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Il Fornaio - Manhattan Beach
Fornaio means "the Baker" in Italian. This award-winning restaurant offers an authentic and unique Italian dining experience. Specialties include wood-fired rotisserie and grilled meats, poultry and game; housemade pastas; pizzas from an oak wood burning oven; fresh salads and housemade soups; a wide variety of desserts; and fresh baked bread made daily from scratch. Winner of the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence 2007.
Mon–Fri 11:30 am–3:00 pm
Sat, Sun 11:00 am–3:00 pm
Dinner
Daily 3:00 pm–10:00 pm
Private Dining
Il Fornaio- Manhattan Beach offers 3 rooms for private dining that can seat up to 90 people. Our restaurant is great for hosting birthday parties, wedding rehearsals, business luncheons and many other events. Please call our Event Coordinator for descriptions of our private rooms.
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Menu
Specials
Mother's Day Menus & Specials
Treat the mom in your family to a special day at Il Fornaio filled with authentic Italian elegance, a deliciously creative menu and memories for a lifetime!
Sunday, May 13, 2018
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Very good food, little expensive , great service , tasty, really liked the Duck (don't have it lot restaurants), good wine selection at reasonable price.
Last minute early dinner get together with friends. Weekday night early bird specials on appetizers and pizzas were a pleasant surprise so we ordered appetizers (caprese, polpettine duetto and margherita pizza - all half price! The pizza and meatballs were so good we ordered a second round. Some of the drinks were slow to arrive and we had to ask for the bread basket. Due to the romaine lettuce warning only arugula was available for salads - no fault of the restaurant. We ordered entrees - Bronzino, Scallopini, Brasato - all with a side of Fettucine Cacio Pepe instead of the potatoes that come with the meal, as well as a full size Fettucine Cacio Pepe, Spaghetti con Polpettine, Ravioli and Antipasto Della Casa without olives and peppers. While almost all the entrees arrived, the Anitpasto did not. After waiting a while and reminding the waitress, she said there was a mix up and someone else had taken the order to a different table. She said It would be right up. When it arrived , it was not as ordered and had to be sent back and remade. By the time it arrived, the rest of us had finished eating. While an apology was made, it was really insufficient. We received the check when requested but waited and waited for the waitress to pick up payment. Finally tracked down the Manager so we could pay and leave. In summary, food was great but service left something to be desired.
Wanted to try this location since we usually go to Burlingame. Also, this was walkable from our hotel. Food was good. I was surprised to see 2 duck legs in my dish. Everyone happy with meal.
A great place. If you have dinner, make sure that David is your server. You will be glad you did.
If he is not there, I will postpone my dinner until he returns.
The food is always good, fresh and tasty.
Food was very good. We had a reservation but were seated 25 minutes late! Manager was very apologetic and comped desserts.
Elegant restaurant with high quality food, large portions and reasonable prices
We have enjoyed Il Forniao once a month for as long as they have been in Manhattan Beach. We have eaten at the San Diego and the Washington DC venues as well. We always like the special regional menu at the beginning of the month.
I wanted to try the Regional crab risotto and I did. It was good and plenty for the next day, too. Of course, it "helped" that I had a whole basket of warm bread...
Food need improvement
I love this place but man oh man, what a bad experience. Service was bad. Not sure if they were underserved. Soup was terrible and neither my waiter or back waiter noticed that I took one bit and then left it untouched. Sent back dessert even. Who does that! Special flourless cake was just bland. Had to ask several time for more oil and vinegar for bread. Had meatball appetizer and it also was lacking. I believe in you Il Fornaio and this was a total let down. Had better service and food at Olive Garden the next night.
we went for the Sardengia [sic] regional menu. The soup was very good and hit the spot since we ee cold. the octopus and fregola salad was quite nice, simple and tasty. The fish and lamb were good and enough to take home for lunch the next day. The only ti g on that was the mirto sauce on the lamb was too sweet for a savory dish. The finish was the blueberry panna cotta with mirto sauce which was good here. Service as always (shout out to John and Manual) was great.
Everything was perfect. Our food was excellent. The restaurant is a beautiful and romantic setting and our waiter was friendly and attentive.
Beautiful, classy restaurant and great food! We have dined at many of the Il Fornaio locations and they are all consistently great!
We can always count on Il Fornaio for our family gatherings
They are most accommodating for large parties
The Manhattan Beach restaurant is close to the freeway and has easy parking
The menu has changed a bit and they had specials of the month for brunch
Victor,our waiter was most attentive
I had my usual pasta w/ bolognese- it was a generous portion. My only disappointment was that when I got home and opened my leftovers it was someone else’s from our party. This was not Victors doing. There was a busboy- not sure if he was new, but when we were first seated I asked him a question to which he did not know the answer, he was the same person that brought our leftovers. Next time I will check the box before leaving
This was our 3rd visit and each one has been more memorable than the other. Our waiter, Ismael, remembered us from our previous visits and was extremely helpful and courteous. The food, as usual, was great.
