Molino’s Ravioli

Pay close attention to the dates of these reviews. They have been rolling steadily downhill for years. This is significant.
We followed the arrows from the driveway into a cellar full of freezers chock full of undated food. This is also significant. There is no guarantee of freshness… nor proof that the food hasn’t been sitting in there for weeks. Months. Years.
The man that helped us seemed nice. He didn’t say a single word. He wrote down and pointed to a total. Nice enough, though.
I tried the garlic noodles. They tasted like they were boiled with swampy clams in sugar water.
I dumped them in a sieve and tried rinsing them off. The buttery (?) gunk clogged my sink. I can’t scrub it off the sieve. I can’t get it off my hands. These things are going to fuel my nightmares. Gave up and threw the whole thing out.
I really hope this P. Hill tradition will stay open for decades to come… but if someone doesn’t step in and turn the operations around, they won’t make it through the year.

Lesson learned. We will not be back.
My dad is Italian and we love us some home cooked Italian meals, so while he was out of town my mom and I decided to try out Molino’s as ravioli is my absolute favorite. My mom stopped in and picked out a couple different raviolis, and the man highly recommended she try their alfredo and pesto sauces, and kinda just shoved them in her hands and told her the total. She got home and we noticed the ingredients were printed on the containers, which contained MARGARINE. Sorry, but did your Italian ancestors use margarine? I don’t think so. Still excited and curious try everything, we sampled the sauces before the ravioli was ready. It was like eating a spoon of straight effing salt. Both of them. We spent twenty minute trying to doctor the Alfredo (Pesto wasn’t even worth trying to fix) with cream and Parmigiano-​reggiano etc and finally made it edible but still way too salty. The raviolis were okay, nothing special, tasted like they had been frozen for a while. The garlic bread was also extremely mediocre, even after baking it with our own cheese on top. After hearing that this business has been around so long, we expected much, much better. Disappointing to sum it all up.

Disappointed today. Picked up one of the crab dinners on my way home from visiting family at the hospital as a treat for myself. This is a dinner I purchased multiple times last year during the crab season and alway enjoyed it, but my first purchase of this year, not so much.
Last year every time the crab was freshly done that day and usually still warm when I picked it up. This time both the crab and the noodles were frozen solid. Even warming it gently, the crab was a bit dry and not much flavor.
I guess next time I call ahead to make sure they have the crab, I better ask how fresh it is, and I recommend anyone ordering do the same.

My husband and I found a coupon for Molino’s Dungeness Crab dinner for two which included noodles and garlic bread. There was so much salt in it we ended up throwing it away. This was our first time visiting and keep asking myself after seeing how dirty it was in there and how nasty (dirty) a few of the employees looked I should have ran out the door, but we took a chance. I think if the health department saw this place they would have shut it down. I will never go there again and will never recommend to a friend.

Still some of the best raviolis ever, even after 50 years of being in business out of the same house. Be especially careful not to over cook the raviolis! Read the directions, don’t stir any more than is needed to keep them from sticking to each other and don’t cook the raviolis more than about 8 minutes or you’ll end up with mush. I would definitely give this a 5 star rating but, even though the raviolis are to die for, their prices have seemed to skyrocket since I was last there. I’ve been eating their raviolis for over 50 years.

I’ve been going to Molino’s for fresh ravioli since my mother used to take us there beginning in the late 1950’s, when the «original» Mama Molino cooked out of her basement. I am now 60, and every time I go there, I can still see (in my mind only) the old mid-1950’s car sitting there in their garage, as well as Mama cooking up a storm on her huge old gas stove. The car is long-​gone, but the old stove remains there as a testimonial to how long this place has been in business… and with good reason!
If you love ravioli, it will never get better than this! All my life, any time I’ve ever eaten ravioli from somewhere else, it pales in comparison to their homemade recipe. My now 26-​year-​old son also loves their ravioli.
Bottom line is, IT DOESN’T GET ANY BETTER THAN MOLINO’S, for the world’s best home-​made ravioli!

Drove past it for 40 years. Finally stopped. Nice place, real Italian help. Sauce and meatballs were not even up to store bought food!
Ended up throwing away meatballs and sauce.

I LOVE this place! Their pastas are delicious and they usually will throw in a garlic bread for free. Super friendly. Helps to know some italian if an older (family member?) is checking you out. Very authentic little family place. Supporting local business is a bonus to getting great pastas and sauces.

Very disappointed in their take out crab dinner. Everything had freezer burn, the crabs were small and the pasta was extremely salty and over done on the garlic. On the plus side, the employees were nice.

