La Gastronomia di Porchetta

First time there for celebrating my birthday, we were not disappointed! Truly Italian restaurant, with excellent food and service!! We will be back

Excellent coffee!

Absolutely unreal! We had the most incredible dinner. It really felt like we were back in Italy! Everything from the table olive oil to aldente house made pasta felt authentic.

La Gastronomia in Fairfax downtown is an Italian restaurant which seems to be always running excessively busy. We chose to visit on a Sunday evening thinking that it may be a better day to visit, still calling ahead of time (I had called to check at noon about the need for making a reservation) and reaching at 520 PM, we managed to only get a table about an hour later. We ordered sodas - peach based fizzy specialty soda and blood orange soda - both recommended Italian beverages. For food, we ordered the Pappardelle Estive (Pasta with corn, zucchini, cherry tomatoes) as they had run out of the spinach and cheese pasta we wanted to have and the server recommended this one. Also ordered the spaghetti with red sauce, black olives and eggplant, the tomato basil crostini and the pistachio gelato. The tomato basil crostini tasted well but was not toasted well so got soggy. The red sauce Spaghetti with black olives and egg plant was exceptionally high on salt, but for that it would have tasted well, I am sure. Pistachio gelato was nice. Pappardelle Estive was not great tasting as was bland and soupy. The experience was okayish - having driven for over an hour to eat at La Gastronomia and having to not just wait for the table for an hour but also for the food (the restaurant was truly very very busy, there was only one server and she was trying to do her best, so kept saying she is "attacked", she is “swamped” in the hearing of those waiting or those in the restaurant). Around 7.15 pm they got some more staff to help but by then most of our meal was coming to a close. I do see a lot of praise for the restaurant and perhaps that’s what inspired us to drive all the way from Santa Rosa; quite dejected for the way the whole experience went.

I arrived around 630pm on Thursday and it is quite busy in that area of Fairfax where lots of other restaurants are. I had a hard time finding parking, I circled around about 3 times and couldn’t even find a parking lot spot or spot I can walk to. I eventually found street parking that was somewhat in a red area but everyone said it was fine. They have both indoor and outdoor seating. The outdoor seating is forward facing just like in Europe to enjoy and people watch. There were mainly 2 people serving but they were super nice and friendly. We were given a pre-fixed menu to choose from for $30z I opted for the tomatoes, basil, and garlic crostini. For my pasta I for the braised beef ragu (mezzemaniche bolognese), and for dessert I got the chocolate hazelnut gelato which tasted like Nutella. I got a glass of red wine that paired well with the pasta I got which I asked them to recommend the glass for me. Other people in my table got the carbonara which had pretty big pieces of pork and pork fat if you’re really into that, and others got the vegetarian friendly spaghettis. The pastas were definitely heavy and filling. Almost everyone was able to take the rest home for leftovers. Can’t wait to come back here in the future! Such an authentic Italian dining experience in the North Bay!