Pompeii
- Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: Yes
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: Yes
- Good for: Dinner
- Alcohol: Beer & Wine Only
63 reviews
Cupertino, CA
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24 Reviews for Pompeii
First time in Los Altos and wanted to try a local place...
- cesar salad: 5 out of 5
- Calamari Frutti: 3 out of 5
- Spaghetti Bolognese & Polpette aka spaghetti and meatballs: 3 out of 5, pasta was ok, but the meatballs were delicious.
- Spaghetti Carbonara: 2 out of 5 sounds good, looks good, but disappointing.
Update: This is one of our favorite restaurants downtown. We frequent this restaurant on a regular weekly basis so it must be better than Sergio's (which we still enjoy but frequent on a regular monthly basis). We always have a lovely dining experience here.
Comfortable, casual Italian eatery in downtown Los Altos.
We decided to try Pompeii Sunday night for a casual, low-key dinner. It was lovely and we will be back. My husband and I split the spinach salad, the tortellini l'arrabica (sp?), and berry torte, and a glass of chianti. Everything was very good. Service was attentive even though there only seemed to be 1.5 wait staff for a steadily busy restaurant. Ambiance is OK -- small and a little worn and you can tell it was something else before (pizza joint?) But all and all we will be putting Pompeii on our list of regular eateries. It's much better than Oregano's, but not as good as Sergio's.
A good place for lunch in Los Altos is sometimes hard to find. They have a decent wine list, and generous pours. The spinach salad and panini's are great for lunch, and the oil and dried tomato dipping sauce that accompanies the bread is also very good.
The service is usually very prompt, and they keep the re-fills on the water coming. (which is very good if you dine outside)
What glorious weather we've been having! Dining outside and being able to enjoy the weather is such a treat.
S and I were looking to have a leisurely late lunch/early dinner before needing to do our weekly shopping. Not being familiar with downtown Los Altos, we drove around a bit and saw the tables lined up along the side walkway that looked very inviting.
Although it was getting towards dinner time, the waiter allowed us to order from the lunch menu. We decided to split a spinach salad. I appreciate the fact that the kitchen served our order on two separate plates instead of placing one plate on the table and expecting us to serve ourselves.
I ordered the Tortellini all' Arrabiata - Meat tortellini with garlic & vodka, spicy marinara cream. It had the just the right amount of spice for me to taste the chili, but it wasn't overpowering. S ordered the Fettucine con Pollo - a creamy sauce that wasn't overbearing. The bread was brought warm to our table and served with a fresh olive oil and pesto dip.
Now - after all this, you gotta save room for dessert. I don't remember the name, and their website doesn't list their desserts - but it was a scoop of chocolate gelato that was rolled in powdered chocolate. In the center of the scoop of gelato was a yummy creamy middle that was ohhhhh so good!
Service was very attentive and kept our water and iced tea glasses full.
Great way to spend lazy, warm Saturday afternoon.
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Bare bones Italian. This includes the interior.
No website, so please bare with me as I butcher the menu.
Bread is fresh and hot. Nothing fabulous, but points for the crunchy exterior and the toasty interior.
Started with a Caesar and carpaccio, BOTH w/chunks of parmesan. Both about $8 and decent.
Chicken marsala and tortellini were the mains. The pasta was a steal at $11. I loved the spicy meat sauce. Chicken was tender, but I thought it was a bit puny in size. It was nice to have a choice b/t mash and polenta. I got a meatball on the size, large in size, plenty of meat marinara, but just not juicy enough.
Lastly, dessert. Ordered a slice of berry torte, nicely alternating layers of sponge cake, marscarpone & ricotta. Lovely.
Homey feel, no wait, fair prices & comfortable Italian flavors.
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It's amazing how good sitting outside on a nice day (eastern exposure makes it great!) on a not too busy street (sat midafternoon) can improve a meal!
The service was good, even though the food came out of the kitchen a bit slow... ok for entree, but salad can come sooner. Other than that nitpick, everything else was fantastic.
Service: Top drawer from Victor and Marcus who took over (altho he could have told us a switch was going to occur) but it was seamless.
