Riva Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Central Elgin

We have eaten at Riva twice, once when they first opened last summer, and then a week and a half ago. The first experience was such a disaster that it took us a full year to decide to give them another try. Regarding the initial experience, we booked a reservation for 5:45 as there is a 2 hour table limit, and we had local theatre tickets for a play at 8 (5 minute walk away from the restaurant). Right out of the gate, the service we received was some of the worst I have ever experienced: slow, disorganized, and at times downright rude. We repeatedly attempted to reach out to the waiter when our entrees had not arrived by 7:30. He appeared to be doing the best he could, but was being run off his feet. Our entrees arrived just after 8, so obviously, we were unable to get to the theatre on time. Regarding the food, it was mediocre at best, and definitely overpriced for what was received. The pasta sauce was not fresh, the seafood was rubbery, and the pasta itself was gummy and overcooked. The waiter was apologetic, however, the owner, who was there at the time, did not come to the table, and absolutely nothing was done to make the situation right. The whole experience was dreadful from start to finish. So, because we are local and would really like this place to survive due to its beautiful location, we decided to try again. When booking the reservation online, I noted in the comments section that I have a dairy allergy. When we were seated, I told the waitress. She was very nice and accommodating, and took my menu questions to the chef. I checked in with her again to make sure that what I ordered would be safe, and I was assured that it would be. Service was a bit slow, but it was a busy Saturday night so not surprising. My husband had arancini to start, he said they tasted fine, and the portion size was generous. When our entrees arrived, my pizza was covered in cheese. I explained to the individual who delivered it (not our waitress) that I have a dairy allergy, and had specifically ordered no cheese. She took the pizza back to the kitchen. My husband proceeded to eat his pasta, the penne salsiccia, but could only force down about a third of it as he said it was rubbery, tough, and chewy. The waitress did return with a menu so that I could re-order, but at that point I didn't want to wait another half an hour for something, especially since my trust that they could actually make safe food for me had been completely eroded. This was exacerbated by the fact that the waitress told us that when she went back to the kitchen to ask about why my pizza was not made correctly, the chef told her, "I can't make that without cheese!". Wow. The waitress did take the glass of wine and caesar off of our bill to try to compensate. When we were paying, she offered an excuse about the computer system, that the allergy had only shown up with the appetizer orders and not the entrees. So, maybe the chef didn't know about the allergy, and just blatantly ignored his patron's request. Either way, it's a a sad state of affairs, and highlights the fact that if you require any sort of allergy/intolerance accommodation, this is not a place where you're going to receive that consideration. After dining there, the restaurant reached out by email, asking us to review our experience so that they could improve. I did, including all the details noted above, and have not received any communication whatsoever from management or the owners. This prompted me to post a public review. Overall, RIva is a major disappointment, and we do not...

A Disappointing Visit After a Year of Loyal Support

We’ve visited Riva more than a dozen times since it opened just a year ago and have always had great experiences — until now. As regular boaters in Port Stanley, we’re in town often and were thrilled to have a new restaurant to frequent and recommend to family and friends. But our most recent visit was a real letdown.

What should have been a simple evening — mussels, a margherita pizza, and one drink — turned into a 2 hour ordeal (5:15PM-7:15PM). The food came out cold, our second drink order was ignored, and the service felt indifferent at best.

What made it worse was the treatment of other guests. Three customers who clearly knew the owners and/or management arrived and were seated at the bar (just like us — we were told the restaurant was fully reserved). Staff asked the rest of us at the bar to shuffle down to make room for them, which we all did without complaint. But then came the preferential treatment: the manager loudly offered to buy their first drink; one of the owners (I believe) then immediately bought them shots of limoncello; and suddenly all the attention behind the bar was on them — while the rest of us were essentially ignored.