I am so sorry to say I was so disappointed in Molinos I have driven pass for years and went in today to pick up dinner The pasta with shrimp caught my eye and was very excited to try it Bought two containers at $ 12.00 apiece and it was awful ! Pasta was small little chopped up pieces that looked like it came out of a can, sauce had no flavor and never did find A Shrimp ! I won’t be back ! What a waste of $ 24.00

I’m giving Molino’s 5 stars just for all the fabulous raviolis over the years and the loving memories of family. My father started going to the Molino’s original restaurant in Emeryville when he was a child (sadly he has now passed), which must have been the 1930/​1940s. He loved them! Low and behold when he and my mother were newly wed and had purchased a home in Concord to their great surprise they discovered that the Molinos had a farm in Pleasant Hill and that they sold their raviolis out of what was a basement kitchen. It became a family treat to load everyone up in the car and drive over to Pleasant Hill to pick up the best raviolis in the world! I can still recall quite vividly the original Mrs. Molino cooking over her huge white stove as you came into the basement. Just the smell of her sauce to this day puts me in that warm, comfy, secure state of mind.
In our family Molino Ravioli on Christmas Eve is a MUST! When our family moved to Oregon my father would plan a business trip to California around the holidays just to bring back Molino Raviolis and San Francisco sour dough for Christmas Eve dinner! All my loving memories of Christmas Eve from the 1950s and 1960s are of Molino’s Ravioli for dinner followed by a drive to my Aunt and Uncle’s home in Albany. We’d listen to KGO radio to hear the Santa Claus report in route and peer out the car window to the sky to spot him in flight. My dad would always drive up Old Tunnel Road, and NOT through the tunnel, so we wouldn’t miss a sighting. I hate to tell you my age but it’s been at least 55 years I’ve been enjoying Molino’s and add into that my father, I’d guess as a family we’ve enjoyed them for over 80 years!
I will admit to there being inconsistencies in the past. I believe in the 1970s, a son tried to mass produce the product which was not a success. The quality really suffered during those years. But when the current daughter-​in-​law took over the old recipes were back and everything improved. It was a very sad state when her illness prevented the making of raviolis but I was so happy to see them back open. She is a senior citizen and they have employed quite a few «helpers» in the past few years so I can understand if the product is not consistently the same. But for me, it is always a connection with my childhood, my grandmother and my parents wrapped up into the best darn raviolis!

I can’t give Molino’s a single star!
After two year of driving past Molinos and thinking that I should try their raviolis I finally did. I should have kept the fantasy of wonderful home made ravioli because the reality is just too painful!
Trying to follow the instructions to the letter turned out to be impossible, since the ravioli started falling apart as soon as they started to thaw! I removed them from the simmering water and tried to eat them «al dente» but the pasta had not even begun to cook and the filling was not hot and boring!
The tomato based sauce was watery and bland beyond belief!
It was pleasant to pass by and think of the treats that I was missing but now it will be gross to pass by and remember the absolutely worst pasta I have ever had

About 40 years ago my family used to get Molino’s raviolis since we lived really close by. On a whim I got some yesterday for a quick meal during busy holiday time. These raviolis haven’t changed one bit… good homemade… not fancy… fall apart a bit… but yum. My kids like the small cheese with alfredo sauce. I like the meat ones with meat sauce. People were nice. The old house is pretty eclectic but these raviolis are worth a try… will definitely buy them again when I am in the neighborhood.

The Roasted Garlic Crab and Garlic Noodles were awesome! They are up there with Than Long/​crustaceans for ¼ the price! I will be back :)

I live right down the street from Molino’s and always drive past it. Husband wanted to go there, so we decided to stop by on a Sunday afternoon and pick up a quick dinner.
First off, the place is creepy! You come in (we walked) and don’t quite know where to go. Once you do find it, you’re in the ground level of a house and it seems empty. Then a super duper old lady walks out (her hair is kind of a must-​see) and you think «she is still making food?».
We picked up a box of cheese ravioli, a box of chicken ravioli, and meat sauce. The sauce is not good. They put corn starch in it and the mouth-​feel of the sauce is awful. The ravioli were «dusted» with, I’m not kidding you, half a cup of flour. It took forever just to get it off! When I cooked them, a lot of them fell apart. And the filling was bland.
Won’t be coming back here, sorry!

