Il Pavone

Even though we live only a couple of blocks from Il Pavone, we don’t go there enough. We
went last night with another couple who had not been there before. I forgot how good their food and service is. It was somewhat pricey. However, compared to the new upscale restaurants in town, their food was much better and larger portions. I had the rack of lamb,
WOW! It was cooked to perfection (rare) and very tasty. And – there were 7 ribs, a full rack.
Everywhere else around here gives you 3 ribs. The ladies had the salmon special and both loved it, ate every bite. The other gentleman had one of the veal dishes and was also very
happy with it. Yeah, you can joke about being a Rossmoor hangout but I will take that every
time for the food. Go to your hipster places and pay a fortune for mediocre food. Come to
this old style, full plate, nice salads and great deserts place and relax.

Our server was so awesome! He was so knowledgeable of the menu when I asked questions about the ingredients in the pesto pasta. He also checked to see how our food was and was very prompt and present throughout our service.
He recommended the oysters for my fiancé, and my fiancé said it was a great choice! He said the oysters melted in his mouth. The pesto pasta was very fresh and seasoned well, definitely not overly salted like other restaurants tend to do.
The whiskey bread pudding was a bit «eggy» for my taste, but my fiancé liked it!
We may have been the youngest couple in there, but I’m guessing when people know a good restaurant, they will come back for years! We also thought the ambiance was intimate and very welcoming.
If you are looking for something more quiet, away from the Walnut Creek Downtown, with a free parking lot behind the restaurant, a convenient early-​bird special, and a wonderful experience, try IL Pavone!

I was looking for a nice place to take my coworker to for her birthday and found this place on Unilocal.I’m so glad we went here. The food was very good and if you come for the early dinner before 5:45 I believe, you get an entrée (different entrees on special each night), soup or salad, and dessert all for $ 21.95. What a steal! The food and service was very good. I’ll definitely go back again.

What can I say? I’ve been coming here for over ten years and it’s simply amazing every single time. Calamari steak is my personal favorite, they pound it so well before they cook it, it never tastes chewy … which as we all know, a good indicator of a perfect calamari steak. Almost all of the deserts I’ve tried are home made from scratch. The atmosphere is that typical warm and nice Italian family where they take pride in their service and cooking. I must agree with previous comments, the crowd is predominantly elder (perhaps because of the location since it’s so close to Rossmoor) but I don’t mind that at all… after all, we all are gonna get there Lol Anyway, great restaurant if you like Italian beyond pasta. Make sure you have reservations as it gets pretty packed in the evenings.

I drive by this place every day since I live right down the street from it now. Its a cute little place from the outside and since Valentine’s Day was coming up I decided I wanted to bring my fiancée here for dinner. Inside, the restaurant has a much older (classic) feel to it, and the crowd inside was definitely older.
The food and wine were very very good! I ordered the Saltimbocca Alla Romana because I wanted to try their prosciutto. DELICIOUS! My fiancé had their Valentines special which was a Sole (might’ve been a different fish) stuffed with crab and other delights. Also DELICIOUS. Forgot to mention that for our appetizer we had the Calamari. That was definitely one of the better calamari appetizers I’ve ever had.
For dessert we had their version of Cannoli. Wow, so tasty.
Wine was also pretty darn good. We’ll definitely come back to try their other desserts.

This restaurant has always had extraordinary service to complement the delicious food. My family and I have spend numerous special dinners at this restaurant. Tonight, we were celebrating my Step-Mom’s birthday and our service was awful. Ramon was our server and he seemed quite bothered this evening. It took him about 10 minutes, after we sat, to get water at our table. We did not have any menus so when we finally came over we asked him for them and he he said «Yeah.» 20-​minutes after we looked over the menu, he came back to take our order. He walked away and 10-​minutes later he asked me what I had ordered because he did not remember and his pen failed earlier. The restaurant was busy so it’s understandable that he was overwhelmed. But the icing on the cake was that I stepped away from the table to take the grand-​baby to the restroom and Ramon, our waiter, brought her small birthday treat and candle. He dropped it off and walked away. Didn’t even comment on her Birthday or wished her well.
No matter what his troubles may have been, I hope he realizes that many hard working families visit this restaurant because of the experience and fantastic food. Hopefully this was a fluke but being that it was a special occasion, we were very disappointed as a family.

