Prima Ristorante

My fav restaurant in Walnut Creek! Service is always on point but the food. The food is excellent! I've never had a mediocre meal here. Did I mention they make amazing Manhattans?! Stiff and manly ones to be exact.

They have a great selection of wine and a retail shop next door if you wanted to stock up on something you enjoy.

On our latest visit, I felt like meat so we ordered the following:

- Tonna Carpaccio: delicate, so flavorful with the EVOO and fresh basil
- Bistecca: Ribeye that was bursting with flavor
- Pesto Pasta: Amazingly fresh pesto (limited amount daily) with fresh pasta
- Margherita Pizza with Anchovy: thin crust, chewy cheese and just the perfect amount of sauce
- Tiramisu: best I've ever had. So light and fluffy I could eat two!

My husband and I had first tried to come here on valentine's day, but it was fully booked. So we decided to just wait it out. Reservations were pretty easy and when we arrived the restaurant wasn't very busy so we were promptly seated.

Looking on Yelp there were so many things I wanted to try, however, the menu had changed from what people had recommended. So we decided to ask the waiter what he recommended and we ended up ordering:
- Ribeye: this was a really well cooked and seasoned piece of meat! The juices combined with the added potato and greens, yum! Now was it better than a good old steakhouse, no. However, it was much better than the tagtiatelle.
- Tagtiatelle- I really wanted to like this as this was plastered all over Yelp. This simply put was not my cup of tea. It lacked flavor and there really wasn't anything special about it. The pasta was cooked well, but the meat sauce really wasn't that great.

Side note: they do have really fresh olive oil paired with House bread for you to nibble on as you wait for your entree. The con is they only give you ONE piece of bread each and if you want more you have to ask for each additional piece of bread.

Overall, ok experience and average food, not worth the price and hype.

We recently took my mom here for her 70th birthday. Jody called the day of to confirm our reservation and was very nice to try to find us a later time, but with no avail (they were very busy that night). The hostess who seated us offered us seats inside or on the enclosed "patio" area. With my mom in mind, I asked if the patio was heated and she said "yes, it is all central heating". FYI, there is a draft when you sit by the window, so it actually is chillier than the inside (despite central heating).

The grilled romaine and calamari appetizers were cooked perfectly. The lamb special, we felt was possibly more on the rare side than medium rare so we asked our waiter what he thought, and he erred more on the side that it was undercooked. We sent it back and immediately regretted it, but when it came back (very quickly), it was medium but still tender - phew! The crab pasta was decadent as always and the mushroom agnolotti was excellent (please don't ever take it off the menu!!).

Sadly, they did not bring my mom a birthday dessert - just the check - despite my verifying the note when I spoke with the reservationist. Otherwise, a great experience as usual at Prima.

Always a great meal at Prima! This is a great restaurant for a celebration with family and friends. Classic Italian food with a nice setting in Walnut Creek.
We recently had the Pizetta with carmelized onions and mushrooms, and the Brussels Sprouts to start--both dishes were great. For entrees we had a mix of the Boneless Chicken with potatoes and artichokes, the Pot Roast (recommend!!!), and the Steak. All were good but Pot Roast was tastiest in my opinion.
For pasta we had a mix of the Gnocchi with Wild Boar and Tagliatelle. Gnocchi was amazing--super light pieces!
Dessert options weren't too appealing to me, I ordered off the menu an Affogato!

Perfect dining experience!! We came because we heard good things. One of us had the sea food special. One of us had the ravioli and I had the cannelloni. All three were excellent and exceeded our expectations. Then only to add to the experience we had perfect server. He answered questions, guided us and helped in our choices, listened to my issues and helped me. He had personality and a sense of humor

The manager?? Came to our table and made sure everything was good.

Great place and great dining experience.

If you are looking for a "fine dining" restaurant in Walnut Creek, Prima is probably your best option. I haven't dined out much in Walnut Creek because I still prefer to go to restaurants in the city, Oakland or Berkeley, but I decided to give Prima a try this weekend.

I knew Prima was going to be expensive from checking out the menu online, and I was a little hesitant to spend that much money (if I was going to splurge, I would rather splurge at my favorite restaurants in SF). However, at the end I was pretty happy with my overall experience at Prima. Our server was friendly and attentive, and the wine selection was amazing!

