Il Fornaio - Manhattan Beach

Went here to get some dinner on a Sunday night, party of 2. Wait time was about 5 minutes. Seated in a cozy private-ish booth near the back. Greeted immediately by Gabriela, amazing service, attentiveness and hospitality. Order the calamari appetizer and lemon veal main course. Flavor and freshness was spot on, didnt even noticed the salt and pepper on the table. Bread with oil and balsamic was rosemary tasty, warm, and crispy crust! Calamari was lightly battered and the spicy marinara with it was smooth with the hint of heat at the end. Veal could be a bit more tender or steak knives could be sharper? either or.... Yukon potatoes were the highlight of the dish with the lemon sauce. Overall, great service and food was fresh as promised. Will be back!

A few years ago I had the wonderful experience to dine at II Fornaio during restaurant week. It was a 5-star dining experience and I vowed to return. This week I treated a colleague/partner to dinner. It was another 5-star experience. Fine dining, great food and wonderful staff. The sea bass is a must-have.

Absolutely amazing restaurant with great amenities beautiful atmosphere and amazing Italian food the best I've ever had in a while I highly recommend this restaurant to anyone in the area perfect for date night and any event you may have! Will be coming back on multiple occasions.

Very good Italian food! Excellent quality! Formal yet, friendly professional service. Knowledgeable waiters and perfect location! Italian dishes are traditional and big portions. Very well presented on your plate. Classic High End Italian decor and great ambience! Fantastic for business luncheons and company's party! Evening dinning is also very, very good, I highly recommend! Not expensive for the high quality food, excellent service and superb Italian dinning experience and ambiance!

I had the Caeser salad and a ravioli dish, along with a few cups of wine and the complimentary bread/oil/vinegar combo. The service was on point, and the atmosphere was exactly like you'd expect for an Italian joint... Dimly lit/intimate/candle lit. the food was fantastic in quality and portion.

Came solo to watch the game at the bar. Had some Coronas, my team won, had a tirimisu and sobered via their excellently chilled water and an afogato vanilla gelato with two shots of espresso. Great solo trip at II Fornaio. Always great!

Classy yet casual Italian restaurant in Manhattan Beach. - Cozy atmosphere - Ample and free parking - Happy Hour deals - Fabulous service

Great, authentic Italian food. The service was excellent as well!

Exceptional menu with a broad range of dishes from which to select. Fabulous chef and wonderful waiters.

Plenty of parking which is ideal. 😀 The service was pleasant and the food was good. The restrooms were clean. I'd return and I'd visit another location at a future time.

Our go-to place for Italian food, especially if you are looking for an elegant and warm interior. We have yet to have a bad meal here, and the staff are amazing. We love coming to this location and have shared so many special memories here. The easiest parking lot for a restaurant in Manhattan Beach.

We dined here last minute on Easter Sunday & were so glad we could be accommodated. Delicious food, wonderful atmosphere & attentive, friendly service from our waiter David. Thank you for making us feel so welcome.

Food amazing pasta cooked perfectly al dente flavor spot on! Thank you Tim for the awesome service and tasty cocktails! Celia was also amazing will definitely come back again!

From the moment I and we walked into this place the staff was very nice and welcoming. It continued that way all evening. And the food was to match

It’s the best! For the price point you get a great amount of food! At other places for a similar price point you get much less. Here it feels high quality with great portions for a fair price. Our server Eric was very attentive, and helpful when deciphering the needs of my 5 year old sister. Who ended up getting what has to be the best macaroni and cheese she’s ever had. He was super attentive and very good at his job! Because of him we will be back again and maybe make it our regular spot. Really great service and ambiance! The holiday decorations were done very well too. I think it’s such a cute place and anytime I’ve gone here it’s been great! They have lots of great options no matter your needs.

A client took my wife and I to dinner here when we were passing through for one evening. The atmosphere was very nice. Staff was friendly and the food was really good, but it is pricey. We happened to go at a time when it wasn't very busy, which was nice.

