Buona Tavola in San Luis Obispo

really good service. the first dish i received wasnt my favorite, but the staff were super nice about it. the atmosphere on the back patio is great, and we liked our dessert a lot.

The food and staff here is excellent! Pasta is homemade and reminded me of the dishes in my trips to Italy.Staff is very attentive and makes you feel at home. This is our second time coming and we loved both experiences.

The food taste good but when the servers is confused, get wrong food and both my and my mothers card did not work at first so they needed to fix it manually, is not okay.

Pricy food, Dinner with 6 people. Three pieces of bread cut in half equal 6 slices.Eggplant not worth the price. 4 pieces cut like a thin slice of ham. 2 peppers and a piece of garlic. Never again. Olive spread. one small scoop for 6 people.very nice staff.

I had a phenomenal experience I always have had amazing service here. Definitely my favorite Italian dining in San luis obispo county! Franchesco always gives us amazing service the food is amazing I had the seafood pasta special was to die for! My gf had the gluten free pasta in a spicy red sauce! Amazing! All the wines selections we were advised on were all amazing truly a dining experience thats magical everytime cant rave about it enough! Every aspect of our meal was amazing! If you have been you must!

Ok this place is relatively high end. The entrees were well prepared and plated beautifully. Be sure to get the appetizer with multiple salamis. They also have a mail order catalog, which we’re going to use. Their sommelier is very knowledgeable and friendly. Check it out, the food, atmosphere, and people are terrific

Staff was extremely polite. Food was amazing, I had the risotto and it was amazing!

Best place for Italian food in the area. The most authentic I have had in a while with great appetizers, main course, and dessert. Due to the events of the day we were a little underdressed and still got served to the highest quality.

Sadly this review is not about the food because we didnt eat here. We had a special dinner coming up and decided Buon Tavola would be a great place to celebrate. We booked a table for the patio weeks in advance when there was lots of availability. A couple of days before our reservation we received a call asking if we could move our reservation from 7 to 7:30. We had other plans for the evening and this was going to be a little tight but we decided that we should do the right thing and move our time with the many assurances that our 7:30 time would still be for the patio. We arrived and were told there were no patio tables available and they didnt know when one might be. After we tried to help the restaurant out and then were shown that we didnt really matter to them it was an easy choice to find somewhere else to eat. For what it is worth, this is my first review of a restaurant ever so not a complainer normally.

We hosted the rehearsal dinner for my sons wedding on the beautiful patio at Buona Tavola! We had such a wonderful experience! Andrea was so friendly and helpful in all aspects of the planning of this special event! Manny and the rest of the servers went out of their way to help with setting up decor, serving food and beverages and assisting with packing us up at the end of the night! The food was also so delicious and our guests are still talking about it! I would highly recommend this place for a casual dinner or a group for up to 60 on the beautiful back patio!!

Excellent service. Outstanding Italian food. Tiramisu here is a must try

Attended a wedding rehearsal dinner...cant say enough..the wait staff were all friendly and attentive...the food was served in courses and hot...the food itself was beyond delicious...I didnt find anything negative...I do know when I visit SLO again , I will make plans for another meal at Buona Tavola....

Came in to town for our nephews wedding and this is the place they had chosen. Evidently, the restaurant does have a patio, and we sat ourselves with the rest of the guests. Perfect location for an intimate rehearsal dinner. We were pleasantly surprised by the way we were being treated by the whole staff. Everyone was on board to take care of the customer. There was a good selection to choose from the menu that had been prepared. Plenty of wine, beer, and water was served. My brother in law had requested a mariachi band and they arrived very promptly at 5:00 PM. Wow. These guys in pale lime green outfits began to play, and they were awesome. A total of 8 guys had come from Bakersfield, all the way to SLO. Appetizers were served, then we selected our main entrees. The first part was the bread with a marinated olive spread. I had the arrabiatta penne, and my wife had the tortellini. Perfect. Next, we had the salmon with spinach with carrots, and some mashed potatoes. This was also, perfect. Which was later topped off with cappuccino or espresso, with tiramisu. Mmm. By this time, we had to dance a few to make room for anything else. Overall, Buona Tavola was excellent. Look forward to visiting again soon. Try this place, youll be pleasantly surprised by the service, atmosphere and of course...the food. Very Good. Thanks.😎👍👍

Wonderful customer service. We felt so pampered here! Food was delicious too. ^_^

This review is for the SLO location. We hosted a dinner for 24 last Friday and everyone gave it 5 stars for the food and service. The GM Andrea, was super helpful with menus and options - cant thank him enough for making the planning process stress-free. Our Head Server, Manny, was fantastic as were the other servers. Every dish of every course was excellent. Cant say enough about Andrea and his Team. The food and service would have been fabulous if it was just me and my wife, but with 24 diners it was beyond belief.

