Dallimonti’s Italian Restaurant

Surprising hidden gem! The food was amazing! Great Italian entrees. The bar area was filled with happy-​go-​lucky regulars and the staff was always smiling. We will be returning.

I entered as a single. There were at least five tables and five seats at the bar open. I was pointed and not taken to a table by a man. After 21 minutes, no one had come to provide me a menu or offer me a glass of water. I went looking for a waitress to ask for a menu. The first diverted her eyes and ignored me. The second waitress I asked pointed to the front and when I remained at my table, she secured a menu for me. Forty-​nine minutes after that, NO ONE (waitress, bus boy, bartenders, manager) had ever checked on me, given me a menu, or even acknowledged that I even existed. By this time, they were beginning to get busy — and I left, said an audible «Good Bye,» and still wasn’t even acknowledged. This is an absolute first for this «Food Critic» — over an hour of virtual invisibility! Now consider that if the new Dallamonti’s is so disorganized that they can’t meet a customer in less than an hour, imagine the possible filth in their kitchen! They rate a zero — totally disorganized and despicable by any standard. By the way, I went a few doors down to a Japanese Restaurant and experienced excellent service, a good value, and a tasty meal!

Food is good, drinks are priced reasonably, and if you want family still you got it. The tri-​tip sandwich w/​veggies and garlic fries is my favorite. I have taken my family and friends and I’ll come back with friends for karaōke.

I heard from others that there are new owners, but this was my first time at this joynt. If you are afraid to go, I’d say it’s improved and is worth it!
I went to see the live music, which starts at 9pm after dinner is finished.
It has a very local feel to it, rather older crowd, but good mix. The bar was very busy watching several games at once. Our waitress was quick and very helpful when we said it was our first time. I had cannelloni and wife had fried calamari steak. You get a complete meal with every entrée, so bread/​butter, minestrone soup, salad + veggies. By the time your meal comes, you will probably be full, if you don’t pace yourself. For me it was too much food, but if I would have known, I would have slowed down.
I’ve lived in Europe and Italy so I know my food. I’d call this American style Italian. Everything tasted just fine, nothing too exciting, but for the price of $ 50 for two with drinks, i’d say well worth it. We’ll be back and try some of their other dishes.
The after-​dinner crowd was a riot to watch dancing to the live music. That alone was worth going. No pretense here. Plenty of retired volk out having a great time.

Update: The vibe of my review below was entirely driven by Mr. Dallimonti, who really was the heartbeat of the place. People came because he knew how to create a place where you felt at home. I don’t know the new owners. I’ll check it out when there, but Ron is a hard act to replace.
Original Review: Four/​Five Star: I don’t think I’ve eaten here, other than maybe fried ravioli at the bar. I have consumed many cocktails here. Often too many, but I behave well when tippled. The crowd is local, and genuine. Everybody is having a great time. It’s hard to find bars like this.
FYI, the food smells and looks pretty good. 1970’s bay area italian. The good stuff.

This restaurant is old school and all dinner prices include soup, salad, the entrée, and dessert. The soup and salad are served family style, and customers can ask for more if necessary. My husband and I were there with another couple on a Friday when they offered a weekend special. I ordered their grilled salmon with Brussels sprouts. It came with a plateful of Brussels sprouts and the salmon was cooked perfectly. We ordered different entrees and all of us liked our entrees. I would gladly return.

I went here on my first date with my wife! The place is great, very warm and cozy. The food is awesome along with the service. Parking can get crazy so watch out. All in all this cute spot is a great place to go if you are craving some good authentic Italian.

I’m really conflicted about giving anyplace, that has good intentions, one star, but when the best part of the meal was the bread and then the spumoni, well…
Bland and flavorless best describe what we experienced tonight. Very surprised when every dish at our table for 7 had no character. Either it was an off night or the new owners have gutted the entire staff or they’re going on the cheap… don’t know, but not going back. Sorry, many better choices. Not trying to be hurtful or mean. Melo’s has a far superior marsala! Oy vey.

The service is always good. Staff is friendly and nice and food comes generally quick, even with bigger groups. The place is small and dark which is nice when looking to have a quiet dinner. The bar seems like a fun place to chill and have a few drinks with out the normal Walnut Creek noise.
The food unfortunately doesn’t do it for me, at least not the pastas. They all seem to have a cream heavy sauce that is overpowering and almost masking some other real flavors in the dishes. I’ve settled on two favorite dishes when I go. Shrimp salad and pepper steak. Good flavors and consistent. I doubt I’ll try anything else when I go (a friends favorite restaurant for birthdays) but we’ll see. Also a bummer that they don’t make a traditional spaghetti and meatballs which is always a hard to mess up dish but can go a long ways when done right.

I took a friend for her birthday out to Dallimonti’s for dinner and a fun night of karaōke. The family style dinner was excellent (soup, salad, bread) and I had Chicken Marsala and my friend had tortellini and both were great. Karaōke was super, as it show cased a lot of really good singers. I hope the new owners will make the old timers feel welcome and at home, like the old owners did. Remember your business depends on how you treat your guests…

This place, since new ownership, has really went in the toilet. Purchased food to go and it was inedible. Spoke with a few locals and apparently a lot of the neighborhood customers will not even darken the doors. Too bad Ron let them keep the name.

