Cugini Manzone - Berkeley

The food is excellent, and the service is always top-notch and very friendly. It's one of my favorite restaurants!

We dine at this restaurant often since it's in our neighborhood, and the food and service have always been reliable. However, this week they truly excelled. The Friday special, a grilled prawn garlic fettuccini, was exceptional—bursting with flavor. We enjoyed as much as we could of the generous portion and took home the leftovers we couldn't finish. I believe this reflects their commitment to meeting the high expectations of a community that appreciates fine dining; mediocrity simply won’t suffice here. The Caesar salad is consistently good, as is the local olive oil. On a downside, the bread is regularly disappointing. It's puzzling how a restaurant in Berkeley, of all places, can serve such tasteless bread.

The food was disappointing. Our group of 11 had lunch there, and the experience fell short. The crab cakes had a fishy odor, the meatballs were cold on the inside, and one order arrived a full 10 minutes after everyone else had been served. I wouldn't recommend going back.

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.