Buona Sera Ristorante

A beautiful romantic dinner ruined by being totally ripped off. We ordered 4 glasses of house wine. When the bill came, they had charged us for 5 glasses of various wines that we did not order. When they brought the bill back, it was $ 1.00 cheaper.
We were charged $ 12.00 each for house wine. I asked the server if this was correct, and she said, yes, our wine is very expensive. Although the food was very good we’ll never go back.

This restaurant sold about 6 months ago, so disregard any reviews before that time.
We went on a Saturday night — bad idea — they have a saxophone jazz musician — he plays so loud that you cannot hear across the table — his music is very good.
The food was great. The service was very slow. We were not in a hurry (we closed the place) so that wasn’t a problem for us, but if you have other plans for the evening go somewhere else.

3 strikes your out!
We have given this place 3 tries and the last time we went we stood up and left after waiting for someone to bring us anything!!! A menu… water… The second time we went my husband spoke to management when we waited 30 – 40 mins for our calamari appetizer. We received no explanation when we saw the table next to us (who arrived 20 mins after we did) receive calamari. The waiter didn’t apologize once. Our main course took forever as well. The staff is beyond disorganized and the food is average at best. Everyone seems to be running around with their heads chopped off– very little communication going on. We wanted to love this place so we gave it one last try. The last time we went, we sat down and waited 20 mins. Not a single person spoke to us or even made eye contact. Finally we stood up and left — still no one noticed! Goodbye!

Skip this place and order in if your looking for a night out. Here, you’ll enjoy the slowest service imaginable with mediocre food. The highlight, besides leaving, is watching a completely disorganized staff and imaging the Restaurant Impossible host go berserk here. I gave this place three tries over the course of 2 years and it hasn’t improved. Instead of Buona Sera (good night) for a name, I’d recommend Sera Merda (shitty night).

Issac is a good chef, go by and check him out.

My fiancé and I came here to meet a friend of mine and her husband for dinner. It was her suggestion, and I’m happy she chose this place!
Buona Serra is tucked away on a side street in the Redondo Beach Riviera. It’s small, quaint, and all around wonderful! They have a fully stocked bar, and their bartenders and servers know how to make excellent wine selections, and good stiff cocktails.
We had a table in the back room. We were the only table back there, and it made the experience more intimate. You would think us being the only party in the back room we might be forgotten, not so! Our server was attentive, personable, funny, and from Italy! He knew all about the menu, and gave suggestions when needed! The food was incredible! My penne vodka delicious!!! Wonderful sauce, full of flavor, and not overdone. Just the perfect amount of sauce to go along with the pasta! I tried my fiancés salmon as well. Light flaky and delicious.
You need to stop by this restaurant! Great ambiance, excellent food and service! You will not be disappointed! When I come back to visit my friends and family, I will be making this a stop along my way!

Love this place. Risotto with filet tips is amazing. Filet with gorgonzola sauce and stemmed veggies is wonderful too. Just came here about a month ago with an old family friend who was in town and he absolutely loved his food. He wasn’t wearing glasses and it was too dark to see the Menu so he said «just order me something you think will be good» do I ordered the gnocchi in a pink sauce I believe and he had never had gnocchi before and was in heaven. He said he has since gone to other restaurants where he
Lives in Henderson NV and said this place has been the best and can’t wait to try more. A great place for dates and small parties.

Amazing ambiance and definitely try the pumpkin ravioli!

By far my favorite Italian restaurant as far as food quality goes. Have yet to be disappointed with the presentation and Quality of the food. When in Italy the only thoughts in my head were of how much I preferred the food in Redondo beach riviera at buona sera! Definitely earns its zagat rating. My only things to note are to watch the bill. Watch your CC charge and don’t be expecting them to wait hand and foot on you. The service is good but they lack that welcoming personality and often act like they are snooty for a reason. Also 2 out of the last 5 times I’ve been there there have been extra charges. Once we had a large group of 10, we are a rather noisy bunch so I led for them to sit us in the second room. After a $ 400 bill and a $ 100 tip my credit card had a 600 $ total the next morning. I don’t like to call people out but how stupid?
Overall still my favorite Italian food so far world wide and I have tried many many many.

Our first time here. Great ambience and very friendly staff. One of Count Bassie’s sax players was playing here.
The mushroom soup with truffle soup is awesome. I ordered the lamb chops which also had a truffle sauce. My wife had the pizza oven cooked chicken. All the food was good, but portions were very small compared to the price they charged.

