Turning The Tables: Poggio Ristorante, Sausalito

I used to live in Sausalito, but I was on the north side of this bucolic coastside hamlet, a few miles away from the touristy Bridgeway, where a dozen or so restaurants have breathtaking views of San Francisco Bay and the city a few miles south.

Last Saturday night, we met a couple of old friends at Poggio, on the ground floor of the Casa Madrona Hotel. This sprawling, beautifully designed, classic Italian trattoria offers outside seating day and night to tourists and locals. It earned medium to high marks from us on the food, but horrible grades for the schizoid service. The staff was obviously trying to “turn the table” by trying to rush us through our meal.

But we weren’t going to play that game. We purposefully ordered drinks first. They were all potent potables.

We took our time and ordered salads. Literally one minute later, they arrived and were quickly plopped down on the table. We didn’t like that one bit. Though our waiter was personable, the support staff was rushed and impersonal.

Perhaps 45 minutes later, we ordered our entrees. Again they arrived within a few minutes and were just slammed onto the table. Blackened Ahi Tuna for me, which was quite tasty. My wife tried the pasta with crabmeat, but you had to have a magnifying glass to find the shredded crustacean. Our friends both ordered the Grilled Lamb Chops which were quite tasty.

We finished with delicious desserts and coffee. We’d stretched the meal to three hours, though the staff would have preferred us to have cut that time in half. Tough. It’s our money and we’ll spend it as slowly as we wish.

Poggio
777 Bridgeway, Sausalito, California 94965.
T: 415-332-7771.
W: Poggio.

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