Reviews for Gianni & Gaitano's

03/01/2009 - Bentham
This is for the Creedmoor location.

I had the unfortunate luck to visit this establishment recently and would urge all to stay away from it. Aside from the cliche-sounding but valid complaints of somewhat-better-than-mediocre food (it wasn't amazing, but it wasn't bad. Something like a decently home-cooked meal made by someone with a modicum of skill) at small portions overpriced for their value in quantity and quality (a side of garlic bread for $3.50. Try it, no wait, don't), there are other sad tidbits to mention regarding this place.

For a restaurant that claims authenticity and high constitution, the service was terrible. The waiting staff never visited more than three, four times to check up on our small party in what was nearly an empty restaurant.

In fact, they even mistook my order of minestrone soup, under "zuppe," for the Chef's Order of the Day, or "zuppa," listed under the soup section but was actually a seafood dish of some sort that had an unlisted price and ended up costing $25. I assume the mishap occurred when I pointed to the item but the order was verbally confirmed with, "The zupp[e/a]?" Reasonable? Maybe. Yet on the online menu, it clearly says for that exact item on the exact spot in the menu (physically and virtually), "Chef's Soup of the Day" and lists a price of $4.95. Not feeling up to a full meal since I had lunch at 3 o'clock that day, I had wanted soup. Instead I got a seafood-variety pasta bigger than my head.

I was led to believe I would not be charged for the dish, which I did not touch. In fact, the waitress in charge of our table brought some actual soup (decent, like Campbell's tomato soup with a little more seasoning and a variety of vegetables) in lieu of the mishap, though when the check came, they still charged for the seafood dish. She had meant not charging me additional for the soup, though she never specified she was talking about the soup when she said, "you won't be charged for IT." Yet another vague situational mishap. Never assume in this place.

It appeared the matter would be resolved quite nicely--though it still left a bad taste in the mouth--when a member of the party called and talked to the manager, who offered a $20 gift card in compensation (at the time, I had been too dumbfounded and incredulous at the entire ordeal to sort it out). However, when the gift card was actually picked up, the lady in charge (either another manager or the head waitress) was rather rude and adamant in purporting that "your friend ordered the zuppa del pesche," that even though she'd "still give the gift card," since she wanted us to come back, the "zuppa del pesche, one of our most expensive dishes" was ordered.

Checking an Italian dictionary to make sure I wasn't insane, "zuppa del giorno," the item in the spot, is Chef's Soup of the Day, which as I mentioned on the online menu, is listed as SOUP for $4.95. But somehow that equates to a seafood pasta dish called "zuppa del pesche?" listed under the zuppe (soups) section of the menu with three other SOUP items valued at $4.95 each? I guess the "soup" of the day changes, so the title is a confusing misnomer at best, though the logic doesn't make sense to me, and either way, I wanted some minestrone soup.

I doubt I'll ever come back, and I'll probably end up setting the gift card on fire for some petty psychological revenge, because going back to that place isn't worth the money, free or otherwise.