We waited 45 minutes before asking where our pizza was, only for it to arrive cold. The bartender clearly forgot it and blamed it on the pizza cook. We weren’t offered another drink, weren’t checked on, and had to wait again just to settle the bill. It was uncomfortable to witness and frustrating to experience. A gentleman beside us left early, muttering “never again,” and another table nearby (regulars) had to flag someone down just to order a drink — after sitting and waiting for 25 minutes. Essentially, the entire bar and bar area were ignored.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t an isolated issue. We’ve also called twice to make a reservation last month (in the morning, around 11:00AM), and both times the same male staff who answered the phone came across as dismissive and arrogant. One response in particular stuck with us: “We have no availability. We’re the most popular spot in Port, so of course we don’t.” That kind of tone is off-putting — and not what hospitality should sound like.

Riva currently only ranks #8 of 12 restaurants in Port Stanley on TripAdvisor — still early days, and still lots of potential. Sustaining that early success means consistency, humility, and care for every customer — not just the ones with connections. The food is good, the setting is lovely, and they do have some wonderful staff indeed. But moments like this can break trust with loyal guests. Hospitality should never feel like a popularity contest. It felt like ego and nepotism was taking the lead last night, and that’s a slippery slope. We’ve seen so many restaurants open, do well, and then close — often for reasons just like this. Early buzz and a good location can only carry you so far.

We’ll give Riva one more try because the food and location are still strong — and we know they have some truly wonderful staff, because we've experienced great service in the past. But we’ll be holding off on recommending it to others for now or inviting friends/family to join us. We genuinely want to see this business succeed, and we hope our next visit reflects the quality and hospitality that first made us love this place. As the saying goes, when we know better, we do better. Please do better. We’d love to keep...

I had heard about this place from a client initially. My wife was wanting to take me to Port Stanley for a beach walk so we decided to do dinner first here.

Unfortunately, I was quite disappointed. It looks nice, has the feel of an upscale place, the pricing definitely makes you think it’s upscale but other signs point to no. I prefer Scaddabush to here and still wish Bertoldis in London was open, for a real authentic Italian dinner.

We started with the whipped ricotta. I didn’t get a picture of this. The ricotta with pistachios, tomatoes, onions was delicious but the bread served with it was so dry and not a good match. It seemed like it was placed on a grill to get the marks but was not toasted not warm. Didn’t like that.

I ordered the Italian Caesar to drink. The stick came with a piece of cheese, basil, and pepperette. That was the best part - the Caesar itself bland. For $15, give me some flavour and lose the food stick.

Then I wanted a beer but the one I wanted, they didn’t have. I will never understand why I’m given a menu (with beers from the brewery in the same building as the restaurant!) and not told which beers you don’t have. This happens way too often to me haha.

My wife wanted a pasta dish but doesn’t like seafood. One dish is seafood, one was vegetarian, one was pork sausage with rigatoni. Nothing very spectacular and not for the prices. She ended up picking the Luccio Nero (pickerel with potatoes & seasonal vegetables). The pickerel was not skinless so it was fishy; the “mixed greens” was just a bunch of arugula; the seasonal vegetables were just green beans; but the potatoes were very good. Not a $35 dish.

I ordered the prosciutto pizza. Thin crust great. The arugula - ridiculous amount. Before I took the picture, I had already had four large bites of just arugula and some cheese. Keep that in mind. We watched several other dishes come out and all were different but had these ridiculous amounts of arugula. Not sure what that’s all about but lay off the arugula! There were figs - not many and could have done with a bit more cutting, say 1/8s rather than 1/4s just so the bite proportions were better. The prosciutto was placed basically on top of the sauce, one slice per slice of pizza, but wasn’t cut up so every bite was pulling the prosciutto off the pizza with a bunch of arugula. Needed to use a knife and fork to get started with it. Just a bit disappointed with that.

No dessert - Broderick’s for ice cream much better.

Overall - prices not worth it IMHO. Normally I’d give another chance but not worth the value unless they make some drastic menu changes. I expected a lot more. The scenery is nice if you really want dinner by the water. I...