Fabulous! Great great service. Kind and personable staff. White tablecloth superb service. Great authentic Italian menu. Everything is good on the menu… yes everything! Mama even helps make the raviolis still! Ample parking. Ambiance will take you away from it all in a quiet well known secret restaurant of Saranap. The calamari is to die for. The lasagne even better! And the steamed clams ohhhhhhh! Make reservations. But if you find yourself in the neighborhood without a reservation come anyway. They have warm heater seating outside and you can belly up to the bar and eat as well. You’ll love the darling sweet girl pouring drinks… Monique… Dress can be fancy to casual. No wholly shorts or logo tee shirts though. Okay there I’ve let our neighborhood secret out of the bag…

We went for dinner before a girls night out at the Lesher Theater. The food was fabulous (all seven of us loved our dishes) and the service was prompt as well as friendly AND the bartender really knows how to make a yummy cocktail.
It is my opinion the atmosphere is what you make it!
Kudos to the Chef and the staff!

House-​made prosciutto, people. How can you call yourself a foodie and not love a place which makes their own prosciutto?
If the «older crowd» and lack of an overly modern atmosphere keeps away some bratty twentysomethings, I am just fine with that. This is classic dining from an old family kitchen, and the prosciutto isn’t the only thing they make by hand the old way. As a San Francisco diner who comes out to Walnut Creek to visit family, I get all too many loud trendy modern overpriced restaurants, and a few too many loud trendy modern hipsters as well.
Il Pavone means «The Peacock» in Italian, and the décor features peacocks on plates, lamps, you name it, in a charming old-​world style. As befits a restaurant whose nearest and best clients are elderly, it features accessibility and comfy seating. (If padded chairs with arms sound tacky with you, I guess your body’s fine with sitting on a metal barstool all night. Go have fun with that.) It’s well-​lit enough to read the menu, and the serves are happy to help accommodate folks who need a little extra help or room for their mobility gear. (Again, not unusual in Walnut Creek; I’ve seen several fine dining establishments with a row of walkers parked by coat check.)
Our servers and manager were kind, cheerful, and generally delightful. They clearly know their regulars and treat them well, and are happy to work with this family-​owned restaurant. They showed us photographs on the wall of previous guests, told us that the table we were sitting at had once been a famous guest’s favorite table, and were clearly committed to doing a good job for the long run. There was a large family party in the back celebrating something, and while they were a little loud after their third classes of wine, we noticed no slowdown in our service. While we were able to walk in, I’d recommend a reservation on busy weekends.
And the food! Oh my land, the food. If you love good old-​fashioned Italian food, go here now. Homemade prosciutto! homemade veal sausage! Everything was good, but when in doubt, go for the house-​made specials or ask your server. While I am rhapsodic about the prosciutto, everything else was equally good — classic meatballs, properly cooked veal in delicious marsala and piccatas, everything was delicious. The wine list was extensive enough and offered a nice range, and the cocktails met with considerable approval.
The food is just terrific, a prime and classic Italian family restaurant that really cares about food. There’s some good food in Walnut Creek, but this place has shot to the top of my list for its quality and service. We had a lovely chat with the bartender, and later the chef, and they kindly posed for photos with my mother’s plushie peacock, who we brought along to his namesake restaurant. Everyone who worked there was clearly glad to work there, and cared about the food and drink and the restaurant, and the guests. There’s real love going into that kitchen, and maybe that’s why the prosciutto is so good.

I find it funny that people rate this place on the way it looks… so outdated, everyone is 80, oh drunk guy was yelling on his phone (because that was your servers fault… he hired that guy I know it) LOL good grief people, eat your food and move on. whoever saw roaches probably made that up because they thought it was overpriced and wanted a refund. the ratio of good reviews to bad, I side with the good. keep it up, yumm!

Wow! Harsh/​bratty reviews for this restaurant! I thought the food was terrific and the ambiance lovely. Come on peeps, this place sits just outside Rossmore ‘campus’ — of course they’re gonna cater to an older crowd. It’s also gonna be chock full of an older generation of diners. DUH! Think of it as old school. I had house made sausage w fettuccini. Wow! Seriously I’ve never had better sausage. I had a glass of clos du bois for $ 9 bucks! We enjoyed ourselves and the food so much we went back 2 days later. This time I had the seafood soup, fish w pasta and chocolate pudding for dessert! Wait service was excellent, including back waiters. The only slightly rough bit was it was a bit loud– but then the place was packed w a well dressed spry group of older diners. I’ll definitely go back. Don’t change a thing!!!

Terrible!!!
Omg, I saw roaches in the bathroom… The food is gross… And the customer service is horrible!
NEVER AGAIN…

Prices have gone up, and things have changed there. Not so up on it as I once was.

The food was really good (I had the salmon special which came with rice and sauteed vegetables) but the service was extremely slow! Three hours for dinner was a bit much. Also, at 23, I was by far the youngest person in the place… hence why they offer a supposedly great early bird special!

