Cugini Manzone - Berkeley

FFood excellent and service always top drawer and very friendly, one of my favorite rrestaurants.

We eat here frequently it's in the neighborhood and the food and service have been consistently good, but this week they outdid themselves. The special on Friday, a grilled prawn garlic fettucini, was indeed special exquisitely flavorful. We savored as much as we could of the ample entreel and then brought home the few bits we couldn't finish. I think this is a sign that they're rising to the challenge of being in a special neighborhood where residents are used to fine food; ordinary won't do here. Also consistently good is the caesar salad. Ditto the local label olive oil. Consistently bad, on the other hand, is the bread. How on earth can a restaurant in Berkeley, of all places, serve such bland bread?

The food was disappointing. We were a group of 11 for lunch. The crab cakes smelled fishy, the meatballs were cold inside, and one order came out a solid 10 minutes after all the rest if us were served. Not worth a re-visit.

We stopped in here for dinner before a local event and my wife was pleased to find gluten-free pizza on the menu. We each had a really good salad and then shared a pizza. I don't care about the gluten-free stuff yet found the pizza really delicious.

I really wanted to like this neighborhood restaurant. It has the potential to be a great experience due to its location adjacent to an alley where tables can spill onto the sidewalk for outside dining. Unfortunately it is a little expensive $250 excluding tip for party of 6 including 2 bottles of $35 wine) for a casual neighborhood restaurant and the food doesn't justify the expense. I would accept the prices if the food were better, but the food is only marginal. Nothing was bad, but nothing was really good either. 2 people at our table had the chicken parmesan and both entrees were overcooked, with the cheese on top noticeably darkened so its not as if the chef couldn't tell, but they served them anyway. The mussels appetizer was ordinary, the frutti di mare was substandard, and nothing anyone ordered really stood out as good. There are too many excellent restaurants to choose from at this price point to justify returning here, despite the convenience of the location. That is too bad, as I grew up eating at a neighborhood Italian restaurant almost every week and was hoping this could be that place, but it just doesn't deserve to be it. Still in search of good Italian in the Rockridge/Elmwood area to be a regular go to place.