a challenge considering the lack of other customers.
They had a small but good selection of drinks & wine for relatively affordable prices. The bread was hot and fresh which is always nice. For dinner I had the chicken marsala which was unbelievably good. The portion size was reasonable and it came with roasted potatoes, carrots & summer squash. The vegetables tasted very fresh and were cooked perfectly. My coworker had the lasagna and described it as the best he had ever had. So the quality seemed to be good around the board. I finished with the cheesecake which was very good although I felt the piece was way too big.

I’ve been searching for a decent pasta spot in the S.O.‘s home turf but to no avail.
I thought this was going to be it…
To begin: it is hidden and you would assume that’s busy also since its next door neighbors were packed. Yup, we were fooled.
There was one person drinking/​sipping her wine when we walked in. (gulp)
Service: friendly and prompt (you would assume so since they weren’t doing anything at all since there was no one else but us and them.)
Food:
— polenta parmigiana = I thought this was just going to be polenta with the sauce on the side. Nope… it was served with the pomodoro sauce on top of it… don’t get me wrong… it was served piping hot and it tasted good. It was plenty for the S.O. and I – me eating a quarter and him the rest.
— pappardelle mare e monti = I substituted it with wheat pasta (spaghetti) and it came in huge portion! It was hot as well and it was definitely more than I could handle. I barely ate a quarter of it when I got full. Ended up taking it to go.
Reason for it not being «it» — prices are way to high. S.O. had a shocked face when we got the bill: $ 75+ without any alcohol. Considering how it wasn’t busy and how no one was there… it might be wise to down grade your prices so that you would attract more people to eat.
Probably the first and last time we’ll ever go considering we could eat at Filippo’s or Tomatina’s for half their prices!

I went to Cedro on a Thursday night with extended family and was disappointed.
I had the risotto con speck, which was awful. Instead of having a nice creamy consistency, thick texture, and pleasant ‘bite,’ (see the wikipedia page for risotto for a prototypical picture), the risotto served was soupy, thin, and tasted more like overcooked long-​grained rice. Instead of sitting in a nice pile, the risotto ran across the plate in a mix of broth and rice. The prosciutto and mushrooms were nice, but the dish was quite salty and, to make matters worse, there wasn’t much food. I had just made mushroom risotto at home and achieved better results, a troubling sign for a purportedly ‘authentic’ Italian ristorante.
My wife’s father had the gnocchi funghi, which was better: great consistency and pleasant mushroom taste. My wife’s gnocchi was somewhere in-​between: pleasant enough, swimming in butter, and not very flavorful. The scattering of musty chopped parsley strewn over every plate is what they call «fresh herbs.»
Service was fairly good, probably expedited by the fact that there were only two other parties present. One note: for a party of five, they brought out two baskets of six tiny slices of bread (think two crackers stuck together). Not only were these portions meager (we had to ask waiters twice for more bread), but the bread got also more and more stale by the basket.
Overall, the experience was average, but given the pricing and nearby competition, a negative. You can do better without paying any more or walking very far.

We came here for lunch on a Saturday and it was really really empty. It took forever for them to give us our menus and no one was even there to greet us out in front. The waitress seemed really clueless about everything. I was really surprised because I thought this place would be much more professional, especially with the kind of atmosphere it portrayed. The food was decent, but definitely too expensive for the quality — I’ve had much much better Italian food even at places like Buca Di Beppo. Skip this place, it’s not worth it.

The best Italian food in the bay area, hands down! Have yet to come across a place that beats Cedro’s lasagna from scratch. Great shrimp alfredo pasta also,
just like mom’s home made, literally! Since head chef is the mother of the family owned and run Ristorante.
Not to mention the great friendly service from David and of course their host Elizabeth. Thanks for the recommendations on the mimosa and tiramisu on separate occasions, Simply a taste of Italy!

Delicious Italian food that definitely ranks higher than all the fancy looking places on University Ave in Palo Alto.
We came here on a normal Saturday night. There was live music which was pleasant, and the food we then got was even more pleasant.
The mister is always in search of the perfect lasagna. He uses it to judge Italian restaurants and said the lasagna here came close. My gnocchi in pesto sauce? Delicious. Not a big gnocchi fan myself, I quite like the gnocchi here and their pesto sauce is nutty and good.
Service is attentive too. Price isn’t the cheapest but I’m willing to come back for more special occasions and in that case, who cares about price? ;)

Cedro has overpriced mediocre food. I went on a Thursday night around 7 PM and there was only two other tables. The place is pretty big so it felt very empty.
My friend ordered the Gnocchi alla Sorrentina with tomatoes, basil and mozzarella. She complained a little about the pasta so I tried some. The gnocchi was definitely not cooked al dente, and was a little on the soft side and not chewy at all. The sauce was also very watery so if you pick up the gnocchi with a fork there was almost no flavor. If you ate it with a spoon and scooped up some sauce with the gnocchi it tasted much better.
I ordered the Agnolotti ai Porcini or porcini ravioli and substituted the cream sauce with pomodoro sauce. The ravioli had a nice mushroom flavor, but it wasn’t great.
Both dishes were $ 18, and it was definitely not worth the price.
3 stars for the food, –1 star for the price.

I’m not very familiar with Menlo Park as I live in SF; however I was recommended to try Cedro Ristorante, and boy was it good! I would highly recommend this place… the food, service, and atmosphere was impeccable!
I love how cozy it is inside. Very inviting & intimate with low lighting. It has an outside covered patio. It was also very clean and had a huge bathroom!
The service was very personable and friendly. Our young waitress also happened to be the owner, her brother the busser, and her mom the cook. They were all very friendly & very enthusiastic. You got excited for them just being there! A very good vibe!
And did I mention the food? Ahhh, it was soo good. I had the gnocchi sorrentina & it was too die for. The gnocchi were home-​made, and the sauce was very light… fresh tomatoes & fresh mozzarella. My table also split the antipasti plate, it had different meats, with some cheeses and this fantastic fig mostardo/​marmalade-​like sauce! I usually hate figs, but this stuff was sooo good!
For dessert we had the tiramisu, a chocalate cake thingy (forgot the name) and some lemon cake. I loved the tiramisu… I’m usually super picky when it comes to tiramisu, but it was perfect. It wasn’t overdrenched in espresso & had lots of marscarpone cheese. I guess they make their own marscarpone cheese… wow! How do you even do that??? It was seriously soooooo good!
For wine, I had the 815 cab… recommended by the waitress. It was perfect!
I highly recommend this restaurant. I can’t wait to take friends there. I just wish I lived closer!