I’ve been going to Dallimonti’s for 17 years… until tonight. Having this old family style restaurant in the neighborhood has been very nice. Yes many out of towners come and trash this place because it’s an old family style joint. However for those of us that are local, it’s been great to have here, serving a nice meal at reasonable prices. My kids and I have eaten here no less than 40 times, and probably more than 60 since 1998.
Alas the former family sold out a few months ago. And the new owners have ruined the place. My order of Chicken Cacciatore was so awful that I couldn’t swallow the first bite. My kids meals were pathetic. Whoever is now in the kitchen «cooking» needs to be banned from ever walking into a kitchen again. The fact that even after I basically said the meal was inedible it was a bit of a surprise that nobody came out to inquire what the issue was.
Note to the new owners… everyone in the neighborhood is, or will catch on very quickly that you are cutting corners and serving terrible food. Hence the reason there were 2 tables served the entire time we were there tonight. The locals are what keeps this place going. The bar alone won’t be enough.

Love this place! Been coming here for 40 years! lived the old owners and really love the supple changes the new owner, Angela has added. Just splendid!

The food is served family style, you won’t go home hungry. The prices are excellent for the amount of food you get. The staff is friendly and helpful. Saturday night entertainment is always great, if you love music and dancing like I do!
The décor is in serious need of updating which is why I only give it a 3 star rating.

Two Consultants from my Home Office in Concord, California brought me here for lunch on a training visit– and I’m glad they did!
I ordered the house tortellini– which had AMPLE sauce, was NOT over cooked, had cheese that was the PERFECT consistency, and just enough spice!
The place is small, quaint, and definitely family owned. It has a full bar as well; and I hear that the locals turn this place up at night (aka: it gets a bit rowdy wants the sun goes down!)
The service was great. I had no idea what to order, so I just threw out a bunch of random nonsense that had to be somewhat resembling what I might be in the mood for. That’s when the lovely server suggested the house tortellini. Spot on. I ate all of it– didn’t even CARE I was in front of corporate shoving my face full of pasta. I mean.. . I married an Italian after-​all (Gasp! She didn’t.. .)
It’s a wonderful place with delicious food. I’d go back.

This place is dirty, outdated and over-​priced. I was shocked at how bad the food tasted. I should have just left. :(I would NEVER recommend this armpit.

This place is a dive bar trying to pretend to be a restaurant. Let’s excuse that it doesn’t look like it’s been dusted in years, or the fact that your food is going to be brought to your table on utility carts (they even use the last shelf that is very close to the floor), or that it sometimes smells like bad water. But let’s talk about today, about 20 minutes ago I walked in to get a cold beer, was given a nice cold bottle and a cold glass with old lipstick prints on it (you know, like someone drank out of it). I didn’t say anything because it’s what you expect at a dive bar. But as a restaurant it pretty much fails on every level, the food is bland, the décor is extremely outdated and when the live band starts playing forget about trying to talk to your date.
I’m giving it a 4 because although it just isn’t a good dining experience, for a dive bar/​hang out it’s just awesome. If I were the owners I would give up the idea of serving «authentic Italian» food and embrace the bar that it really wants to be.
Knock down that pathetic fence looking divider, ditch the dining tables, put in a few pool tables and some dart boards. Serve only easy bar food (preferably fried) and put in an updated sound system and run the place that it’s begging to be.
If that doesn’t sound like a plan for you, may I suggest submitting to either Kitchen Nightmares or Restaurant Impossible…

This review is only for the bar, I’ve never eaten the food here.
This place has a cheers feel to it. There is great music on the weekends with dancing. Crowd is mostly middle age and above sometimes younger. Karaōke every Friday night. It’s cozy, but still enough room to have a good time. The bartenders are very friendly and welcoming.

It was Date Night for me and Gayle. We started off with the 5:05 showing of «Super 8» and finished off with dinner at Dallimonti’s. We both enjoyed the movie, the 1979-​vintage sound track (especially My Sharona — with the best guitar solo ever), and the Zombie flick within. So after that experience, a little flesh eating at the local neighbourhood Italian place seemed to be in order.
Dallimonti’s is a very comfortable place with decent food, reasonable prices, and good family-​style service. It’s also very Midwest with friendly, folks, local color, red checkered table coverings, the right amount of kitsch, and a bar on the other side. And that’s all Gayle and I really wanted. It was an easy meal and is a definite repeat «go to» choice after a movie or show.

My husbands family and us shared my birthday celebration here. I like the family atmosphere and everything but the food. I’m just not impressed anymore by the food.
I think they are only getting 3 stars because the bar tender did make a good Side Car. As to that, that is it.
The soup was great as always. The salad was changed up somewhat. It had different lettuce than usual. I cant stand that rust or red colored lettuce and the salad was full of it. It used to be iceberg lettuce which was much better.
I had the Seafood Linguine. It was horrible. It was probably the worst meal I have had in a long time.
When I asked what was in it, it sounded like clams with shrimp in a white sauce. I was thinking a light white wine sauce. No it was a creamy sauce with no flavor. The white sauce actually tasted like flower and water with a dash of pepper.
There were only 3 shrimps and they were tough. Then the clams were taken out of the shell. So, am I to assume that they are fresh clams? That really irritated me. I asked for a box then left it in the mall parking lot after we left the place.
Our family comes here all the time and I have had really good food here but this one takes the cake. Literally takes the cake out of my birthday dinner.
So as of now go for the drinks and the minestrone soup.