La Grotta On Main — Restaurant in Markham

This is by far one of the most authentic Italian places on Main St., Unionville. I feel like nowadays a lot of the pasta has a little twist to it, but I feel like at this specific restaurant, it really felt like I was eating a pasta that brought out a lot of flavour and that just felt like a good comfort meal at the right prices! The atmosphere of this place isn’t modern though but with the dishes that they offer, it makes the atmosphere feel like a very cozy spot. This restaurant just brings out the vibe where you can either grab a casual dinner with your friends, but also celebrate a birthday or go there for a date night so its an ALL IN ONE which is great. Last night, I was truly upset when a different Italian restaurant happened to not get our names down for a reservation.. I was so disappointed and we were also stressed because it was my friend’s birthday. Then I had a different pasta place and I found this place: La Grotto :) The owner (I assume) was truly a lifesaver and such a sweetheart. As soon as I called at 8 PM, he told me that he would definitely save us a table and even gave me a heads up that they could take in our order now if we wanted to order any pizza (because they were closing at 9:30pm). We already felt bad enough that we had to go close to closing, But he still insisted to take our party which was so kind (we were a party of 6). I ordered the chicken Alfredo and OMG… The sauce was at its perfection. Most of the time when I eat chicken Alfredos, It is either too bland or way too cheesy which makes the dish super heavy but this dish was just at a perfect consistency. For the appetizers, we ordered the calamari truffle along with the bruschetta And those appetizers were gone within SECONDS. For the table, there was also spices such as; vinegar and other spices to go with our bruschetta, which went perfect together. my other friends also loved all their dishes from the bottom of their heart. I really wish i was able to take the rest of my alfredo home.. im still thinking about it haha. anyways customer service was excellent. he always checked up on us and asked how our food was, offered to help us take a picture, and also tried to get to know a little bit. really bad that we were one of the last tables but even though we stayed a little past closing, he did not even rush us. this man was the sweetest person I’ve ever dealt with at a restaurant and I think that customer service is such a plus when it comes to a restaurant with this being said .. with this restaurant, having excellent food AND customer service, why wouldnt you want to come here?!!! we are definitely all returning and I cannot talk enough about how this resturaunt was truly one of my favourite places to eat at. all six of us split the appetizers and once again, I had ordered the chicken Alfredo and a pop and my bill came to around $44 before tips because I paid with debit (debit & cash discount). this restaurant is definitely a hidden gem and I hope you all do give this resturaunt a chance because it was so GOOD and deserves more hype!! truly turned a stressful night into an amazing memory for me and my friends and we’ll never forget the...

We came here for lunch and sat outdoors behind the restaurant. Service was great. The waiter was fairly busy with several other guests seated around us. He was friendly, polite, timely.

The problem is the food. It wasn't good. The dishes we ordered were very, very under-seasoned. We weren't offered salt/pepper or parmesan. My wife ordered the mushroom risotto and I ordered the agnolotti, and my kids each ordered 2 kids meals (chicken fingers and fries).

I will note that there was a street festival and I wonder if that cut into the cooking time as they were also offering some street food at the same. Maybe the cooking staff was split between the dining and street food offerings? The food took about 40 minutes to arrive.

The waiter had told us there was a special on the risotto which added some lamb so my wife opted for it. The lamb was dry and overcooked. No flavor on the meat. Tasted almost like it had been boiled. As you can see from the picture, that's not risotto.. it's just rice.

The agnolotti was like gigantic hard pasta dumpling. 4 of them. The size of the agnolotti and the thickness of the pasta could only mean one thing: the chef has no idea what agnolotti is. Closest thing I can think of is tortelloni. Or the chef is Chinese and they tried to make a dumpling with pasta. The sauce it came with was bland. 4 "dumplings" in a plate for $25? Yikes.

The chicken fingers (turns out they were nuggets), and fries was enough food for a 5 year old. If you have older kids like I did, I cannot recommend their chicken fingers and fries. It's not enough food, not even half enough. I reckon the nuggets were made from frozen, like Jane's variety. Tasted exactly the same as the stuff you get from the frozen section of a grocery store.

I will note the setting was nice, well shaded, and breezy. Decor is nice, it would make a nice date night if you figure what the chef actually knows how to make. And we didn't order pizza, maybe their pizza is great?

Overall for a first impression.. it's not a place I...

I'll start by saying we didn't have a horrible time here because the service was still good, but the food quality was quite disastrous. For an Italian restaurant that got pretty decent reviews, in an area where it's quite popular, we were very disappointed. My friends had been here before and said it was very good a few years ago but the quality had dropped significantly this time compared to last time. We came on a Sunday evening so it should be prime time for dinner service.

The strawberry daiquiri was not blended at all with huge chunks of ice cubes. Compared to other pics from other reviews, it should be fully blended. We also got the "Seafood Platter for 4" for $69 but the portion was so small for how expensive it is. We got a pasta and added scallops for $12 extra and only got 3 medium/small sized scallops with it. That's $4 per teaspoon sized scallop! I got the carbonara, which is an Italian staple and supposed to be creamy but it was so overcooked that it was essentially scrabbled eggs with dry pasta. I told the waiter, who apologized profusely and got the kitchen to make it again. When the new dish came out, it was still scrabbled eggs but just less overcooked than previously. You can see in the pictures the original and the remake. Lastly, it was very unfortunate, but a fly that was buzzing around us flew into my friend's pasta and just died in the sauce :( They remade the dish for us and apologized. As for the ambiance, we were seated next to the speaker with Christmas music playing, but either something was wrong with the Internet connection or speaker connection, it was constantly cutting in and out. Not a huge deal but it was very noticable because we were so close to the speaker.

They did comp our two pasta dishes, and was very sorry for the delay on the remakes. I don't know if they were just having an off day or if this is the usual quality but I probably won't be coming back again :( There's a better Italian restaurant right...