Food: All were very good, from the salad to our entrees (pasta dishes) to the light yet tasty chocolate dessert.
I see some criticisms, but none of them appeared to be here.
Why not 5 stars? I try to reserve them... ;-)
Thinking Italian diner.
The service is prompt and succinct. Sit down, water and bread show up and order is placed.
Food is good and after the YES cocktails food is what we needed. Good thing no one was smoking at the fashion show.
Short on atmosphere but good on food and you can easily lounge here with friends and not break the bank.
Won't be coming back but glad to know I could come here in a pinch and be happy.
Stars are for salad with goat cheese and lasagna.
We ordered a fusilli pasta dish that had random chunks of broccoli (maybe cauliflower, too) and sun dried tomatoes that tasted like they came out of a jar. There was also from what I could tell, no sauce. None at all, not even an attempt to throw butter on there. So basically I had cooked noodles and chunks of veggies. I couldn't make something taste so flavorless even if I tried.
I debated the thought that maybe they were having an off night, but.... if a chef, sous chef or grandma messes up a simple, simple pasta, I really can't vouch for them on any other account, it just doesn't make sense.
Also-- sign outside looks cheesy & cheap.
Los Altos has a lot of money, and not a lot of good restaurants to spend it at. The best place for Italian is hands down Aldo's on Main Street. Go there, go there now!
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Food was good and reasonably priced. Nice bread. I got the special of the day which was lamb and it was very tasty. I did not care for the steamed broccoli, but the polenta was good.
We sat inside as it was very cold outside. It is a small place and the tables are close to each other.
4 stars not exactly for the restaurant itself, but for one dish:
* Spaghetti Carbonara *
That is the only thing I ever get here.
Noodles with creamy white sauce, peas, prosciutto/bacon sprinkled over it. Ehm. Shall we say - magnifique.
I come here for lunch w/ co-workers sometimes. :-)
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Pompeii is a solid Italian restaurant in DTLA. At the beginning of the meal they serve you a loaf of soft, warm bread with tomato aioli to dip it in, a subtle twist on the EVOO that is generally provided at little Italian American joints but that you never get in Italy, even if you ask. This, in my opinion, makes Pompeii just a little bit more like an authentic old-country osteria.
The pasta portions are substantial (bravo!) and personally I enjoy their topping-heavy, dougy-crusted pizzas (delicioso!). What is also remarkable about Pompeii is the attentive service provided by the wait staff. Our waiter with the slicked back Italian doo seemed to take such pride in wearing the white napkin over his forearm while he flourished my Caesar salad before me. Buono Appetito!
I've happily frequented Pompeii a few times now, but on my most recent visit, their richy rich carbonara attacked my stomach with the mighty force of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius (more specifically the cataclysmic eruption of 79 A.D....or, if you prefer, C.E.). I cannot however take this plague as a negative on the restaurant or the dish itself, but rather as an omen from the gods who were punishing me for ordering the carbonara. Honestly, who orders the carbonara? But still, couldn't the gods have just sent me 5 birds to the right?
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Friendly, efficient staff. Yummy meat lasagna (and I'm very picky about meat). Cute, clean atmosphere and the prices are average. I'll definitely go back. Seems a little small for big groups.
**NEGATIVE STARS**I usually have a system by which I rate restaurants, but I think in order for you to understand why I've rated this place so awfully, I need to give you the full narrative.
I needed to have a quick dinner (one hour) in order to make it home for a family function, so my husband and I went to Pompeii because it was the only Los Altos restaurant we had yet to visit. We went in the door and stood there for over five minutes before anyone acknowledged our presence, and it was only a waiter who went off to find the maitre'd, who came bustling out two minutes later. We asked how long the wait was and he said about ten minutes.
While waiting, we went around the corner to look at Maltby's (kind of an English pub restuarant), but decided against it. When we returned, we noticed an empty table that had no tablecloth, but was obviously one of Pompeii's tables. We went back in (it had been twenty minutes, with no sign of us being seated) and asked if we might be seated at the empty table. The maitre'd very rudely told us to go sit out there and wait. We returned outside to find that the table was still bare, no table cloth, no place settings, no CHAIRS, so we went back in to request that it be made up for us.