Il Fornaio is for sure a luxury place to dine, love how spacious it is, while they still have the Italian details in both their environment and food. Let's start from their Caesar Salad 🥗, the lemon taste of the sauce lighten up the entire dish, the bread crunches is the highlight. The blueberry sauce of fillet mignon, gives you the Italian dessert type of delicacy, the only thing I will make a suggestion is that if they can take out the ginger from the sauce, will be perfect.

Went for my friend's and I birthday dinner, we had plenty food to try but I ended up liking a slim picking of it. The highlight of our night was ordering a bottle of wine, liking it so much and going right after to to Total Wine to purchase it lol.. Service was amazing and the table bread was really good. When I go back, I know exactly what I want to order, the rigatoni alla vodka... My friend enjoyed the seafood plate. Food 3/5 for me but with going back..

We used to go to Il Fornaio in Pasadena all the time before it sadly closed down after the pandemic. We’ve always loved their food—especially the pizzas—so we were excited to find out the Manhattan Beach location is still going strong. After visiting our daughter nearby, we stopped by for a bite and were so happy to see the familiar menu with all our favorites still there. We ordered the Pizza Fradiavola and calamari. That pizza? Next level. The crust was perfect, and the toppings had just the right amount of kick—way better than anything we’ve had from CKP. The calamari was solid too—crispy outside, tender inside. Great spot, great food, just like we remembered.

Very nice place to bring a date or family. Prices reflect the elegance, service is alright. Waiter was cool but the guy cleaning up the table is rough around the edges and needs to work on his manners. My portion was a little small, seared scallops & prawns (forgot the Italian name), seafood was a little salty. Overall a nice place if you want to impress someone bring them here.

So my girl & I went there on a "spur of a moment thing" when she got back from Colorado the atmosphere was nice, it was a late lunch for us so it wasn't crowded yet i had steak...yes rib eye steak at a Italian restaurant, it was cooked perfectly portion was a nice size the asparagus cooked & seasoned even better(my favorite) but the steak just needed a little more flavor in my opinion, my girl thought opposite, we different palate's, she enjoyed a pasta dish (unfortunately i can't remember the name) also had cocktails that were pretty good if your from Italy (little bitter for my taste) dessert was awesome...this is a "come again" place for us to try other items.

The Osso Bucco was delicious, but they use to serve it with a risotto now they use mash potatoes and instead of veal they used pork, with no bone marrow to dig into. The minestrone soup warm and fresh on a cold night. The rigatoni vodka pasta delicious. I hope they return to serving Osso Bucco with veal and on risotto. The tiramisu was delicious and would buy again. $100.32 for the meal.

The place is nice, the service is good and the food is delicious. Thank you for everything Armando ... enjoy it my dear friends...

Consistently average quality and some vegetarian options. Pasta dishes are reasonable. Minestrone soup is good and the salads are excellent . Italian wine selections are good

Food was amazing! I would have given it 5 stars but the service was basic nothing bad just not great.

My 1st selection was the Lamb Chops, The Lamb was tough I Changed to The Salmon, It was Delicious, Moist & The Desserts Were Scrumptious Overall It Was (10 out of 10). The Servers Were Very Attentive & Explained The Menu. Customer Service (10 out of 10).

This place is really beautiful, I loved the restaurants atmosphere, Perfect for a date night setting, All of our food was delicious, Will definitely be returning.

Went here for work sponsored dinner. Everything was solid but nothing was amazing. The panna cotta was perhaps the best thing I had that night.

In my opinion, the meal was highly salted, the chicken was overcooked, and the spagetti was aldenti. I was surprised at the lax in service for the price. A 3% "Service charge" is something unexpected and, in my opinion, based on the service rendered, unwarranted. Not that I'd eat at the olive garden ever again, but years back, when the olive garden was popular, the food and service was better. I would not make this establishment my first choice for italian food.