Came here once and I’d rather eat a budget TV dinner than return.
We came in early evening for dinner, which I suppose is the rush hour of the clientele here. Service was far below par for the price, as our server seemed VERY inexperienced and didn’t know the menu whatsoever.
The restaurant itself looks dated, old and noticeably dusty. Perhaps this was high class old school dining in the late 80s, but it looks like a joke now. Perhaps this is why the customers are all geriatric.
When we sat down to eat there was only one other table (it quickly filled up with elderly patrons). Of the four people at the other table one man was incredibly drunk and was either scream talking into his cell phone or yelling profanities to his other dinner mates. It made us very uncomfortable and he carried on well into when we were served our entrée.
I ordered chicken parmigiana as my entrée and it was a disaster. It looked and tasted like bad leftovers. I didn’t even eat half of it nor did I take it home with me. I asked to be served a small Cesar salad instead of the garden salad that was served with my meal and was charged $ 9. Dessert was an awful grey/​taupe «chocolate mousse» that was an insult to the palette. I’ve had boxed Jello pudding that was better.
In the end two people ate before 5 PM on a weekday with accompanying soft drinks got charged over $ 80.
I will never return.

I’m spoiled by the incredible variety of fine restaurants we have in Oakland — the diversity of food, servers, and patrons. Il Pavone is just OK in comparison, but although I wouldn’t make it an out-​of-​the-​way destination, if you are in the neighborhood it is a quiet, comfortable, and nice place to eat. Mostly the food is quite tasty, if not a bit portion-​meager.
I used to eat here occasionally when my Mom was at Rossmoor — the average age of the patrons has got to be well in their 80’s. If you are really hungry, try the Panini plates, otherwise have soup before your entrée and you will still have room for dessert. This is a really great place for a quiet lunch, and there is plenty of parking. There is also a really great fresh produce store right next door.

I had the Calamari steak, and it was very savory. My server recommended it to me, and while I love calamari, I really hate chewing my food for three minutes every time I put the fork in my mouth ;)! This was much different– Flavorful and tender. Paired the entrée with white wine, and had an overall good experience; Nice servers, good food. A sidenote would be that the clientele of the restaurant seems to be older people; I seemed to be the youngest person in the restaurant, the next having at least 20 years on me, which didn’t bother me but I did notice.

Reliable. Popular. Good food. All the Italian standards. Come in and enjoy a nice wine list, Clams Leonardo (what makes those different than clams casino?) and a salmon special that is often available.

I love Italian food, and I love when Italian restaurants are homey and filled with Italian servers. This place is just that.
My only complaint is that like most Italian restaurants, the portions are pretty small compared to the prices you pay, but the food is delicious!
My boyfriend and I shared the lasagna in a bolognese sauce and one of the specials — grilled quail. The lasagna and sauce were delicious, not too tomato-​y which I like better. And the quail was really good, although a little hard to get to the meat. Wouldn’t recommend it for a first date since it can get a little messy.
We ended with the panna cotta, one of my favorite desserts, and it was also delicious! It was covered in a semi tart raspberry glaze which was a perfect pair for the sweet cream dessert.
I loved our server. He was very friendly, had an Italian accent, said «prego» after all my «thank you“s, and was attentive enough without hovering.
I would definitely recommend this place to friends, but keep in mind that the portions are pretty small so maybe eat a small snack at home first. ;)
Overall, I had a very pleasant experience here, and I will come back! (As long as the bf wants to come with me.) ;)

Il Pavone is a refined Italian restaurant with fairly typical Italian dishes on the menu (pastas, parmagianas, veal, chicken) No pizza here! If I was to sum the place in one phrase it would be:
«Your Grandfather’s Italian restaurant»
Here’s why, Il Pavone is on a local thoroughfare (ie not a main drag) in what is essentially a house at a corner lot. Most of the clientele come from Rossmoor, a local retirement community. We go there when we want to treat my Mom to something special — she lives in Rossmoor. The diners are almost exclusively 55+, if they are not they are kids of the 55+. Nothing necessarily wrong with this except
1) the food caters to older diets and so is somewhat bland. For the first time I can remember we actually added salt and pepper to our food to boost the taste.
2) I sure wouldn’t take a date here if I were a young buck, and even though I am not, I would not take my wife here, too staid!
That said the food was not bad — well prepared, fresh. But the main dishes are pretty much $ 25 plus so expect $ 35 per person before tip if you want a drink or dessert.
We will still take my Mom here, but all things considered the place is a 3 star only.