Ideale

My husband and I recently returned from a two-week vacation in Italy, where we fell in love with authentic Italian, especially Roman cuisine. We were thrilled to find out about this restaurant through word of mouth and decided it was worth the 50-mile drive to give it a try.From the first bite, we knew we'd made the right decision. The traditional Roman pastas were absolutely delicious, bringing us right back to our trip to Italy. The pizza was also fantastic - fresh with a perfectly made dough - and the service was just as impressive. A special thank you to Fabio, who guided us through the menu with such passion and dedication, really working to capture the essence of Italian dining for us.

So much potential but something is off in the kitchen. I had been once before during restaurant week but something had changed. 5 stars for the service, ambience and menu. 2 stars for the bucatini. It came out hot and presentation was great, but the sauce was bland/soupy and lacking any real substance. I found myself begging for a salt shaker. This place is a good deal for the price and there are plenty of other options on the menu. If quality is what you're seeking perhaps spend a little extra and visit Mare E Monti

I ate here during SF restaurant week so keep that in mind. :) Ideale is a lively, Italian spot in north beach that's been around for a long time. The staff is super nice.Overall, the food is good yet not outstanding. The prix fixe menu of an appetizer, pasta and entree for $60 is well worth it, though.The portions are pretty generous. The cacio e Pepe was good, but the meat on top seemed a little strange. It tasted like bologna or some sort of deli lunch meat (sorry!).

We came back! A few months ago, we stumbled in for a drink and dessert. But this place made an impression on us so this time we came back for dinner.We had wine, two appetizers, a salad and two pastas. We love the calamari. Fresh and delicious. The burrata bruschetta was great as well. Pasta-wise, my friend likes her daily special pasta while I like my spinach pesto pasta. Also, we got the tiramisu to share again because it was yummy.When we first entered the restaurant, there weren't that many diners, but the place filled up fast. The outside dining room by the door was also packed due to a big birthday dinner celebration.On a side note, my phone battery was drained from my frequent use and I needed some charge so I can call a car later. I brought my charger but of course, it doesn't work when it's plugged, so one of the nice waiter/staff (sorry I didn't get his name) helped me out by charging it for me as we ate dinner. Really appreciate!

Here's what they promised: "We will be having a very special dinner on Sunday, November 17th. It will be a fun, celebratory dinner with lots of food, wine... both included in abundance for $100/person." There was no "abundance" in the food and wine but a very real "abundance" of lackluster service. Here's what we got: flat tasteless semi-stale bread, mushy mushy mushy tomatoes, pears that were hard-as-a-brick-under-ripe (completely inedible), risotto that was so undercooked that the rice was as chewy as cardboard and watery beyond belief (and tasteless -- inedible AGAIN), and dessert for two on a single plate of these inedible things wrapped in plastic. Photos attached. $100 per person. Incredibly disappointing. And .... when it came to the "abundance" of wine....well, we had to beg for the tiny bit of wine that we got. Terrible terrible terrible experience.

This lovely cafe has an interesting menu with fresh salads, beautiful pastas, pizza and treats standard assortment of secondi. This is the third time we've been there for dinner and it was delicious. Staff is attentive but not hovering.

Delicious homemade pasta, attentive service. Highly recommend. One in our party who's a great cook in her own right raved about the lasagna.

Another lovely dinner: Fettuccini, gnocchi, lasagna. While all were delish, fettuccini w truffle was a standout. We had the pleasure of meeting the charming Maurizio at the bar. Even though the restaurant was full, we were well taken care of at the bar.

This was our first visit to Ideale and we were delighted! Many friends have enjoyed themselves at Ideale and it was highly recommended. We were greeted warmly and seated promptly and soon were enjoying warm appetizers and chilled Prosecco! My companion's gnocchi was heavenly--light and fluffy and delicious! Some of the best I've ever tasted. My tortellini was likewise perfect. For dessert we shared a delicious tiramisu, and soon we were off to the theater where we raved about our delicious meal right up to curtain time! I hope we get back to Ideale again soon!

Don't go. They altered their menu for Valentine's Day which was a terrible idea. My boyfriend made this reservation after looking at the regular menu on yelp (cause it's not on their website) and seeing it had two of our favorite pasta dishes, he made a reservation. However they changed the menu for the holiday so we couldn't order either of what we wanted. Which was not mentioned on the website. The service terrible (took 45mins to even put in our order). The food was mediocre at best and not filling at all. I asked for one change in the pasta I ordered and that was no meat. Surprise, surprise there was in fact meat in my pasta. I had my boyfriend try it cause I wasn't sure and he confirmed that it was in fact meat. My boyfriend pasta also was made undercooked (not al dente) and was sweet??like really could've used some salt and pepper at the very least. We also asked for bread three times and never received any bread. The best part of this place was the water. Unbelievably disappointing for what should've been a special night.