Gio Rana's Really Really Nice — Restaurant in Toronto

The ambiance is messy and dirty, literally you can look up and see the dust on the vents and fans. The place is not even painted properly. I thought they were under construction, but apparently 'that's their style'. It's tacky in a dirty way, not in a fun hipster way. The tables are super small, that you have to literally stack plates to eat. The tables are also really close to each other, that the waiters will hit your chair at least a few times a night. The waiters are dressed casually, but not in a preppy way or even in a hipster way, just in a 'homeless man' way.

The music is terrible. It's super loud. They play the crappy stuff on top 40.

The service is alright, I mean you do get your food - if that's your standard. Some things I asked the waiter to bring never show up. They just leave the pitcher of water on your table for you to serve yourself. It took a lot for me to get the waiters attention, at least 6 tries calling him over.

The food is not good. You can eat it. If that's your standard. For starters we ordered the focaccia bread, which was four tiny pieces of crostini, NOT focaccia!! You would think a place masquerading as Italian would know what focaccia is. We had the scallops with pork belly - it was two pieces for $10; quite a lot for just two. It was over cooked and the pork belly makes it extra salty. We had this cheese starter, and it was something you can't go wrong with - they just serve cheese not make it right, but when you slice it it was really cold, as if it came out of the freezer cold, to put it in perspective.

We had Gnocchi with bolognese sauce (ragu), which was TERRIBLE. You're wondering how could gnocchi be bad? well, they made it in-house, and it is literally potato sized oval shaped gnocchi - did they get lazy here or not know what gnocchi is? The sauce had no taste, as if they threw together tomato sauce and ground beef in a pan and served it as is.

I had the braised ossobuco, which was ok. It was not a good ossobuco, but ok. It was cooked. The flavour was all over the place but masked with a lot of peppers, I don't know why. I added lemon to it, and it was then something I could eat.

For additional sides we had the asparagus, which was the only thing they got right, and the rapini, which was super hard (not something you could eat). The bread they brought for the table was good - I mean it's bread.

Generally though everything we ordered had too much pepper. Their kitchen is on the side, with very minimal light coming in - I'm not sure if that explains why the food is terrible - they can't see what they're making.

For wine we had Chianti - it tasted cheap.

This place is terrible. We couldn't wait to get out. They didn't just get it wrong on one aspect, but everything! Would not recommend or go back. People of Toronto, get some descent expectations and stop riding on hypes, which give places like this good reviews when really it's the...

I went to this "restaurant" for my birthday because I had a pleasant experience there a few years back. My how things have changed. The name of this place should really be changed. Perhaps: Gio Rana's Really Really Awful Restaurant, or Gio Rana's Really Really Pretentious Staff would be more suiting?

The staff seemed uninterested and seemed to not want to be there. The dish I asked for had an Italian name and no description of it was offered. My Italian is fairly rusty so I apologized to the waiter and informed him that my Italian wasn't the best and asked him if my understanding of the dish was accurate. He actually had the nerve to roll his eyes at me in front of my girlfriend and then proceeded to give the most uninterested/unflattering description of the dish then walked away. Leaving myself and my girlfriend looking at each other in stunned silence (though the silent part was a bit of wishful thinking)

The environment at this time was one of the most obnoxious I have ever been in. It seemed like it couldn't decide wether it was a nightclub or a cabaret. They played the most horrendous music I've ever heard (some sort of Retro-Disco/Dubstep crossover) and played it at a volume that could have made my ears bleed. However, had my ears actually started bleeding I wouldn't have actually known, seeing as it was so dark in the restaurant that my girlfriend and I had to take turns using the candle on our table to read the desert and wine menu. At one point during this travesty of a night a man jumped up on the bar, took his shirt off and began dancing around. I assumed he would be removed shortly, but instead the staff seemed to condone and even encourage this behaviour by turning up the already deafening music.

After an hour of this hell elapsed our "food" finally arrived. I'm pretty sure the vegetables were from a can. The meat was greasy and lukewarm. The salad was doing lengths in the bowl in a pool of Balsamic Vinegar. It was disgusting.

I was actually happy when the bill came because it meant that we got to leave. Had it not been my birthday, and it was me paying I would have left 2 cents on the table for the waiter (first time in my life I would have done it)

I'm actually sitting here writing this review trying to remember if I've had a worse experience in a restaurant and I'm drawing a blank.

What bothers me the most is that this restaurant used to be SO good. I went there with my family years ago and had the best time. Perhaps its under new management I'm not sure. What I am sure of is that I will...

UPDATE: unfortunately, second time dining here was a big disappointment. I would avoid sitting in the side room, first there is a step which is not suitable for seniors esp with extremely dim lighting (could barely see our food) they didnt put any highlighted tape on the floor step (yes they have signs up but its dark in the room)The music/speaker was excessively loud, odd music choice that was on repeat and repeat same songs, we could barely converse and was shouting. The waitress took 15 mins to tell me they didnt have beverages we ordered, then after another 15 mins I had to remind her the alternative drinks I ordered still hasnt arrived, waited total 30 mins for drinks and did not take off our bill. Meatball was the usual stand out, beet salad was good. Calamari had barely any pieces with a very thick oily batter. Waitress quoted us ribeye as $39.95 but bill rung up as $49.95. Additionally, we notified our waitress/ manager to address the fact that the steak tasted really burnt, with the outside seasoning giving off black bits like as if you cook a steak on a dirty reused pan or grill that was never cleaned with brush. Manager offered us a complimentary dessert but did not take the steak off the bill and tried to tell me that that is how the chef cooks their steak at their restaurant…..like ok, its not the first time Ive had a steak, tasting black burnt charr is not delicious ma’am and its not a personal preference to have properly cooked steak with a nice sear. It tasted like I was eating bits of charcoal. Near the end of this unsatisfactory night, randomly, another waitress decides to open a back door behind my dad that created a loud abrupt and unpleasant BANG sound, was so unecessaey and uncalled for. This night is still boggling my mind. We will not be returning.

Dec 2024: Bellissima!!!! We enjoyed all the dishes and they all came out spot on!!!! Favourites were the mushroom pappardelle, burrata & figs, calamari frito, MEATBALL, and the layered gelato ball chocolate outside strawberry inside - was a...