Sopranos Pizza & Pasta Trattoria

We discovered this place as we were trying to decide where to have our company Christmas party (2009). My boss ate here and decided he wanted to bring all of us back. I was in charge of organizing the party. We were treated like royalty and best of all, the food was amazing! My husband and I have been back twice now and we both think it is a hidden jewel for Redwood City. I am a bit of a food snob and I haven’t had a bad dish there so far. Really delicious! Sadly, it’s been pretty empty each time. Rather than reflecting its quality, I think people don’t know about it. Or, perhaps the series of managers they have had has caused the bad reviews below. Joe, the current manager, is eager to serve and help. The wait staff each time has been friendly, helpful and attentive. I can’t say enough good about this place! (and I’m not related to anyone who works there or the owner!)

Unless you are broke, poor, or just do not care how your food tastes do NOT eat here. The most bland meatballs and marinara sauce I have ever had in my life. Pass on this one.

The fact that it was empty on a Friday night should have tipped us off, perhaps.
Some Guy shows us to a table — I say Some Guy because he was in jeans and an oversized sweater. Uhh do you even work here? Some Other Chick That I Think Worked There was also wearing street clothes that were, um, not work appropriate. They were out of calamari, buffalo wings, and bruchetta, leaving your only option for an appetizer to be mozzarella sticks.
The menu is very limited — my only option for pasta without cream or red sauce was ravioli with pesto. The salad bar was lacking, to say the least. It didn’t look like there was even anything IN the bar. The bread bites you get before the meal were stale and yet somehow greasy at the same time. Impressive.
Everyone’s food was lukewarm at best when it arrived. The sauces on the pasta was watery — I had to smother mine with parmesean to get some flavor.
The décor doesn’t look much different from when it was Straw Hat, and listening to an endless loop of Frank Sinatra got old *really* quick.
May be even all of this would be excuseable if the food was cheap, but it’s not. I won’t be going back.

1. No one to greet us as we walked in
2. We had to ask to find out they were out of my drink
3. Didn’t write orders down and had to come back to confirm two of them
4. The food took at least 40 minutes to come
5. They waited till the meals to bring the bread
6. One of the orders was wrong (it wasn’t one of the things the waitress forgot)
7. Their idea of making it up was to give us the pizza we didn’t want for free
8. The pizza they did get right was half burnt on the bottom
9. They brought us a check with an 18.5% tip added in for a party of six
10. When we pointed that we were only five people, the waitress rolled her eyes and shook her head as she walked away
In summary, the food was average and we won’t be eating there ever again.

If you’re reading this and you’re the owner of Sopranos, please… Make significant changes to your restaurant right now.
If you’re going to lure people away from the excellent restaurants a few blocks up Main street, you need to change this week. Seriously, you can’t serve what you served us tonight again and expect to survive.
If you’re going to run an «authentic Italian restaurant» you need to get the basics right. We tested you on that tonight.
My wife ordered the Minestrone soup. It was quite obviously from a can.
Her main was spaghetti marinara, supposedly with oregano and basil. It was completely devoid of taste because again, it clearly was canned sauce.
I had your Lasagna de la Casa, and was surprised when it came with roasted potatoes and thawed-​previously-​frozen green beans. Why are you serving potatoes and veg with lasagna? In any event, the grated Parmesan cheese was canned. The sauce was very obviously not fresh. I’m so sorry to say this, but Stouffers frozen is better.
Your staff is pleasant but one of your servers needs to stop wearing her perfume; it was overpowering.
Please, make your food fresh.
Maybe stick with Pizza if that’s what you do best, and dump the rest of your menu.
You simply will not last another 3 months unless you turn 180 degrees and create something unique that will attract diners from the restaurants in downtown Redwood City.

