Never disappoints. Creative, well prepared and delightfully presented food in a relaxed atmosphere. I love the easy BYO wine policy. A favorite!

The lunch menu needs to be changed more often.

We met friends and had a wonderful dinner all the way around. Never disappoints.

Creative menu that delivered with taste and presentation. Service was excellent.

Service was painfully slow (we waited over a half hour for our first round of drinks). There were mis-steps throughout (missing dishes, wine issues, etc.)

What could be better than dinner with good friends enjoying excellent food and wine. And a bonus, we could even hear each other talk. The waiter’s recommendations were very good.

Quite average really. Found nothing really to get excited about.....

Always a great place to meet and visit friends

The food, service and ambiance were ok, but the mandatory service fee that they put on my bill was difficult to swallow. I just can’t recommend a restaurant that takes for granted that the service that they provide is going to meet the standards of their customers. Why doesn’t the restaurant’s management just raise their prices by 18%, eliminate tipping, and pay their employees more.
I don’t have plans of returning to Oliveto Cafe. I believe that a restaurant that operates as a meritocracy provides better service.

Perfect dining experience as usual...can't wait to return for another great meal!

Excellent food as always. Service is very competent and unobtrusive. However, the cost is just prohibitive. Over $90 per person (5) for not very extravagant meals (One bottle of wine, two shared desserts, two plates per person.)

While Oliveto's has been around for many years now, we found the food, 2 days ago, to be better than ever. The gnocci were outstanding - the candied walnuts add just the right sweetness - as were the mussels and the fettucini ragu. The wines by the glass are poured from the bottles, a rare but highly appreciated touch. The noise level is lower than usual, ie eminently tolerable. The service was professional - the waiter knew the menu well - and timely. This place is hard to beat.

Got a last minute reservation for four upstairs. It’s always been a beautiful room and it didn’t disappoint. The waitress really knew her stuff and was very friendly about it. Buffalo Trace old fashioned was perfection. Lettuce salad (split two for four), steelhead, spaghetti Neri. All very good.

I've avoided this restaurant for years because every time I've been there, the portions were small, the wait staff surly, and the prices high, even though the food was generally good. So we were very surprised on this visit to be served ample portions of very good food by pleasant wait staff. I don't think much thought went into the menu (why put chirizo/hollandase sauce on steel head thereby obliterating the taste of the fish?), but there was enough to put together a pleasant meal. The wine was fairly priced but, the main attraction was that the room remains quiet enough to talk and be heard. This place isn't cheap, but it isn't absurd either. Great place for a business lunch.

First time at Oliveto and thoroughly enjoyed. Our waitress was most helpful on the wine and menu selections. Food was outstanding. Look forward to visiting again.

We enjoyed Oliveto, especially how easy it was to talk and be heard, but the portions are small and the prices astronomical. Two salads, two gnocchi, two cappuccinos and one biscotti should not cost $140.

The restaurant was cold.

It took a long time for my wine to come, after we finished the appetizer.
The food was okay, disappointing for the price point.

We’ve been here many times and it is hit or miss. Tonight was a miss. Expensive and overly fussy and small portions as well. We will not be going back any time soon.

I was disappointed. The food was good and well-presented. However, the portions were tiny. And the prices were too high. I won't return.

Entree was very disappointing. Adverstised as a charcoal grilled porterhouse porkchop, it was overcooked, dry.

Just excellent

Excellent food and attentive service in a very pleasant atmosphere

Oliveto is one of my favorite restaurants but, I must admit that last Saturday, the service and the food was not as good as expected. It took forever for all plates to arrive and when asked if there was a problem, the server just mentioned that the kitchen was having some problems but did not give any hint of how big of a problem was and how much longer it would take for the food to arrive.
Much later the food arrived. My meat was tender and nicely cooked. The portion of the pasta was really small and my wife who eats very little was quite hungry. The size of the meat plate was generous but she is vegetarian.

Wanted to try this restaurant....heard it was exceptional. We dined upstairs. I loved the ambiance , the lighting...the service was excellent. I found the menu and especially the descriptions of the various dishes just a tad officious. The portions were really very small both in the appetizer section and the main course section. My main course which was a delicious vegetarian butternut squash dish....was the exact same size portion as my dinner mate's appetizer order. My main dish was $30. I felt this was fairly overpriced even for a simply delicious dish...small that it was. I probably won't be dining here very often.....but for a special occasion it is fun and interesting.