Finally, we had a seat, and when our waiter finally came out to take our order, we explained that we just wanted a quick dinner because we had somewhere to be. I ordered ravioli alfredo, asking if it would be a quick preparation, and the waiter told me that yes, my food would be out very shortly. My husband ordered a glass of wine and garlic bread.
My husband was presented with a glass of wine with small bugs in it. Not just one, but several. Needless to say, he didn't drink it. Our entrees took forty five minutes to be served. At this point, it had been over an hour and a half, and I had called my parents and told them we would be late.
Upon being served, the waiter asked me if I would like Parmesan cheese, and I said no, while my husband said yes. The man did not even acknowledge my husband, and instead retreated with the parmesan, much to my and my husband's chagerin.
When we asked for the check, the waiter went back inside, and did not return for over ten minutes. I finally went in, looking for him, and had a different waiter give me the check, which had an item on it that we did not order. Finally, when I paid cash for our meal, They gave me incorrect change, and I had to waste more time straightening that out. Overall, this meal, which was mediocre at best, took over two hours, when I was initially assured that it would be a quick meal. Never go here, you can do much better.
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The best Italian in the area. The waiters may speak Spanish, but the food is authentic. I lived in Tuscany for 6 months and this is the closest thing I have found. It is, of course, Americanized to a certain degree, but the pasta dishes are fantastic, the pizzas are traditional with a flat crust, and surprisingly, lunch here is delicious too! Bread baked on the spot, warm and fresh. This is the closest thing to a quaint Tuscan osteria that I have found on the Peninsula.
Pretty good as far as Los Altos fare goes (which usually doesn't go much farther than you can throw it). It does have one great thing going over other DTLA restaurants, though: it's open during the siesta hours of 2:00-4:00 p.m., which is great if your stomach isn't ruled by the clock and growls at all hours, like mine.
The Panino Caprese ($7.75) I savored after having fasted for over seven hours was warm and toasty, with grilled chicken breast, tomatoes, basil and fresh mozzarella accompanied by a simple green salad with light, tangy dressing. Pompeii's bread is quite interesting: very fluffy on the inside with a crispy exterior.
I wouldn't mind if this restaurant survives the incredibly high turnover rate for this particular piece of leased real estate (used to be Una Mas, another Mexican restaurant, etc., another Italian restaurant, etc...) But, if I feel like spending more dough on pasta, I prefer Bella Vita on First Street, which has a much cooler ambience (you feel like you're in Italy if the weather's warm enough and a breeze runs through the front room) and tastier food.
Service was excellent.
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Anyone that's been through downtown Los Altos will notice three things.
1. Man, this is one seriously WASPy town.
2. What is with all of the salons? There has to be a 2 to 1 stylist to citizen ratio.
3. There are a ton of restaurants here.
I find this place interesting because the food's pretty good, but more importantly this must be the third restaurant I've seen in this location in at least 4 years. 4 years ago it was a taqueria, 2 years ago a pizza parlor. Now it's an Italian restaurant. Not really the best of odds.
The decor is very nice. The best way I would describe it is a high end presentation of a casual, friendly restaurant. The dining equivalent of a Hickey Freeman blazer with jeans outfit. The place is definitely intimate (small). The kitchen takes up over half of the visible space. In fact, the layout is leftover from when the place was a taqueria. The plexglass shields separating the dining area from the kitchen used to be a burrito station.
Layout, not with standing, the food is excellent. The bread is nice and warm with a roasted tomato aioli(?) that could make drywall delicious. The service is excellent (it helps that my friend Mary is buddies with the owner).
I've been there 4 times had had a good meal every time.
I'd suggest stopping by before it morphs into a boba place or sometime. Kidding, here's to hoping this one sticks.
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A cozy sit-down restaurant for some pretty good Italian food. The bread was really great, warm and crunchy. We ordered the beef carpaccio to start with, which wasn't at all disappointing, but I've had better. The pizzas here are what earns the stars. The crust is thin and crunchy, topped with fresh ingredients, and the pizza is not at all greasy. I would definitely come back to sample other items on the menu. Reasonably priced, too. 4 stars because it's sometimes a bore to sit amongst tables of WASP-y businessmen and stay at home moms.