After about 1.5 year hiatus of writing reviews primarily in South Bay I decided to return. So we tried this establishment based on the 3.5 star rating. Well Unilocal reviewers continue to amaze me with their over ratings.
This place is at best 2.5 stars. The service is average, the bar top is a 40 + pickup spot and the food is okay. Perhaps those that dine here frequently don’t venture out past the El Segundo city limits. There are much better Italian and seafood available in many areas in LA county.

Very disappointing experience.
The food was average in taste, but premium in price. The prosciutto appetizer was good, but the entrees were par for the course. Service was a little slow, but it seemed to be only one server that night so I can let it slide. The host/​manager seemed a little too interested in schmoozing with customers to really lend a hand.
A major issue for me was when I tried to use a Restaurant .com gift certificate at the end. The gift cert was purchased weeks ago and though it had no expiration date, the server refused to accept it stating that, «We were honoring these last month but we were losing money so we don’t anymore».
At the end of the day, I don’t care about your business model or financial issues. I’m there to sit down for a nice meal and use what SHOULD be a valid gift certificate. Not honoring your gift certificates is bad enough, but to not even receive a token amount off is ludicrous. The guy could have taken the drinks off the order, given me a small percentage off, or offered SOMETHING in lieu of this disappointment.
For a restaurant surrounded by other places to eat, including other Italian joints, Buona Sera has shown that they really aren’t concerned with my business. No problem!
Save your money and eat somewhere that cares in Riviera Village.

I called to ask if I needed to make reservations on a Sunday night. It wasn’t crowded at all and service was good. Our server was friendly and laid back.
The bread did not come right away, and we inquired. Were told that they were preparing it. Hmm… I think it’s either freshly baked or warmed right before. Regardless, it was delicious and they had the traditional EVOO and balsamic vinegar to dip in.
There’s no kid menu but they can accomodate and custom make a pasta dish. Kiddo prefers penne with marinara and even though it wasn’t on the menu, they made it.
If you’re familiar with black squid ink risotto, I wouldhighly recommend it. It was full of tender shrimp, baby scallops and tasty risotto with a slight buttery flavor.
Interestingly, we were not asked if we wanted dessert.
If you like Sinatra like music, there’s a crooner at the entrance singing old classics.
I would def come back for a date night or back with my gfs.
Location is within walking distance to Yogurtland where kiddo was saving room for dessert anyway. Parking is a little competitive.

Food is an art, not a science. Not every experience will be perfect. But, there is a way to handle failure (and a way not to). Buona Sera demonstrated that it does not handle the situation well.
We came in for dinner after having been here in October of last year. We were the first party seated for dinner for the evening, and we were excited to learn that there is live music on Sunday night, which began soon after our arrival. We perused the menu while the waitress shared the two remaining specials with us. Most of the specials were sold out after the Valentine’s Day rush. No problem. We ordered salad and soup to start followed by four main entrees. We also ordered a bottle of wine.
Our waitress wrote nothing down. She never brought one of the drink orders. It took quite some time for the starters and then entrees to be delivered. Of the four entrees served, one was completely wrong (it was not the dish ordered) and the other three were cold. They took back the wrong dish to redo the order, and we sent back the cold food. The mistaken dish was cooked to order, but the other three plates were returned after a round in the microwave. Ever wonder what happens to fish when it is microwaved? It returns chewy, dry, and still not very warm.
It was awful. The waitress promised the manager would come over, and he never did. After the food was sent back a second time, the waitress never came back. This is not the way to handle an obviously, and reasonably, unhappy customer. As a result, I would never come back. Perhaps our one good experience was a fluke, and this is more typical. Forgotten orders, mistaken orders and cold food are unacceptable. If management can’t recognize that and apologize, it’s not worth a return trip.

3 ½ stars
Came with my bf for our anniversary dinner. I wanted somewhere really romantic and usually go to LA for good food but needed something closer to where we were going to be. Maybe this place is 5 stars in Redondo Beach, but compared to other Italian places I’ve had, especially around LA, it’s a 3 ½. Some reviews say they recommend this for a special occasion, but I wouldn’t. Yes, go for a nice regular dinner, but if it’s for something really special I need more than this.
Food:
Burrata appetizer: Oh how I love burrata, but this burrata was just not amazing or fresh)= Really makes me sad, I could sit there for 10 minutes in heaven with burrata, but this one I even let my bf eat with me, which tells you I wasn’t that into it because usually I don’t share at all (=
Rigatoni con prosciutto e vodka: This was pretty good. The sauce was really good. I’m used to prosciutto being thinly sliced, but in here it was ground. I’d prefer the thin slices but I would recommend this if you eat here.
Gnocchi alla lombarda: Pretty good as well. The sauce was good but I have had better gnocchi in terms of texture. Loved the porcini mushrooms in the sauce.
The waitor Vincent was really nice and knew the food well.
The place is small, but not too small. And the tables aren’t tightly close together, you still have room. We came on a Thursday and it wasn’t busy around 8. There is tons of metered parking around it which is free after 6PM.
Overall the pasta dishes were good, just not something I was going crazy over, and for the price I need some extra wowing. And I don’t recommend getting or trying burrata from here if you love it like I do.

