Sorrentino's Downtown — Restaurant in Edmonton

If I could give a 0 I would ! The worst experience I ever had at a restaurant. It was my birthday and we had reserved for 4 and showed up on time for our reservation. The greeter at the door was very kind, took our coats, and welcomed us. Then a woman who was, I guess responsible for seating guests, came rushing up to the front while the greeter looked up our reservation. The greeter had already found us in the system and was just about to seat us when she took over the reservation list and without even looking in our direction, asked for our names again, I spelt it out for her and told her the the exact time and date that I had reserved. She couldn’t find it and asked again while muttering under her breath (not to us) that she had already seated another party that was a walk-in in a spot (which I’m thinking was our spot maybe). After ~2 minutes of standing there at the door, I asked her if there were any concerns where she didn’t even answer me and continued to mutter under her breath and look at the computer screen. This entire time this woman did not even look at me or my guests once. Another party entered and was standing behind us, the greeter (the kind one) asked them for their names while the other woman stood at the computer. Before they could even say who they were, the woman at the computer said “Hi there, good to see you, I know him, he already reserved”, waving and smiling at him, while we stood in the middle of this interaction. My guest and I were shocked but did not say a word. Finally, after the guests behind us went to be seated by a third party, she asked us to follow her, with no emotion or even a smile in our direction. The vibe of the night was completely thrown off for us but I said I still wanted to stay because I had heard good things about the place while my guests insisted that we leave. We ended up ending our night, ordered pasta dishes that were okay, I don’t know, I just expected better to be honest. Our waiter was wonderful and kind and had many suggestions for us. We tried the pistachio cheesecake which tasted nothing like pistachio, it tasted artificial, and it was dry. We went to use the washroom before we left as they were closing at this time. It was us and another group of guests left while the chairs and table were being cleaned. While we were using the mirror in the women’s washroom, which is close to the door, the same woman who was giving us the “cold shoulder” at the front desk walked in pushing the door wide open. The door had hit my friend and she looked in our direction and shuffled right past us looking very displeased. My friend asked her word for word “is there a problem here?”, she looked over at my friend and said “what?”, my friend repeated the question, “is there a problem here, you don’t just hit someone with a door and walk right past them, that’s rude?”, and she responded “no, no, there’s no problem, no problem” still with the same displeased look. She did not apologize or anything. I didn’t say anything that night. My whole night was ruined. That woman should not be serving guests or seating them. She was rude, disrespectful, and should be reprimanded for what she did. I will say, we were the only party that was not demographically similar to the rest of the guests and it left a sour taste in our mouth, some of my guests felt that it was racist and prejudiced the way she interacted with us. She should treat all of her guests with the same respect and kindness. We are paying customers and have a right to be respected just as any other paying guest. To the greeter at the door and the waiter, thank you for your kindness, it was appreciated. I will not be returning to...

So.... Open Table asked me to provide a review of my dinner at Sorrentino's yesterday. I was busy and pressed for time but, it was so good that, my conscience would not allow me to pass this by. So here 'goes;

I was there yesterday, Friday evening before the hockey game. My friend was conservative and selected the Cesare salad and the Pear-Gorgonzola Ravioli in Sambuca Rose sauce. It was excellent, as expected. The pasta dishes here are always excellent and, the creativity they apply to something that has become so familiar can be easy to overlook. If you're here and, not sure what to try, you can never go wrong with the pasta menu.

I on the other had wanted to try something less conventional and went with the beet salad and lamb. It was fantastic! The beets were perfectly prepared and served with a combination of walnuts, arugula, goat cheese and julienned carrot that surprised me in the best way possible. All dressed in an excellent balsamic vinaigrette and with generous wedges of bocconcino. If I had left the restaurant after that, I would have been sated and smiling but, I didn't.

I also had the lamb sirloin. A cut that can be very difficult to do correctly but, they did it perfectly. The lamb was tender and flavourful and served in a fantastic demi with gnocchi and asparagus that were perfectly finished on the grill. It had been a busy day and I was thirsty. Though not normally a beer drinker, our server was able to recommend a light crisp beer that fit both my thirst and the meal so perfectly that I quaffed back two of them. I didn't ask what the beer was, I didn't need to know. My server knew what I needed and, next time I go there, I'm sure he'll be equally prescient.

This was not my first time at Sorrentino's downtown and it certainly will not be my last. The food here is consistently excellent and matched only by the outstanding service from their friendly and welcoming staff. Thank you to everyone at Sorrentino's you guys...

My fiancé & I had our first date here 5 years ago, and just recently came back to celebrate, 5 years to the day ♥ We've since both become HUGE fans of the chain (as you can see, I've now given all 5 star reviews), but have only had the chance to come back to this downtown location once since.

1st photo: Burrata salad (my fav! ♥), 2x arancini, 2x tomato bruschetta, and the beet salad. 2nd photo: The lobster rigatoni with a rosé/cognac sauce (amazing! ♥), and the veal scaloppini.

How this location compares to the other locations: Of all the locations, the ambiance here is the best - quiet, dimly lit, and romantic; very similar menu but slight differences; west side location has pizza whereas this one doesn't (just an observation, but it makes no difference to me as I come solely for the pasta ♥); here you have to pay to park - as is the nature of downtown - whereas the other locations you don't; got a bigger chunk of burrata here than other locations (big win!). However the one suggestion I'd make is that: though I was very excited to see my favorite menu item from the west location - the lobster rigatoni, which is usually on as a "special" but not a regular menu item there - was on the full-time menu downtown, the sauce wasn't quite as good as at the west location. Still very good, but here it was more thin, whereas at the west location it's more of a thick rosé sauce with strong cognac flavor. Whoever is your chef at west location should come over one day and teach the downtown location their tricks for the sauce! ;) ♥ Oh, to be a fly on that wall...

Overall, always a fantastic experience, five stars and will continue to frequent your locations...