Anyone with suggestions for graduation dinner that can seat about 10 adults on a Friday or Saturday night in the Pasadena/San Marino area? We like Italian, French, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, steak, I guess pretty much most food. Somewhere memorable will be nice. Thoughts & suggestons? If we can have dinner for $40/person or so, that would be nice.

Thanks!

Any thoughts? Favorite restaurants, anyone?

Check out chowhound.com

Yujean Kang in Pasadena is still one of our favorites.

Thanks--any other suggestions?

Alot of people celebrate special occasions at Il Fornio in Old Town Pasadena. Great italian food...a little noisy, but many restaurants are that can accommodate large groups.

I live outside Pasadena, so if you need more info, let me know.

Congrats on the graduation!

Thanks! I really appreciate these suggestions. Any more? We probably will do the Shanghaid dumpling place in Arcadia at least one meal, since we can't get anything quite as good elsewhere. Chinese is not so unique & special because we do have it quite a bit, but will probably consider that for another meal as well (we will be in the area for many days).

S just said he'd like brazilian, thai or chinese. Would love more ideas.

You mentioned Italian first, so I'll also suggest Il Fornaio in Old Town Pasadena. The restaurant has two private rooms, and I think either would be large enough for 10. We were seated in one of the rooms on one occasion, and it was very pleasant to be away from the noisy main room. They also have tables on an outdoor patio that overlooks a small, quiet plaza off Colorado Boulevard.

Another place I like is the Raymond which is located in an old cottage. You could probably have an entire room to yourselves, but everyone would have to order carefully to stay within your $40 pp budget (which I hope is before tip and tax).

http://www.theraymond.com/

And now for something completely different... Firefly Bistro is housed in a large tent in a small neighborhood in South Pasadena. The food is California eclectic with a few vaguely New Orleans entrees. Because of the way the tent is decorated, the place has a bit of a party atmosphere. Casual and fun.

http://www.eatatfirefly.com/index2.html

Check out Saldang and Saladang Song on Fair Oaks in Pasadena if you like Thai. We've been to both and preferred Saladang. They are reasonably priced and good food, plus parking is easy and free.

President Thai is good, we like it better than the Saladangs, lately.
Roys on Colorado is very nice too.
I have had good and bad dishes at Il Fornaio in Pasadena as compared to the other Il Fornaio's.
Firefly Bistro is a good suggestion, great food and fun atmosphere, The Raymond too for that matter.

There is a nice Tibetan restaurant in old town, The Tibetan House.

For a relaxed atmosphere the Yardhouse might appeal to the grads.
PF Changs is also in the Paseo.

Celestino on Lake is very good.

With some of these I am not sure of the 40$ limit per person.

thanks for these great suggestions--will share them w/ s. welcome others as we'll be in the area for over aeek & hopefully D will be getting her BA next spring at the same place!

The Paseo is a great place too as SeaUrchin suggested, but I've been to the Yardhouse and its pretty loud. I forgot to mention the reason I suggested Il Fornio is that the kids would probably like to walk around Old Town afterwards and maybe have a drink at Barneys (alot of college kids hang out there on the weekends).

Glad to hear you'll be here more than one night so you can try all these great suggestions! The Firefly looks like fun...I've never heard of it before reading it here.

I had a lovely dinner at a French restaurant last month called Cheval blanc. It is in old town Pasadena right off colorado blvd. They have a couple of entrees under 20 and many in the 20s. The french onion soup was wonderful but it was 8.50.

Love Saladang, but just know that it is a fairly casual place.

"I had a lovely dinner at a French restaurant last month called Cheval blanc. It is in old town Pasadena right off colorado blvd."

We also liked Cheval Blanc Bistro. I put up a little review on my website recently. We have been to the restaurant twice and enjoyed the food, service and ambiance both times. I have a review of Celestino, too. It would also be a good choice.

http://web.me.com/tomfielding1/Tom_%...ena%2C_CA.html