Celebrated my birthday there and had the best time with family and friends. Great food, wine, and hospitality.

A really lovely, intimate Italian restaurant, run primarily by Italians.The beets, rucola and goat’s cheese salad was really good, as was the flat iron steak. A good selection of half bottles of wine is unusual in restaurants, but a real positive.Thanks to Andrea for great service and recommendations.

I liked it the Food was very good. Tables are very small and we had a larger party. Wish I would have told them there was more people coming.

Very good wait staff food was delish. Cute and charming place good music.

No doubt the best Italian food in the Central Coast! Service, ambiance and food all fantastic. Only thing that comes close is Italy. Will include photos next time!

Had a terrific anniversary dinner here on a Friday night. Greeted by the owner who is super sweet, multilingual, and seems to treat his workers with high regards.It seemed like a tiny restaurant until he walked us thru the back hallway to a gorgeous outdoor patio!! What a beautiful surprise!!The food was great. The service was impeccable, thank you! The service left a lasting impression on us.

They have a beautiful patio setting and the service is good. I love the food. Nice place to celebrate any special occasion! 👍🏻

Ive been going here for decades. Nice patio ambiance. Wait staff is professional and friendly. Owners care about quality service. I recommend ordering from the specials. They are usually especially good. The ensalada fantasia is wonderful! Get it if its offered as a special! I think desserts are their weakest link... The tiramisu is average. Dont order the crema. The apple tart is quite good. Overall highly recommended.

Certainly one of the finest Italian restaurants Ive been to. I didnt even get to finish my gnocchi, because my wife snuck the last few bites before I had a chance.The restaurant has indoor and semi-outdoor seating. The front room has a small amount of space, but the rear patio has plenty of tables and seats. And yes, the trees reaching through the ceiling are real trees.I would recommend getting a reservation if you want to try this place out for dinner. Its popular for a reason.

My favorite Italian restaurant anywhere! The owners chefs are from Italy. Their dishes are completely authentic. Outdoor back patio seating is furnished with heaters if necessary. The meal starts with complimentary sliced bread and house made tspanade. The menu is extensive but there are also daily posts, fish, meat and dessert specials. The service is impeccable and all the servers work as an organized team.

Buona Tavola never disappoints. The food was amazing, the wine delicious. But even better was the level of service, it was a true experience not just a dinner. Francesco, our server, was awesome and even figured out exactly what we had the last time we were there.

My wife and i had an excellent meal at this wonderful restaurant. Our server Francesco was very attentive, informed, and excellent at his job. The food was delicious and prepared beautifully. Not one single bad thing could be said about our meal here. Bravissimo!

Service is ok. Food is very average. The tiramisu tastes nothing like tiramisu (picturedwe had to ask if we got the wrong dessert.

Not sure where all the rave reviews are from. Their patio is very pleasant and the service is always good -- but the food is just so-so! Nothing has any distinct taste at all. I ordered the penne arrabbiata and it had NO SPICE at all and its suppose to be spicy tomato sauce! Tasted like just plain tomato sauce with some garlic. My husband ordered the fettuccine with meat sauce and they clearly just put the chopped up meat into a sauce and pour it over the pasta -- very little flavor. If you want bland Americanized food, then this is the place for you. If you want something authentic Italian, there are other options in town that are amazing.

Our work team eats here whenever we are in SLO. Usually on Wine Wednesday. The food is fantastic and the service is perfect. The patio dining is beautiful. We look forward to eating here every trip.An update: July 13, 2021 was my first time back since well before the pandemic.This place is perfection. Truly one if my favorite places anywhere in California.It doesnt look like much from the street. Inside is pretty small. Get a patio table! Bring good friends and enjoy a magnificent meal!Some reviews complain of slow service....they are missing the point!! Slow down!! Enjoy the time!!

Super slow service. Went In Tuesday night, we were only people inside, others on patio. Took over an hour to get our appetizer. Then almost 40 minutes for our main dish and I ordered a salad. The service was pretty indifferent, I had to ask for refill on water, no one bothered to check in on us or let us know why food was taking so long. Food was very good but not willing to repeat the service experience when there are several great Italian restaurants in SLO.

