Cavallo Nero — Restaurant in Hamilton

This review voices two areas of concerns with this restaurant. I was visiting from out of town and brought my mother here for dinner. Since my mother has Celiac disease we decided to order the gluten free pasta. When asked if we would like some gluten free bread at the table we said yes. When it came time to pay the bill I noticed there was an additional $3.00 charge for the gluten free bread and 2 pastas ($1.00 x3). I didn’t recall seeing anywhere in the menu that there was an additional charge for gluten free options and while it was only $3.00 it was the principle of being charged extra without being made aware of the price difference and the option to make that choice. Plus the gluten free bread was obviously frozen as it was brought to the table toasted. ( we didn’t ask for toast). So I asked to speak with the manager to express my concerns. The manager indicated that I was not the first person to complain about this but there was nothing he could do about it because it was the POLICY set by the owners. I pointed out that if others have complained about this then he should provide this feedback to the owners to consider making an adjustment. The manager who was extremely condescending kept referencing the word POLICY as if that would be sufficient enough to silence two women. He repeatedly said there was nothing he could do and when I told him “sure you can, you’re the manager you can adjust the bill” he simply gave a patronizing smile and said “now that wouldn’t be fair to everyone else would it”? (I really wonder if he would have spoken to two men in the same manner and continued to lean on the word POLICY to support his inflexibility. One would think think that they would have a policy to make customers happy). The second issue is of greater concern in that it is questionable as to whether or not it was even gluten free pasta we were given as my mother hardly got in the door before experiencing a severe digestive upset. Fortunately we were home and she was able to shower and put on a change of clothing. This was a very stressful thing to happen to an 87 year old. My mother called the restaurant and spoke to kitchen staff who insisted they do not boil gluten free pasta in the same water as regular pasta. She did not think to ask what type of flour was in the gluten free pasta but we noticed a review from approx 5 months ago when someone ordered a gluten free pizza and was violently ill afterwards so perhaps the restaurant could benefit from some advice from a nutritional expert on gluten free cooking. ( Btw when my mother called the kitchen to say she had a reaction they asked her if she wanted to speak with the manager. She graciously decided because she felt he was probably too busy reading his policy handbook). So in summary I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone because of their unreasonable menu policies as expressed by a condescending manager but more importantly from a health perspective anyone restricted to a gluten free diet is putting their health at risk by eating here and ordering the offered gluten free options. Many people don’t realize that while some choose to eat gluten free because it has been a dietary fad these past few years there are people like my mother and the other customer.who suffer from Celiac disease and they experience true physical pain with gluten in their diet. If a restaurant is going to offer gluten free options like pasta and pizza they must ensure that the flour is gluten free AND the rest of the food on the pasta and pizza is also gluten free. Now that would be a...

I am so disappointed in Cavallo. I was here with 3 friends for a birthday and we were all blown away by how terrible Tracy was to us.

First of all, we called in advance numerous times to book a reservation and phones were off… on a Saturday afternoon … okay?

Sure explains why the restaurant was empty. Wonder how many customers they might have missed out on by turning off phones.

So we get to the restaurant and it’s empty besides a couple families and a couple people at the bar. Pretty much an empty house, yet when we walked in waiting to be seated we were ignored by staff, not even greeted.

Eventually after we had to ASK to be seated, Tracy offered us some high tables and said we could not have a booth (even though there were 6+ booths available). Sure let’s give the benefit of doubt, maybe 6+ groups were about to come in at 4 pm.. sure…

After we were seated at the high table Tracy rudely told us to be out by 6.

Listen, I worked in a restaurant for years and understand tables need to be reserved. But it was just shocking the way she said it to us. A little bit of elegance could have got the same message across “We have a full house for dinner and need the table by 6pm, enjoy!” Like, literally anything else than how she spoke!

So we are sat at our table for who knows how long with just 2 glasses of water for the 4 of us, and are not being seen by anyone so when Tracy walks by we simply told her we were ready to order, so maybe she could help by getting our server. She literally just zooms by our table and goes “I’m not your server” and just keeps on walking.

What in the world??? I understand a bad day, and part-time jobs can suck, but who talks to anyone like that, ever!?

Not sure if something was said in the background between employees, (again I worked in restaurant service, I know how it goes) but some other girls came out from the back and gave us some not-so-nice looks. At least have a little class and be subtle about it!

Chantelle eventually comes to our table and she was incredibly polite. We order our food, come to find out all of the tomato sauce has alcohol which pretty much cut our options in half besides most of the menu already having pork and meat. No problem, not everyone has to accommodate to all diets, but at this point it was time to go.

If we didn’t have such a terrible experience with Tracy, we probably would have figured something to eat and stayed, but we had enough.

I hate to assume this, but we were 4 women in hijabs and were visibly treated so much worse than other customers.

I don’t care what people think about me in their homes, or even what someone says about me in the break room at work. We weren’t going out to a restaurant to make friends but at the very least we didn’t expect to be treated like trash.

Muslims, save yourself the headache and just go somewhere else. There is incredible Italian food in the area with stellar service, within even minutes of this...

My husband and I went to Cavallo Nero for a birthday dinner last week and, as much as we tried to enjoy it, the experience was not great. The restaurant claims to be casual-fine dining, but it is decidedly a casual dining venue with posh decor and an excellent marketing group. This mis-match of claim vs. reality is a problem as we went in expecting a certain level of service, food quality, refinement and got the equivalent of Italian Roadhouse...

The space: Upon arrival, we were initially sat at a table indoors that was literally in a doorway - this despite the restaurant being nearly empty. We asked to be relocated to the patio and, to their credit, were without any fuss (albeit to a table that was not set with any cutlery or napkins - something that was not remedied until we requested it after out appetizer had arrived). That said, the patio is fantastic, interior decor is lovely, and live jazz was wonderful; but the interior of the restaurant needs a thorough cleaning (corners, edges, and anything not tackled by a spot-clean is just dirty) and the layout is awkward: a classic case of smash as many tables into the space as possible.

The service: While none of the staff were rude, they also weren't welcoming: I legitimately didn't see a single staff member smile the entire time we were there! The general atmosphere of indifference that the Cavallo staff bring, combined with slow(er) service (and our server was SLOW), honestly just made us feel rather unwelcome. Also, as a pet peeve, no restaurant claiming to be casual-fine should be allowing their staff to wear black jeans and running shoes.

The food: while not 'bad', the meal was unremarkable. We had white wine mussels to start which were cooked nicely, but were bland and not served with a bread of any kind to sop up the sauce (ironically, bread was provided to the table AFTER the mussel appetizer...). Mains were the ravioli and a seafood linguini. I dont believe either was made with fresh pasta, which was disappointing for a restaurant claiming to be casual-fine dining, but both were nicely cooked and I was pleasantly surprised to find the ravioli's arrabiata sauce legitimately spicey - albeit of a single flavor note. The linguini was, again, bland. Dessert was the only part of the meal that was actually just bad: we shared a chocolate something absolutely drenched in caramel sauce. We did not finish it. As a side note, the plating of the dishes was not good. Very much a case of simply dumping onto a plate and serving as is - dripped sauces and all.

Overall, we probably would have enjoyed the restaurant if it had not been a "special occasion" and had we not been led to expect a slightly more elevated dining experience. But Cavello Nero did not deliver on the experience it's website promised and we left feeling very disappointed in...