Il Fornaio in Manhattan Beach, part of a global chain renowned for its authentic Italian cuisine, offers a variety of dining experiences and unique private spaces like the East Loggia and Sala del Vino. While it’s known for fresh pasta, wood-fired pizzas, and regional specialties, my recent visit left me underwhelmed. The vegetarian options, including pasta and minestrone soup, were fine but not exceptional. The pasta sauce lacked depth, though a side of pesto improved the flavor. The soup was under-salted but easily fixed, and the bread and olive oil were satisfying. The ambiance was lively, with an open kitchen that created a bustling atmosphere, though it didn’t feel intimate or particularly special for a date night. However, it’s conveniently located with easy parking and could be a great spot for hosting large groups in their well-designed party rooms. While Il Fornaio has its charm and remains a favorite for many (as reflected in its generally high reviews), my experience didn’t match the hype. Perhaps exploring their seasonal menus or signature wine pairings could reveal the true essence of what they’re celebrated for. Would I return? For a special group event, yes, but for a personal dining experience, there are other options I’d prefer in town.

We are always looking to find a new spot to try and this was the place we went with. Was a nice spot to dine in at. My pasta was good, staff was friendly and attentive. Wasn't really worth the price of what was ordered but overall it was a nice time out.

Three of our seven at the table reported the food had no flavor. I had the chicken parmesan which was void of flavor.

Very nice restaurant but no vegan options :/ I ordered an artichoke but there were no vegan sauce, the waitress said yes but when I received the order they told me they didn’t have any sauce for me and on top of that the artichoke was not well cooked. A little disappointed with this beautiful restaurant, the place looks nice and despite the problem with food the waitress was very nice. They have a nice wine list and great drinks.

Slow service during happy hour at the bar. Food was ok. They also charge a 3% inflation fee.

Great customer service. Friendly. One last thing was disappointing: their desert: cranberry orange sorbet was just colored ice... we were chocked. Please do better with this desert.

For me it's was just meh....nothing special. We went there for lunch. Ordered the caprese traditionale and RAVIOLI LUCANA. The tomatoes in the caprese salad were not even cut so uneven that I didn't even enjoy the presentation. Maybe that was done on purpose but it didn't do it for me. The burrata also didn't taste fresh. The raviolis were very lightly stuffed with the sausage filling and they tried to overcompensate with the tomatoes. I understand restaurants being more frugal but reducing portion size and such but it was more pasta and tomatoes than filling. Service was ok although they were very friendly.

This decor is lovely, open, and airy. Very nice ambience and great service, however, the food on the other hand was lacking flavor and in need of a few extra boosts. I ordered the seafood linguini and the seafood was cooked well, but I found the dish to be a bit bland and boring. After a fresh squeezed lemon, a side of pink cream sauce, some salt to taste, and freshly grated parmesan I felt my dish was much better. For $30 a plate you should not have to dolly up anything.

how disappointing, first bar tender Tim no personality, very unfriendly. the happy hour drinks no alcohol, stuck to the wine, dinner was so disappointing Scaloppine Al Limone was overcooked cooked and tough. why the spinach on same plate getting sauce all over. my server David very friendly, didn't refill water and wasn't offered more bread. the bread was delicious. waste of $175....too bad so sad

I did a Uber eats order and it was disgusting. I ordered the lasagna. And like I said, it was disgusting. It was bland , and the noodles were overcooked, and it was overpriced

I had to changed my review solely out of principle. The host or manager lied straight to my face. They told me that this fake fancy restaurant has aways charged for bread and water. WATER! NOT A BOTTLED WATER. STRAIGHT FROM THE BARTENDER GUN. I will forever put this place down on any, and every platform I can find. It cost $94 for a piece of cake, salad with chicken, bread, coffee, and soda water. I will NEVER come back to this place. Your staff need more integrity. Don't lie to customers. This place serves super overpriced pasta. Go to the Olive Garden off of Marine. You're welcome