I cannot believe that this place has 3.5 stars with the quality of the food I just had. I never write reviews, but had to do so based on my experience there. The spaghetti and meatballs was cafeteria style, but in a bad way. Like elementary school cafeteria bad. The sauce on top was stale tasting. Even supermarket bought meat sauce would be A LOT BETTER than their meat sauce.
THe cesar salad was soggy bits of romaine DRENCHED in a very bland ceasar dressing. The Panini sandwich was chunks of that frozen chicken cut up into squares in a mish mash of the same Cesar Salad described above. Save yourself some time… don’t make the same mistake I made based on the cheap cost.
It is cheap… but the flavor will be difficult to get out of your mouth. I had to make a small salad with fresh ingredients and good olive oil just to get the flavor of Soprano’s meal out of my mouth. Needless to say, after a few bites, the Spaghetti went to the dog. NEVER AGAIN!

What a pleasant surprise! This was my first visit to Sopranos and the food and service were terrific! Our waitress Michelle made use feel like part of the family — something missing from a lot of other Italian restaurants. Great parking, super-​clean restrooms, and generous servings. Great place for families, very kid friendly.

Sopranos fills a great void on the Peninsula: A reasonably priced Italian restaurant that is delicious, clean, good variety of menu; great for kids or couples; great service. Simple and not pretentious. Michell was our waitress, very friendly and accomodating. I had a coupon for then from
. We will definitely return!

Went back a second time and brought some friends along. The food was even better the second visit. The staff was warm, friendly, and inviting. Made me feel like I was more family then just a customer.
Each person at the table raved at how good the food tasted. Got to try a new dish that is ham and spinich in a light cream sauce. I plan to order that the next time we go. It was not heavy and it melted like butter in my mouth.
Will continue to return to this wonderful place.

Great Family food and fun owner is a laugh and a half. food is one of the best i have ever had total fun family dining I live in Milpitas and it is well worth the 40 min. drive.

Sopranos has improved the interior over the pizza place that was in the same facility. The interior is much nicer, brighter, and a combination of a sit down restaurant and a pizza place. The rolls are delicious. The pizza is decent. The pastas are not fancy but a decent alternative.

2.5 star update.
Salad bar has gotten worse since last visit.
Frozen tomatoes.
Cashier is not very sharp, I ordered glass of the house and was charged for premium.
He couldn’t figure out a refund method.
So beware.
Pizza is cracker crust style and all right.
Will I be back?
Maybe for lunch, but it falls flat for dinner.

great food, great atmospher, great place to bring the family kids, soccer team and baseball team, when you eat the thin crusted pizza it reminded me of Italy.
RP

Born and raised in RWC, I’ve seen this location change from a Straw Hat Pizza to a Seniore’s Pizza and now Soprano’s Pizza and Pasta.
We have a winner! Soprano’s has excellent thin (er) crust pizza and great service! They have a few of my favorite micro-brew’s on tap that go great with Italian food.
I’m looking forward to my next visit to try something else off their menu.
If you like pizza, and you live in Redwood City… you’ve got to try Soprano’s!

nicely decorated restaurant, big and spacious. Good food, decent prices. Good service. There was a traditional italian band playing the night we had dinner there. felt like we were in italy!

I don’t normally write reviews. But felt I had to for this place. Hopefully, their management will see it and make corrections.
I arrived at 12:15 to order some lunch to go. I used to go here all the time when it used to be Straw Hat Pizza. THEY had a terrific deal for lunch. Small individual pizza with salad bar and a drink. Under $ 10 bucks. Any you got your pizza FAST.
I stood in line at the counter to place my order. There are 2 lunch deals (if you can call them that). #1 A small sized pizza with choice of soup or salad and a drink. About $ 10 with tax. They have a salad bar, but you can’t get your salad from that. You get a premade house salad. I chose the soup. They have Minestrone and the «soup of the day». Well, there was no «soup of the day» so I settled for the Minestrone.
Deal #2 for around $ 3.50 You get a slice of pizza and small salad. But the «slice of pizza» is in a glass warming container, and the pizza looks like it has been in there way to long.
The size of the individual pizza is actually something that 2 people could share for light lunch. It would be better if they lowered the price, and served a slightly smaller pizza.
A woman brought over my soup and drink. The soup was only filled half way full in the cup. Couldn’t they provided me with a «full cup of soup»?
Now, I had ordered my pizza at 12:15, and realized that there were like 3 people ahead of me. I waited, and waited, and waited… at 12:45 I asked them to check on my order. The woman who were in front of me when ordering had received their pizza, ate it, and left before I go mine.
Close to 10 minutes later, they finally bring out my pizza. No apology, no attempt to make amends for such a long wait. The place wasn’t crowded. I figured my order «got lost».
I get back to work with like 5 minutes to eat my pizza. There are generous with the toppings, but the pizza itself had no taste. It was thin, and like tasting cardboard. There was hardly any sauce, and it tasted awful anyway. I was pretty disappointed. I waited close to 50 minutes for a crummy pizza?
The restaurant is a very cute place, with nice music/​flat screen TVs.
You would have thought if they saw me waiting so long, they would have brought out some bread. I ate my soup while I was waiting. When I asked the woman for a spoon, she handed me a plastic wrapped fork and knife. No spoon. What do they think people eat soup with?
I MIGHT try this place again. It won’t be for their pizza, but they also serve pasta and panni’s. But my first visit left such a bad impression, I have to really think if I want to eat there again. Note: when I order pizza at home, the pizza parlor says «20 minutes» and it is always ready on time.
Update: To be fair, I did receive an email from the management about the above review. They apologized profusely and said something would be done to correct the service received. They also offered me a free appetizer. I don’t really care about the freebie, but it’s good to know that they are on top of things. I will have to try again. Panni next time.