We had a nice meal and good service- but it was apparently some kind of "pork week"- so the non-pork menu was a little short on choices. I feel like there should have been some kind of pop-up or warning you when you made a reservation that the menu was limited given it was pork week etc. I had a lot of trouble, since i don't eat pork, eating off the rest of the menu.

The only bad part was the meal, my date had some rope in her meal, it was even brought up to her attention by our waitress after she had to pull it out of her mouth and into the napkin. The waiting staff noticed but nothing was done-- like here is a clean napkin? Can we get you a new meal- Come on. I know we were in berkeley, but not everyone is stoned or wa

The service was nice but, for christ sake we were asked four times to order, and where we done but our water was was only filled once. Felt you were at the french laundry on speed. I hunt wild boar so the meat was ok nothing that special, I felt if it wasn't for the nice building and design and local the restaurant would flop.

Hog Festival: very creative menu. First rate quality of food. Everything was delicious. Excellent professional service. Sadly, we were overwhelmed by the copious amount of fat on several of the dishes and felt it later in the evening. Surprised that porchetta cap was inedible. Can't blame them. We knew it was about the hog.

Our favorite night, “The Whole Hog” special dinner. It was outstanding, the house made cold cuts, pig heart, and rigatoni with pork shoulder. We’ll be back next year.

We went because it was the week of the whole pig dinner. My girlfriend and I like to cook so when we eat out it is really nice when we can try foods that we don't cook at home. We were not disappointed. We started off eating the charcoal grilled pig's heart and the fritto of pig's ears with artichokes and asparagus with the green garlic aioli and Meyer lemon --wonderful flavors. We also enjoyed the flavorful breads. Would highly recommend the choucroute garni, with cotechino, ribs, coppo, pork belly--it was a nice size portion of different cuts of the pig. I thought the pork belly was outstanding. Two of us enjoyed the grilled porchetta which was one of our fav dishes eating in Italy. It was a fun night for pork lovers and we'd highly recommend dining here.

If you like pork and haven't eaten a Whole Hog dinner here, you're missing out. All food is good here all the time, but Whole Hog is an event to mark on your calendar

We came for the Hog Fest which was amazing. We had an amazingly knowledgeable waiter. He was great.

Excellent, relatively limited but thoughtfully planned menu with interesting options. Stellar service, unrushed meal. On the pricey side, good for a special occasion.

Disappointing this time! Did not like menu at all!

It all started off just fine; we arrived on time and were seated promptly at a table near the windows.

We looked through the menu which looked interesting and then we continued looking at the menu and wine list and cocktail selection - tables around us seemed to be having fun and eating interesting dishes and....

....we continued looking through the menu and continued...no server, no greeting, no water, no "we will be right with you" so.....

After 15+ minutes, we got up and left and that was that.....we took our appetite and credit card to a different Italian restaurant and had a lovely dinner.

High side of mediocre. Doesn’t live up to its former reputation, upon which its pricing is still based. As a restaurant wine director myself, I have to say that the wine list is decent, though. While overall disappointing, the highlight was the house made walnut ice cream, which was fantastic. In the future I’ll stick to the small cafe downstairs, which offers excellent value on a limited but well done menu.

Delicious and imaginative - really impeccable in every way. Friendly and professional server - beautiful dining room upstairs. Very enjoyable evening.

Always a great place

We had a birthday celebration dinner for our son. The food and service were both great. Our waiter recommended several dishes one of which was squash ravioli with brown butter, blood orange and amaretto cookie crumbs. Exceptional! We appreciated the ability to linger a bit and enjoy our time together.

One of the best culinary experiences of my (long) life!

Very mixed experience. Still the same civilized atmosphere we remember from several years ago; ambiance perhaps slightly improved, very good service from happy and well-informed staff. Some dishes were wonderful, notably the cured swordfish, the pepper fettucine with roasted chicken and gorgonzola . Risotto with short rib was really not acceptable, neither the rice nor the rib passing muster. Wine list is serious and price-effective. But overall Oliveto needs to pay heed. Basic dishes like risotto were unacceptable as served; cool/cold to boot. All failings here are remediable, but only if the kitchen and the management pay attention and insist on the standards set when Paul Bertoli was the owner and chef.