I have to second that Cedro's is absolutely top-notch, and you really do feel like you are home, as Elizabeth is such a gracious hostess, and "Mama" often comes out of the kitchen to check if you are enjoying her cooking.

Next time you are headed to Kepler's or Barrone's, take a detour instead and try Cedro. Their lunch prices are VERY reasonable, and dinner is slightly more expensive, but the taste-bud explosion you experience will make the marginally higher check worth every penny.

Cedro's is my new favorite in Menlo Park, and I hope it becomes your favorite soon too!

We were there Saturday night. The menu was better under the previous owners. The big problem with this restaurant is that there is only one restroom, and a queue forms by the bar. This is unacceptable for an expensive restaurant. This is probably a code violation since there must be some metric of restrooms per seat. The city turned a blind eye to the permanent expansion (that added 30+ seats), annexation and enclosure of the restaurant in the common area.

Best new restaurant in the area. Authentic Italian cooking - by Italians - one of the few hereabouts. Menu superb and flexible - the chef (Mama) adjusts to suit customers' wants, allergies,
doctorwon'tletme, whatever. Very good wines at reasonable prices. I've eaten there four times since they opened a few weeks ago.(Note re the dyspeptic comment of "McGee", above: the current owners did not expand, add any seats or annex or enclose anything. Nor have I have ever seen a queue at the bar. My sense is that "McGee" is simply shilling for one of the "Italian" restaurants in the area whose mediocrity and cynicism is being threatened by competition from the real thing. As to "McGee's" assessments of restaurant toilet facilities, I am utterly baffled: "expensive" or not, precisely which MP or PA restaurants are well-positioned to brag about their restrooms? In my experience, most are either up a flight of stairs or back behind the kitchen or - How shall I put this politely? - breathlessly uncared for. The most traditional (and expensive)Italian restaurant in MP has separate but equal restrooms which compare favorably only to those of the MP McDonalds. In any event, what possible benefit accrues to MP from undifferentiated sniping at a local family that is trying to create a genuine, old world, restaurant in which mama takes personal - not corporate - responsibility for the cooking, and daughter works tirelessly to give customers a cheerful sense of individual welcome? "McGee", if that's his/her name, seems determined to ignore the tastiness and wholesomeness of the food - in my experience the best in the area. I have no financial or other personal interest in this restaurant, other than as a customer; I'm just tired of gratuitous and baseless attacks on good people, running a family business, trying earnestly to introduce quality service to a community that could sure use it.)

Just wondering if this is an advertisement paid by Cedro's or a community plug for this new restaurant? Do they do this for all new restaurants in Menlo Park?
I will try Cedro's as Palermo's is gone, but if anyone knows how you get Almanac to plug your new business for free can they explain?

Ranch Gal: It's called news coverage.

Polly,
That is what I suspected, but when my dear friend opened HIS Menlo Park restaurant, there was no "news coverage of it at all" and he was offered a paid ad. I think what's fair is fair, unless of course, the owner is a relative of the newspaper owner or??? Then special coverage is warranted. I just don't get it that certain new businesses are "covered" like this and most are not.
I am sure Cedro's is a terrific place, albeit out of the high traffic area in a corner, and perhaps that is why they chose to tout this business. It was just weird to see "coverage" for one and not for all.

Our first family party there (4-12)was not enjoyable. The service was poor, it took forever to get the meal, though they made some excuses about a new chef. We waited over an hour for the food, which was fair.
What took the cake (literally) was that the waitress overheard that we were celebrating my wife's birthday. So she brought one piece of cake with six forks and a candle on top.Nice?! Until I noted that this desert, which no one ordered appeared on the bill for $9.00.
Compare that to Sam's Chowder House in Montara: the waiter also heard the happy Birthday, and brought the ordered desert. BUT, on the bill, the deserts were "Courtesy of the House".
It is not the $9, it is the attitude and customer relations !!!

This week we were fortunate to reserve a table at Cedro for the Opera evening of this month.
The owner, and her staff were wonderfully welcoming to all who came and there were many who had clearly attended before. We had heard (not read) such rave reviews of Cedro's food and we were not disappointed. The SF opera artists who sang were magnificent, both
tenor and soprano, and thrilled everyone present.. We will return again and again, lunch
or dinner and definitely for the opera evenings too. We pity the above writers for their
evidently bitter lives. They must try to broaden their experiences, and they wiil then know
the joys of superb dining such as Cedro offers. We thank and compliment the family
who has brought this wonderful ristorante to Menlo Park.



TRULYItalian






Ristorant