"Great Food" and "Restaurants In Downtown Los Altos" are not categories that typically overlap, but now all you need to do is follow the trail of ash to the corner of State and 4th St, and you will be at Pompeii, the delicious newest addition to my list of Italian Restaurants I Love. The interior is cozy and simple, and the pasta dishes are awesome. Yes, the wine list could be improved, but you can bring your own for very reasonable corkage ($10). It was really busy when I went on a Friday night, so the waitstaff, while gracious and hard working, was a bit harried, otherwise I would give Pompeii 5 stars. As it is, consider this 4 .5. I can't wait to go back.
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We had dinner on Friday night. We were a group of 6 (3 adults, 3 kids).
We had a reservation for 7:30PM.
When we got there, there was a line outside. We said "Great, at least we were lucky to make a reservation".
Nope! they wrote our name on a piece of paper and didn't put it in the reservation list. So actually they didn't have a table for us. After 40 minutes we were sat in two different tables (4 +2)!
The place is packed, a lot of people. No place to move your chair back. Not a very pleasant place to have dinner ..
The food:
we had :
- The seafood pasta - was good
- a Pizza - was bad. Too much cheese, the dough wasn't crispy, too little of tomato sauce. and very boring
- Salad + chicken + cranberries + nuts - the salad was fine, but the nuts weren't fresh. The dressing was too heavy.
- Pasta with cream +mus room + chicken - was great
- Spaghetti with meat sauce - was quite good
The prices are good for an Italian place but I wouldn't go back. The food is OK, but not too fancy, and it doesn't justify the drive to Los Altos.
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These guys are doing a great job. It's turned in to one of the Los Altos favorites. First we worried, they wouldn't make it (tough restaurant market in Los Altos) now we can't get a table on Fri and Sat nights! Lamb special with Ozo was excellent! Seafood has been fresh and very well prepared...and from what I hear you can't go wrong with the pastas or pizza! I'm not in love with all of their wines, but with the $10 corkage fee...bring your own Sangiovese :-)
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Finally. That's all that really needs to be said about Pompeii. This is what Los Altos has needed for a long time. The food is nearly fantastic, the bread is freshly baked (but needs a little salt) and the staff is eager to please. Never skip dessert at Pompeii. Room for improvement: the wine list is composed of Trader Joe's Italian wines and the windows are in desparate need of coverings.
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Toto, we're not in Los Altos any more! This is the first really good Italian restaurant I've experienced in this town. OK, Aldo is pretty good, but it's nothing to get excited about, other than the fact that it's in downtown Los Altos and doesn't suck. Pompeii, on the other hand, is *really* good.
I had the linguine con vongole, which was excellent. After finishing my dish, I dug into my wife's leftover fettucine con fruiti di mare, which was not just great but keep-eating-after-you're-full-great. Then, for my third meal, I sampled my son's excellent meat lasagne. The only disappointment was the pizza, which we had split as an appetizer. It had too much cheese and its crust was not as crispy as I prefer.
Next time I'll save room for dessert.
I enjoyed this neighborhoody little restaurant. The service was friendly and helpful- I called ahead a few minutes and they accomodated us by reserving a table. My husband and I enjoyed sitting outside with our bottle of wine from home, corkage was a reasonable $10. I definitely will return to this restaurant, but probably would not get the gnocchi this time- I might keep it a little simpler...and go with a more basic pasta dish or try the pizza.
this review is only about their take-out pizza--
this is our new place to order pizza to go. their tomato sauce base is great, their ingredients are fresh, and they know just how much to put on the pie. the crust is thin and not too bready, but still not the texture you'd find in a typical corner pizzeria in NY.
their staff is very very friendly!
they have anchovies!
they are reasonably priced (for this area, at least)-- a large pizza ~$14 + $1.25 per topping.
its good to see that this place is busy every time i come by; i hope this place hangs around.
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