This is a brand new restaurant with Italian/​Mediterranean tile décor, I really liked this place based on my first visit I had a splendid 10″ pizza margarita and a small salad for under $ 12.00 with tax and all of the fresh home baked garlic bread I could eat. If you ask them for the to go menu it will have coupons on it and you can use them too. They have nice salad bar and pizza by the slice. I would say if I was to compare the type of pizza to a more well known chain it would be similar to Amici’s East Coast Pizza but half the price and more cheese/​sauce on the pie. I really enjoyed the foyer area to eat in with skylight’s, plants and soft Italian music it was a nice oasis from my grueling job for 40 minutes and a temptation not to return. They seam to have a fairly extensive traditional Italian menu besides pizza not to mention beer, wine and a large big screen TV…
Extra star for cleanliness and a bang-​up job on decorations…

I was craving Spaghetti and I saw that they had replaced the previous pizza place.
They did a really nice job on the décor. I thought it was overpriced ($ 8.95 for spaghetti!!!) plus drink came to $ 11.95, I was also wanting to do a trip @ the salad bar but they wanted me to cough another 8.95 which I did not do! The salad bar was the craps!
Service was good. And I really like the garlic rolls that bring with the meal.
Not sure if I will return, but I know I am not making an extra trip to eat lunch there.
FYI as of May 13 2009 this place is closed.

I came here with a friend and we were looking for a Pizza place and decided to check it out.
I liked the interior of the place and it was pretty big for a Pizza place. I can tell it was brand new because they were still painting inside The service was very good and the waitress even looked like someone I knew. She kept checking with us to make sure we were okay.
We ordered a Hawaiian Pizza, which is my favorite type of Pizza and it tasted good but the crust was burnt on the bottom and it was kinda thin. It would have been better if it wasn’t burned. The thing I really liked was the garlic bread. That more then made up for the burnt crust and the waitress kept on bringing more.
If I was in the area again and I was craving Pizza I might come back.

I came here for lunch since it’s close enough to my work and I’ve been meaning to wander here since they opened. It’s cute enough inside, I like that I could hear Italian music playing in the background; little details like that please me to no end. The deal’s simple enough: wander in, order at the counter, and choose your seat and get your food brought to you, though I imagine at this point you could also order it to go if that’s what you want, too.
I had the Lasagna Verde (I don’t know why I chose to give up meat for Lent… not doing that one again) even though I was sorely tempted to go with their Chicken Alfredo or Spaghetti Carbonara, but it’s almost over so I’ll have an excuse to wander over again. I wasn’t expecting anything more than my drink to be brought to me, so it was a pleasant surprise to get a few rolls to munch on while I waited. I’m not sure exactly what the rolls were, but they were buttery/​garlic-​y, which is enough to keep my tastebuds happy. The lasagna itself was a cheesy, saucy slice of deliciousness.
Bottom line: attentive waitstaff, they take Discover, and the food’s good. I’ll be back for more!