We started with the marinated olives, the shrimp with polenta, and the stuffed calamari. The olives were served warmed; it came with 3 or 4 different types of olives and was marinated with some herbs and garlic. It was a good start. The shrimp with polenta dish was okay. They were cooked and seasoned nicely, but somehow I was expecting more out of this dish. It was just a bit basic. I wasn't sure if it's worth the price to be honest. The calamari dish was great. The stuffed sausage was tasty, the calamari was tender and the marinara sauce that came with it was so bright and delicious. My only complaint was that the dish didn't come out hot enough (temperature wise).

For mid course, my dining partner and I split the Casoncelli, and I was impressed. The fresh pasta was well made, and it came piping hot. I love the brown butter sauce that came with it, it was very luscious. The kitchen split our pasta into two plates, which was a nice touch so that we both were able to enjoy our pasta from nice warm plates.

For my main course, I had the rack of lamb, and it was excellent! It was cooked to the right temperature, the meat was juicy and tender. It came with sautéed Swiss chard and artichoke, and they were delicious as well.

Last but not least, desserts!!! We had the Tiramisu and the olive oil orange cake. They were both great. You can't really go wrong with tiramisu or olive oil cake ;)

I think I would come back here for special occasions. At this price point, I think there are many other restaurants in SF or Oakland that I would rather go to. I think the best deal that we had was the wine actually. We had a great Nebbiolo for under $60, which was awesome!!

I had driven by this place often before I had dinner here. We did happen to be the first table seated on a weekend so that could be the reason for our experience. We were the only patrons seated for almost 30 minutes.
The price is on the higher end but I did not feel the flavor or service ambiance matched the price tag.
The pasta I ordered was good but I would not say great. The salad (strawberry, I think) was delicious. The chicken my husband ordered was dry.

I might give this place another try.

I can't rave enough about this place. From making a reservation to paying the bill, everything was more than I expected. Great Birthday Meal.
We were greeted very courteously at the door and we got a window table.
We started with a burrata salad with butternut squash and some warm bread.

We followed up with a green apple and pomegranate Risotto and Pesto gnocchi. The Rissoto was very creamy and tasty. Perfectly balanced flavors. The gnocchi simply melted in your mouth. These were half orders.
Main course we had the Pollo Arrosto and the Scallopini di Vitello. The chicken was tender and aromatic. Greens were perfectly cooked and complemented the chicken well.
The Veal was simply out of this world. Everything was working in perfect harmony. On my next visit, I'm ordering this right away.

For the perfect ending, we had a Crostata di Mele. Delicious and worthy of a pit stop for that alone.
The service was incredible and definitely deserving of acknowledging how well everyone worked together.

We went here for a team dinner. The reservation was quick and easy to make. We were seated immediately and the wait staff was very knowledgeable on the wines and the food pairings as well. We got a couple Italian wine bottles along with the appetizers. My favorites were the Grilled romaine hearts and the one with the burrata. The Rucolo salad with grilled pears was pretty good as well. For dinner, everyone at our table of 8 had a different dish and everyone was very pleased with their orders. I had the butternut squash ravioli and it was a very different take on the dish, the cannellini beans and legumes were a nice touch.

We didn't have any dessert as we decided to go to the creamery for Icecream but I'll be back another time for a great meal and dessert as well.

Came in for bday dinner..definitely didn't disappoint!
Ordered a bottle of house red, then warm rosemary olives-so good, luv the flavors. For starters had grilled calamari w/beans, mixed w/radish,fennel etc. so much flavor-that was fantastic. I then went straight for the main course bcuz I wanted to save room for desserts lol. I ordered there special rack of lamb-perfectly cooked, bday girl had the bisteca- so much flavor/which was excellent! Pork chop which lots of ppl were ordering was cooked n prepared perfectly, not dry but moist-plate was literally empty except the bone. And last there homemade pasta w stuffed mushroom..aah can't say enough. For dessert we had pineapple something-just ok, ricotta cheesecake pretty good & you can't go wrong w an affogato.. overall very pleased w entree's n dining experience, would recommend :)) And definitely will return!