Da Maurizio — Restaurant in Halifax

Well, let’s start off by saying the location is awesome. Who doesn’t love downtown Halifax with the boardwalk, hustle and bustle and post pandemic energy. It’s all ends there!! The hostess was polite and server youthful and energetic but lacked experience for the price point of such an establishment. House bread was more of a rendition of day old Acadian bread than an authentic Italian bread. Oh well! Appetizers for this table of two consisted the of an order of Gamberi and an order of Zuppa Brodetto

Well the Gamberi, which was recommended by our youthful server was anything but “ jumbo” shrimp but kudos for the mango salad compotes. As for the zuppa, it was colder than the Moretti and lacked any depth of character for such a highly rated establishment. Of concern was the fact that one of the five shellfish was unopened and potentially dangerous if eaten. Now the “Moretti” was cold. Great tall glass and fresh!

The mains consisted of the Arrabbiata pasta and the Salmone. The Salmone was done great with loads of flavour but a dismal display and plating. As for the $30 Arrabbiata, it was adorned with three tiny shrimp that were luke warm on a bed of overcooked pasta that could fit in the palm of a man’s hand. Lacklustre and underwhelming.

Oh well. Live and learn but still showing some grace as COVID hit this...

Not fine dining at all. Unless you consider fine dining mediocre food, obnoxious servers and overly aggressive staff that clear your table. We went for our 13th wedding anniversary. We were seated right by the entrance even though we were the first ones there and had reservations for quite sometime.

The phone rang constantly which doesn’t exactly scream romantic dining experience. Then 3 very loud woman were seated right behind us even though the restaurant is large and had plenty of other options to choose from.

Every time the servers went to the table behind us they would either bump into my chair or place their hand on the back of my chair. The whole experience felt like a bizarre joke where a restaurant claims they are “fine dining” but in reality they are there to make your life miserable.

We had shrimp for an appetizer which came out fairly quickly so at least we were impressed by that but it was okay nothing special.

Then we each had salads that looked and tasted liked something you would get at a cafeteria very wet/greasy.

The only good part of our meal was the main dish and even then it wasn’t anything wow inspiring or special. We also waited over an hour for it to arrive to our table even though once again we were the first ones there and ordered within 5 minutes of being seated.

0/10 would...

I was excited to try this restaurant. Upon arriving late, we were seated immediately at our friends table, which was a great welcome. Looking at the drink menu it would’ve been nice to have some by the glass options of wine rather than just by the bottle. Our server came around and had a nice but casual demeanor. We ordered the prosciutto and warm olives and were very disappointed with the quantity and presentation of the dish. The radicchio salad was great and I would order that again. I then ordered the fillet tenderloin with broccolini. When it came, it was not broccolini but broccoli creatively cut. As we were eating, 3 of us saw a mouse crawl under the table and were put off from the food. I went up to chat about it with the host and he mentioned that they have pest control in daily to mitigate the issue. As the night went on, our server Scott became increasingly casual and attitudinal. For such a restaurant as Del Maurizio it was disappointing. We paid with Arty who was new at the job and was absolutely a pleasure. Throughout the night the music stopped and the restaurant was completely quiet. Overall, the food had some highlights, but lacked consistency. Service was causal and unprofessional, and the atmosphere was kind of awkward at times. Unfortunately I won’t...