Il Fornaio

Good but not great.  Convenient location, street parking, friendly staff, just nothing special that makes me look forward to it.  I've had ok dinners here, but also had breakfast muffins that were dry and tossed.  The coffee is pretty good and they make fresh green apple juice if you want.

I'm sad I'm unable to give this restaurant a higher review.  The food was good but the service was really, really bad.  Our server forgot about us and when he actually did come over to our table he was pretty rude.  He tried to rush us into ordering and then when we were done with our dinner instead of bringing the dessert cart around for us to see the dessert he just nonchalantly asked us if we wanted anything else.  It was quite disappointing that my husband and I didn't have a better experience because we were celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary. Il Fornaio catered the food from our wedding (our reception was at the Garden Court next door to the restaurant).  We were excited to go back to the place that gave us such great memories 7 years ago...unfortunately we were unhappy with the experience last night.

Years ago Il Fornaio was one of the hottest restaurants in Palo Alto.  It was impossible to find a table without reservation, at the time it was one of the finest places.  
Last time I visited this place I ended up somehow satisfied but not as happy as in my prior visits.
My partner and I had a bottle of Merlot, a nice wine suggested by the waiter.  For appetizer we had carpaccio and bruschetta, they were both good.  For main course we had Pesto Chicken Pizza and Conchiglie al Pollo,  This last dish is likely a best seller since I have seen it for nearly 10 years.
For dessert we had Tiramisu and we had to order a second one.  Honestly we were having a good time, like we always do and before leaving we saw a manager yelling at an employee in front of all the guests.  I wonder why they talk to people like that in front of the guests, hat was enough to ruin my dinner.  

That big lady should think twice before doing these things, Il Fornaio and its guests deserve a little more than this sampling of bad taste.