Price and food taste didnt match.
60 bucks for two, just for an average dinner, so average in fact.
I mean food was OK, not what i was expecting for the price, italian food is delicious but this place didnt deliver that wow factor to my palate.
Service was ok.
Its a small resturant so it was very noisy.

This was about the best food experience I’ve had in a long time. Our server, Sam, was absolutely amazing.
Very good, fresh tasting food. Great wine. Very impressive.

I’m issuing a 4.5 star review for this aamazing restaurant. Came here for a friend’s surprise engagement party last Saturday night. There were about 16 of us and the menu was preplanned/​limited. And, it was limited to all really amazing things. Their sauces, their service, the environment… everything was just mega great. And maybe since this is the South Bay, but there was plenty of parking. Especially cool, as the 6-​man event had just wrapped up.
I will definitely be going back soon to give them a shot via the two person experience. Very high quality recipes and food!

Note to peeps going to Buona Sera on Valentines’ Day; they more than DOUBLE THE PRICES on their entrees. Yes, really.
This was not by any means, our first, or even second trip to this cute restaurant in the Riviera Village in S. Redondo, so we were really looking forward to it. I was very happy they were able to give us a reservation within 60 minutes on V-​Day as well.
It took a long time to get to the main course, which I understand, after all, it was pretty busy.
HOWEVER, I have a pretty damned good visual memory, and the black ink risotto I ordered had taken a hit from a «shrink-​ray» or something… it was a LOT smaller portion than the previous visit. Okay, whatever, I let it go, enjoy the moment. It was very very good. It’s my favorite dish.
The bill came and it was JUST A BIT surprising. So wifey hit up the Unilocal app and then linked to the restaurants’ website; What is usually a $ 17 pasta entrée is all of the sudden $ 38? That’s well over 100% mark-​up — WTF? A Valentine’s Day «GOTCHA» moment—
They do it for red roses on the same day at supermarkets, and that I totally understand because the «price» is visible, and you know before you get to the register to pay. Buona Sera’s menu omitted the prices. Not sure if I am on board for that kind of practice. It’s not like it’s fresh fish either, although there was a notation was on the menu to add $ 9 for some particular seafood platter I cannot recall.
I could be nit-​picking, and showing my thrifty nature, but there should be some transparency if you are going to raise the standard prices of your dishes by 85 to over 100 percent!
(As a side note, evidently the menu was posted in the bathroom with smaller text at the bottom indicating the price for dinners that particular night)

Super delicious authentic italian food!!! And I thought there were only a few of those places in the South Bay. Turns out this hidden gem is right around the corner from Trader Joes, what a surprise!
I love the ambiance inside, it’s small and dark with lovely table settings. We came on a Tuesday night, and when we walked in there were only other a couple of other people dining. It was slightly worrisome, but a couple of hours later the place was packed. I’m guessing their popularity is spreading mostly by word of mouth.
We started with their calamari, which had a really tasty breading on it. The spicy marinara accompanied it perfectly, I just wish they gave us more of the sauce! I ordered their rigatoni in vodka sauce, since it is my newly-​discovered fave sauce ever. It came with bits of proscuitto in it, and while I did enjoy the sauce and the pasta, it was a bit too salty for my taste. My sister ordered their tomato basil soup and their special salad for that day. The soup was good, but it was pretty thick and heavy on the basil side. The salad was delicious though, with balls of fresh mozzarella. My dad ordered their pappardelle with pheasant. I’m a huge fan of those wide noodles, but I don’t eat pheasant, pigeon, any bird of that nature really, though he loved it. Everything was presented beautifully, and the food was really good. OH, and they give you fresh, hot bread which is super yummy. I don’t think I’d come here again with family, it seems to be more for romantic dinner dates. So next time, I’ll bring my man! :)