This is my third or fourth visit to Molino’s. A co-​worker introduced me in the mid– nineties and his family had been loyal fans for decades. My prior experiences were positive & I enjoyed Molino’s traditional Italian home made offerings.
However, on my last visit the experience was quit different. Jim, who took my wife’s phone order was unable to locate it when we came to pick it up. But three boxes of butternut squash ravioli were produced so all was well (except for the thirty plus dollar price tag).
Upon arriving home, I was appalled by the poor quality of the Molino’s pasta.
After opening the boxes, the volume of dusting flour I encountered was excessive. I ended up sifting each ravioli with a slotted spoon to remove the excess. The dough had a greyish cast, not the pale yellow characteristic of semolina made pasta that I am used to, and all three boxes were dry. Many ravioli were stuck to the paper lining in the bottom of the box & could not be salvaged.
This was clearly not freshly made ravioli.
When cooking, most of the ravioli started to fall apart almost immediately in BARELY SIMMERING, salted water, leaving the contents of my stock pot looking like a brownish cesspool. Draining was done with the utmost care to preserve the few remaining intact ravioli. Saucing was the high point of the experience as it allowed me to camouflage the hot mess I was about to place on our dinner table.
The flavor of the butternut squash was unremarkable and the texture of the pasta was predictably mushy. At this point I was wishing that I had had a couple of bags of Safeway select ravioli in my freezer as a back up.
I’m as nostalgic and sentimental as the next guy, but the current Molino’s is a far cry from what it used to be. Quality ingredients, superior customer service and a talented, dedicated staff committed to producing traditional Italian food is the only thing that can save this local institution and restore it to greatness.

Had Meat Pasta tonight. Followed directions and came out perfectly. Nothing like fresh pasta.
Also got the Mushroom sauce and it was a good match.
And garlic bread was a good ratio of garlic and butter…
of course you have to cook all this and pay attention…
it was worth it!

Gayle works longer and harder hours than I do. When she comes home, Dinner hasn’t always been on the Table, unless you count takeout or a chicken from Safeway. It doesn’t help that I’m not much of a cook. However, I can boil water, so last week I stopped at Molino’s for some Chicken Ravioli and Mushroom Sauce. I also swung by Lunardi’s for the salad ingredients and some garlic bread.
The meal turned out very well, as my culinary «skills» made my dishes (and Gayle) «sing». However, my impression of Molino’s was that it’s a bit of dump, and not in the dive sense that I really enjoy. The main sales room was small and hot, selection was limited, and the guy at the counter was not particularly helpful or pleasant. I was happy to buy what I needed, and to get out of there as soon as I could. I may or may not return, but this might be a case where good food can’t overcome the surroundings.

Well, I hate to have to do this, but…
Something’s up at Molino’s. I’ve been a customer since the late 60’s and as a kid I loved trips to the Molino house to get great ravioli. As an adult I have continued my regular visits and have been hooked on the large beef ravioli with meat sauce. I was also saddened when they shut their doors for an extended medical leave, but was thrilled when they opened back up, still cranking out those flavors I crave.
This time I spent $ 19.71 for beef ravioli, cheese fettuccine, meat sauce and alfredo sauce. Pretty reasonable cost for that much food. My first hint of a problem was when Mama wanted to give me back 29 cents and a ten dollar bill after handing her a twenty. I kindly corrected her, but noticed that she struggled a little ringing up the four items. She’s in her 80’s and I don’t expect her to stay sharp, but she has never made this kind of mistake.
Well, jump to my kitchen and it’s all on the stove cooking, but the alfredo sauce comes out of the container in a sort of gelatinous form, not what I expected. After heating, it liquified some but never really resembled a «sauce» until we added a little milk. The consistency was right but the taste was way off. No flavor, no zip, no cheese, just bland as can be. A real disappointment.
The meat sauce for the ravioli is usually something I just savor and drive my wife crazy going «mmmmmmm» while eating it. This time? Same thing. Spices missing, that tad of sweetness was gone, not much flavor, very blah. The ravioli were a little pasty as well, but okay. The sauce is key, though, and without it being right, I don’t think I can return.
Shame, that a family business that has thrived in their home for over 80 years has to eventually come to an end. But unless the younger members of the family can rescue that original taste, I’m done with Molino’s.

I want to tell you about a great Ravioli Factory, Molino’s Ravioli Factory of Pleasant Hill, CA.
Molino’s Ravioli Factory by Emilia Molino. Molino’s Ravioli Factory is in a house. After you park your car, walk to the entrance is on the left side of the house.
Peter and Emilia Molino emigrated from Torino, Italy in the early 1900s.
They provide several homemade Raviolis and Sauces as well as Lasagna, Pasta, Soups as well as Party trays.
If you are in the area stop by and purchase delicious Raviolis, Lasagnas, Pastas etc. You will be glad you did.