Located on Menlo Park’s restaurant row, Trellis is arguably one of the best Italian restaurants in the area. Elegant without being pretentious, Trellis provides excellent food at reasonable prices. It’s a great place to go if you want to impress someone of the opposite sex or if you just want to celebrate a birthday or another event.

The restaurant is tastefully decorated with neatly arranged white cloth tables and muted carpeting. The first room facing El Camino Real has colorful murals and a ceiling-to-floor mirror that creates a neat effect on diners. The second dining room is adorned with plush, spacious booths that make it perfect for conversation. The crown jewel of the restaurant is the terrace on the second floor that seats eighty people, beautifully decorated with orange trees and furnished with heat lamps. Venture out to the terrace to enjoy a drink (and the view) on a cool summer evening.

Start with Trellis’s soup of the day or a beet, orange and endive salad with red onion vinaigrette. The fried-peppered calamari strings with lemon aioli were lightly battered and soft.

One of the most popular items is Susan’s Downfall: cheese and herb raviolis in Gorgonzola-toasted almond sauce. We enjoyed the fettuccine with sauteed prawns, green peas, and diced tomatoes. Other entrees include braised beef with melted leeks and Gorgonzola-potato pure, grilled chicken breast with polenta and the Filet Mignon with brandy-green peppercorn sauce.

Trellis boasts one of the best selections of wines we’ve seen. Try one of their chardonnays or their dessert wines (we liked the Thomas Fogarty). Other suggested desserts include tiramisu, zabaglione and apple cake with cinnamon ricotta.

Student groups will appreciate the private banquet facilities on the second floor, which was rented for a rehearsal dinner the night we visited last week. The second floor can seat as many as 100 people and comes equipped with a bar, perfect for banquets. With food this good, there’s no reason not to bring everyone you know.

Trellis

1077 El Camino Real, Menlo Park, CA 94025

$$-$$$

Lunch: Mon-Fri 11-2:30

Dinner: Mon-Sun 5-10