Menu for C'era Una Volta in Alameda, CA

Bad waiter service, ignored my calls, spent a lot of time, full conversation with a particular table, never brought additional... requested bread nor came by for the take out order. The young female assistant was fantastic saved the day, I compensated herwell personally. Food, wine and bread were good. Read more

We haven't patronized C'Era Una Volta for over a decade, for good reason. We have high expectations with Italian food and... unfortunately they did not improve with time. The best part of the meal was probably the bread, served with a warm, mustardyaioli that was both smooth and pungent, creamy but not spicy. The beet salad was so uninspiring, we could have done betterputting a few pkgs from Trader Joes in a bowl and assembling something ourselves. Our daughter's kids' sausage pizza was servedwith mushrooms (wasn't mentioned on the menu), husband's melanzane Parmigiana was decent, but my Tagliolini alla Senese was alet-down. There was a giant clump of uncooked, unseparated noodles, and the sauce was supposed to be a chianti beef sauce butall I could get was tons of herbaceousness from a heavy hand (I forgot if it was thyme or rosemary, it wasn't pleasant). Theservice was very lackluster (took a while to take our order, arms reaching across the table instead of going around toserve/clear, no one checked on us after our main courses were delivered). I truly wish they would improve because I would throwmy money at a good Italian reataurant without a second thought (yes, we've been to Italy, from Roma up to Venezia) but it isn'tthis place. Read more

Good food. Great taste. Portion size small.

Great food, great atmosphere, amazingly friendly staff. It's literally the perfect balance of casual and fancy- nice, without... being stuffy. Possibly my favorite restaurant in Alameda. Read more

Food was delicious. Eggplant Parmesan was baked with no breading or deep fat fried like Olive Garden would do. Service was... very attentive Diana our waitress was kind and sweet. The one of the owners Cheryl came to our table to greet us. My onlyrecommendation to the owners is a bit more sauce on the pasta. Also rather than bringing out the pasta first on a separate plateand then the eggplant parmesan and side salad on another, I would have preferred the side salad on a separate plate or all threeon one large plate. Read more