Ponte Vecchio — Restaurant in Niagara Falls

Potentially Discriminatory and Poorly Managed Experience at Pointe Vecchio

My partner and I recently dined at Ponte Vecchio, the Italian restaurant at Fallsview Resort, and what should have been an enjoyable evening turned into a frustrating and disheartening experience. We had tickets to a 7 PM show and made a 5 PM dinner reservation, thinking we had plenty of time for a leisurely meal.

We were seated promptly at 5:02 PM as the dining room opened, and we placed our order quickly, ahead of most other tables. Our choices were simple—steak ordered medium and spaghetti with one giant meatball—neither of which should require extensive cook time. Yet, after our appetizers arrived on time, we were left waiting an additional 65 minutes for our entrees.

As we waited, we noticed that other tables, some of which ordered after us, were receiving their meals, including the same tenderloin steak we had also ordered. A table that arrived 20 minutes after us had even finished their meals before ours arrived. It was clear that something was amiss, and as the only gay couple in the dining room, we began to feel that we were being treated differently.

Our server, Dianne, was sympathetic and apologized for the delay, eventually sharing that the kitchen had completely forgotten to prepare our pasta dish, which was the cause of our extensive wait. Despite this, when we asked to speak to the manager, Lia, she arrived at our table with an indifferent and dismissive attitude.

When we explained our frustrations—our prolonged wait, the fact that we were now going to be late for our show, and that we still hadn’t received our food—Lia’s response was not only inadequate but also infuriating. She blamed the delay on it being a busy show night and even suggested that our wait was due to what we ordered or when we ordered it. Not once did she acknowledge that the kitchen had forgotten to prepare part of our meal, something Dianne had already informed us of. Lia’s response was dismissive and failed to take any responsibility, leading us to believe that her behavior was not just poor management but potentially discriminatory leaning.

It is worth noting that Fallsview hosts shows every weekend, and the restaurant opens at 5 PM nightly. These are routine challenges that a competent manager should be able to handle. We ordered directly from the menu, with no special requests, so there was no reason for such a delay

Lia’s best offer to make amends was a free dessert, which we declined as we no longer had time. This gesture was wholly insufficient, given the seriousness of the situation and our growing belief that we were being discriminated against. When the bill arrived, our appetizers were comped, but this small concession did nothing to address the issue. (We are hungry and we are going to watch our show hungry and compete for food after the show with other guests)

As a high-value rewards card holder with casino comps, my partner and I will not dine at any establishment managed by Lia again. We are now seriously considering taking our loyalty to another casino group, where we hope to be treated with the respect and dignity every customer deserves.

For management: Dianne was a sweetheart and genuinely seemed like she tried her best to get us food on time. Lia on the other hand seemed to have cared less that we hated our experience and we left for starve for over an...

So first off, I would like to say our server Nick was incredible. He was helpful and caring and tried his best and did his best to ensure our meals were to perfection as well as our appetizers. Unfortunately he is not a chef and cannot cook them for us, as he probably would have done better than the chef himself. I’ll start with the good. The drinks were phenomenal. I even went to the bartender after and told him how well they were. They were amazing and presented beautifully. And that’s about it. The service was also great as I mentioned our waiter Nick. But the food was below, below average. We went for my birthday dinner and ended quite upset. We started with the bread and carpaccio. The bread was hard as a rock and after we asked if it was made fresh, Nick did confirm with us that it was not, and they ran out and had to take from the restaurant upstairs. We understood but it was basically inedible, so Nick took it off the bill for us. It was only 5$ so it’s not about the price but we appreciated it a lot. Then the carpaccio was over salted and not very flavorful. If you ate it without the greens and cheese it was not good at all. Those were the only saving grace. The meat wasn’t poor quality but it basically had no texture or substance, sliced a bit too thinly and was as mentioned so salty and overpowered by that and the sun dried tomatoes. We said it was fine because it was at least edible unlike the bread (yes even with butter). I got the veal parm which was 80$ alone, but it was a very large portion as seen in the picture. However it was also lacking flavor too. The veal was cooked quite well, though. Just no flavor basically. The spaghetti that came with it was decent. My girlfriend got the Cozze. It was horrible. It was drowning in liquid at the bottom and was so overpowered by pepper and had almost no garlic flavor. She did however enjoy the mussels. But we told Nick and he sent it back for us. He offered us something else at first but after he took it back the chef decided he would try again with it. Once again it came back out equally horrible with overcooked noodles and flavorless and yet overpowered “sauce” at the same time with basically zero garlic flavor. As there’s supposed to be. Nick ended up taking that off the bill too and we appreciate it because honestly we could and have made that better at our home. It was absolutely not worth paying almost 40$ for. I wish I could give more stars for service and the drinks but there’s a lot more to a dining experience than that. We will not be back, which is a shame because the...

Server did a great job taking care of us through out the meal, except for his strange comment about us spilling our food on the floor which we did not. Still not sure what he meant, i think it was a jab or joke at how fast we ate the appetitezirs, still not sure to be honest but made us feel uncomfortable like we were doing something wrong, we definitely did not spill any food... Food was great except for the "off tasting" mussels. My fiance won't eat mussels because of a bad experience from eating a bad one in the past. She finally decides to try again and i ordered the same dish with them as well. I learned why she wont eat mussels any longer, tasted like gasoline and iodine mixed together. I am a big fan of mussels, and i have never experienced one like this myself. Something was definitely off with the mussels. Otherwise our seafood pasta, and apps were great. The main reason for my one star review is because of the way the server handled the bill. We had $33 in complimentary food bonus from the casino, when the debit machine was presented to myself I was reminded twice that the tip is to be based on the full amount and not the amount after the food comp price. Also he was choosing the options for me when it was my turn on how to leave the tip, I tried to pick percentage but his eager fingers chose otherwise. I got confused and thought i was to enter the tip plus the bill total. I wanted to leave a forty dollar tip on a 140 dollar bill, like it or not, that is what i chose. We'll that turned the total amount to almost $300 and I said there must be a mistake, he did not seem impressed, so he reset the machine and we started again, i mentioned i would like to do a percentage but his eager fingers got in there again pushing buttons for me... this brought me to the same screen and i understood this time to enter the tip without the total and gave a 35 dollar tip. His pushy greed kinda ruined the experience...