I come every month for the Regionale menu and enjoy it. We also had our office Christmas party here which was lovely. The Easter brunch was nice but we would have enjoyed a few more breakfast items to choose from.
It's a nice place but you can't avoid the feeling that you are in a chain restaurant, too standardized.
I went to for lunch with my girl friends. Good food, good wine, and Good atmosphere. Perfect!! We will definitely go back!!
Excellent service and ease with accommodating dietary needs/desires!
Good food, a bit expensive for what it is, wines by the glass too expensive unless you get a glass in the bar during Happy Hour.
Food was great as usual....service was a little slow due to big party in our section
The Il Fornaio in Manhattan Beach is always our first choice for dining with family and friends. It is always nice to have David Robles as our server who always knows to recommend good stuff for us to try.
Il Fornaio never fails to impress! Our recent dinner (short ribs, branzino and mixed seafood grill, calamari appetizer and spumoni dessert was spectacular. Our server, David, was friendly and attentive and the entire restaurant had a great vibe. It is one of our all-time favorites.
Nice atmosphere, wonderful service and delicious food....what more can you ask for?!?
it was busy for a Sunday night (might have been the last day of the Regional series). Dinner was good (lamb chops great) salmon was okay, took 1/2 home. Regional seafood soup was a great hit last week, so we had it again, marred only by the bread being on top of the soup instead of wrapped separately.
First date, nothing special. Food mediocre. Great dessert. Gone downhill in service and prices are higher.
Il Forniao is our favorite "date" night "white table cloth" dinner out.
We enjoy the specialty menu each month.
Been here twice in a week. Server this time belonged st Denny’s. Hit and miss.
I had the displeasure of dining here. Honestly, it was a disappointment. The menu has way too many options and nothing "special". The food is nothing close to authentic. The descriptions are deceiving and the dishes are not well portioned. Service was terrible. Our waitress seemed confused and it was a mess all throughout. What a waste...
As usual, the staff was friendly and welcoming. The spinach ravioli I ordered was delicious! We shared the Antipasti alla Casa and it was a delight. The Regional dolci, which was shared, was a true winner.
My family of 5 (including three children under 12) had a reservation for 645PM on Saturday. We were seated in the bar area at 2 small round cocktail tables shoved together. And it was right near the door which was constantly opening and closing on a very cold and rainy evening. Food took forever to get to our table, the waiter was obviously overworked and we even had to go to the hostess location to ask for our check.
The service was good as always (thanks, Dave!). The regional cannelloni dish was okay, not great. The risotto was good. The regional dessert was an interesting custard /pudding like thing, unusual for them. Rich and tasty.
Il Fornaio is always my first choice because of good food and most of your wait staff, especially David Robles, who demonstrate first-class customer service and the high-level professionalism is qualities that all of us in the working world should emulate. Please thank David again for us.
We were on our way to LAX and looked on Open Table for a nearby Italian restaurant with good reviews. We chose Il Fornaio.
We explained to our waitress that we had a plane to catch and needed prompt service. She took our order and then disappeared.
After 20 minutes of no drinks and our waitress not to be found, we complained to the manager. Our drinks arrived promptly but then in their rush to over-compensate our main course came out two minutes after our appetizer.
I ordered a pasta with chicken. I could barely find the few morsels of chicken in the pasta.
The food was good but not a good value relative to the prices. Best deal was the house Chianti at $10 per glass. Excellent! Overall it was an average experience at expensive prices.
Great restaurant and definitely recommend.
Enjoy!!!
Excellent service, food and ambiance. Superior service from the server David. He’s the best.
Lamb chops grilled on a blueberry mint sauce sounds odd but was incredible! Ditto blackened snapper on tomato onion salad. Generous caprese salad so fresh and enough for two. Black and white Creme brûlée topped it off! Wonderful service with David. Highly recommend.
Really enjoyed the service here. We really didn't need a reservation since having lunch around noon there were not that many people there for a wednesday afternoon. I'm sure later in the week and evenings this place would really get packed. Enjoyed the complimentary bowl of soup served at our table. Always love the olive oil and vinegar with some warm bread too.
Excellent food and ambiance
We went there for our birthday lunch and the sever comped us dessert
Delicious, will be back
The restaurant is beautiful and very convenient for someone like me, from Orange County, to meet a friend from L.A. Parking is easy to find. However, you can't ignore the fact that the food is mediocre at best. I had bean soup. It was tasty, but lukewarm. Then I had a chicken salad. There was nothing exciting about it at all and the chicken was shredded and not flavorable. I'll continue to come back because of the convenience, but I know that I would get a very good meal.