The atmosphere was great, and the food was even better. I think the experience was well worth the cost.

We waited for our food for 1.5 hours. The seafood platter had a lot of broken hard shells and I almost cut my myself.

I was so happy we could eat here with family and friends after our small wedding. We had a set menu and the food was excellent; we all left stuffed. A little bit loud, but we expected that could be the case and the back patio has such a nice ambiance.

Andrea and the rest of the staff at Buona Tavola did such a wonderful job hosting a dinner for our wedding reception. They helped us come up with a menu and arrange everything in advance, and the dinner itself went wonderfully.My parents, who lived in northern Italy for a number of years, couldnt stop talking about how delicious and authentic the food was. The only part that wasnt authentic according to them was the bread - they said it was much better than the bread in Italy!What a great experience, were so glad we decided to host such an important event at our favorite restaurant in SLO.

Omigod! Lemme tell you about this place..... My husband and I love to try new places when we are out and about doing errands and decided that for lunch we would eat "fancy Italian". We get here and we are asked if we wanted to sit indoors or outdoors.... always choose outdoors. Their patio is hidden behind the restaurant and it is beautiful, they have heaters around the patio and if you get too hot they will turn it off for you, at least they did for us when we went.The service? Wonderful! Our glass was never empty and the server was the nicest guy who gave the BEST recommendations.The food was obviously made with love, despite being full we had to have more and ordered a dessert.Overall, if you want authentic Italian food that taste like heaven I 10/10 recommend this place.

Wonderful restaurant with a hole in the wall type of feel to it. To get to the outdoor dining patio you are guided by a hostess down a narrow hallway with an open view of the kitchen and emerge into a wonderful area with hanging lights and vine covered walls. The staff was amazing and helpful in assisting us with chosing a great dish as well as a wine we would enjoy. I absolutely recommend this place for a family or date night. I would not however recommend it for children as the tastes can be quite diverse.

Me and my friends fell in LOVE with this place!The pasta there is literally *chef kissAnd the tiramisu? Delicious!!! Definitely will be coming back.

Best, most authentic Italian cuisine...lovely little romantic patio. Ill be back! Food was plentiful and delicious

Love all their menu and been coming here for years. Everything authentic and written in Italian. Top restaurant in San Luis Obispo.

We had an excellent meal. The carpaccio was perfect. Nice arugula and cheese topping some of tenderest beef. My ravioli with saffron sauce was flavorful and my wifes special spaghetti with walnut sauce and seafood was perfect! We finished off the the evening with Vin Santo, sorbet and espresso. Great meal. Servers were great, the the atmosphere was very reminiscent of meals we have has in Italy.

I will start with the food...exquisite, great presentation and tremendously flavorful. The owner, accommodating and friendly. The waitstaff helpful ,personable and knowledgeable. At a time of limited seating everywhere, we never felt rushed and we able to savor our meal at our leisure. Why eat in the street when you have a choice of a beautiful patio, sheltered from passing cars and pedestrians. Authentic food and a great lesson in Italian cuisine.

Came here tonight for my boyfriends birthday. It was our first night out since covid and it was such a treat! Staff is great and the food never disappoints. The pappardelle San pietro is a must have! Also they are doing a great job making sure everyone is safe :)

Guaranteed high quality, delicious menu with excellent service! Also I highly recommend dining in their garden ❤️ Very beautiful.

A surprise findings from a small town. Good food and the owner recommended the daily specials from starter to dessert. Superb food and delicious. Theres a nice patio unfortunately we just walked in and the patio was fully booked.

Authentic Italian cuisine well prepared and lovely presentation. Zuppa di Vongole, lam soup not chowder, delicious. Fresh fish, pastas, our party of 8 enjoyed the evening.

This place is fabulous! Great Gluten free and regular options. One of our fave Italian/seafood places in the county!!!! Very kind very quaint. Love the owners and their staff! They bake GF bread by request , and keep contamination very low, they change the pasta water frequently, and have great Gf dessert too! ❤️

Dynamite pasta and wine list. The som/floor manager is from northern Italy who always delivers perfect service and advice. The rest of the staff is top notch as well.

This place is awesome. Everything we had was cooked perfectly and the dessert was amazing. There was a special for 3 course meal that was totally awesome. If you like Italian food you will love this place.

Such great food and romantic patio. Very reasonable lunch prices around $14 per plate! Friendly service and love the Piedmont will e list and imported cheeses for full Italy experience.