Poggio Trattoria
Downtown/Bridgeway · Italian
Verified September 2026
Casa Madrona's ground-floor restaurant, but it draws its own crowd independent of the hotel. Poggio is a Northern Italian trattoria with house-cured charcuterie and fresh pasta made in-house, led by Executive Chef and partner Benjamin Balesteri under proprietor Larry Mindel, who spent about thirty years building Italian restaurants, including Ciao and Prego. Balesteri was born in Monterey and talks about Swiss farming and Sicilian fishing in his family background, and that shows in a menu of oak-grilled fish and meat, wood-fired pizzas and handmade pastas. It sits at street level below the hotel's pale blue facade at 777 Bridgeway, near the top of the main strip. It has turned into a bit of a local landmark in its own right.
Atmosphere
Warm, rustic-elegant and busy. This is one of the harder reservations to get on Bridgeway on a Friday night, and it holds that reputation for a reason. The dining room leans into exposed beams and warm lighting rather than anything glossy or modern. Service is polished but not stiff, and the room has a pleasant, hum-of-conversation volume that lets you talk. Breakfast is a good way to try the place without the dinner scramble.
What To Order
The house-cured salumi board is the place to start, then whatever fresh pasta the kitchen is running that night. Tagliatelle with shrimp and fettuccine with clams are typical of the primi, with pasta priced around $28 to $30 on the current menu. The pasta program is the strongest reason to come back. Wood-fired pizzas such as Margherita and Salsiccia run in the low-to-mid $20s and are a sensible shared order, and the oak-grilled wild salmon and porterhouse cover anyone who wants a straight protein. The Italian-leaning wine list is deep enough to ask the server for a pairing rather than guessing.
Good To Know
Book ahead, especially for dinner on weekends. Walk-in tables are not a safe bet, and this is one of the few Sausalito restaurants where a reservation made only a day or two out can already be tight. Breakfast is served daily from 6:30 to 11:30, with lunch and dinner from noon until 9 on Sunday through Thursday and until 10 on Friday and Saturday. Free valet parking has been reported through Casa Madrona next door, but policies have changed over the years, so ask when you reserve. Street parking on Bridgeway is the backup, and the ferry landing is within walking distance if you're coming from San Francisco.
Our Take
One of the two or three restaurants in Sausalito worth planning a trip around. Book the earliest table you can get on a Friday or Saturday and treat the meal as the main event of the evening. If dinner is booked, try breakfast or a late lunch instead.