La Bettola Di Terroni — Restaurant in Toronto

What a weird dining experience for Valentine’s day. I had a 8:45pm reservation and the moment I arrived, it was clear this place was a mess. They had no tables and there was a big backup of people waiting for their reservations. They weren’t managing the line at all and I eventually weaseled my way to the front to check in - which it turns out didn’t make a difference. Once we realized that she was seating people we had met in line with a 9pm reservation, we realized that she wasn’t going by reservation time at all but just frantically trying to clear the swarm of people in front of her. I’ve been to this type of urban Italian restaurant before and I’ve been to Terroni on Adelaide a number of times (which I thought this would be like), and thought based on reviews this could be a maybe more intimate dining experience but from the onset, couldn’t believe they just didn’t have arrival sorted, especially on a night like Valentine’s Day. From the moment you walked in, it was clear their only interest was making as much money as possible and had almost no focus on the customer experience.

For dinner, we had a table near the door which we were ushered to once we pointed out she was seating people ahead of us with later reservation times. Seating was cumbersome - we were just about pointed to our table to use. Nobody asked to take our coats or really had any place to put them. Dirty napkins were still under the table when we sat so I pushed them to the edge of the table so someone might notice them. So, after maybe 20 minutes of waiting from our reservation time, we took a seat. We would have waited at the bar with a cocktail but realized the entire bar was setup for dining so we couldn’t even wait there as they dealt with this apparently unexpected list of reservations.

Service was mixed. Our waitress was good, to be honest. She had good energy and was managing her section well, even though she was quite busy. The rest of the service was, for lack of a better word, gruff. Plates were pretty much slammed down on our table in a mitigated rush when they arrived (no joke- they hit the table loudly).

Appetizers- we had the carrots and eggplant. The appetizers were probably the best part of the meal. It would have been nice if they had offered to refresh the bread alongside the eggplant dish, which was cooked in a tomato sauce. Both dishes were well made - so props to whoever in the kitchen was making the apps.

In a nutshell, the entrees were bland. I’m a big fan of well made cacio e pepe so got excited to see it on the menu. When it’s done well, the sauce is creamy with strong flavours of pepper, sometimes with large cracked pepper pieces. My dish was gritty and somewhat separated (a little pasta water was left on the plate, forcing me to remix it into a sauce, showing how hastily it was made) and had almost no pepper in it at all, either in flavour or visibly, let alone what would approach the classical Roman dish. It was almost like a hastily made parmesan mac and cheese - the pasta, however, was cooked well and was just slightly al dente.

My date ordered a pasta dish with some seafood (maybe clams) which he also mentioned was quite bland. I noticed but didn’t mention how few actual pieces of seafood his dish included. The pasta was similar to what you might order for a kid opposed to strong flavours - butter and parsley.

(Our entrees really didn’t look like the other photos in Google reviews, which had contributed to me choosing here in the first place.)

In all, I was kind of embarrassed to have chosen here to eat based on my previous experiences at Terroni on Adelaide, thinking a lower key and maybe more intimate restaurant would maybe suit our night better than a more dedicated prix fixe meal for the night at the two other restaurants I was considering, which despite that we needed to dine a little later, I wish now I had.

Maybe it was just the Valentine’s Day rush, but as a new diner here, based on my experience, I wouldn’t choose to come here again and cannot...

We went to this restaurant for dinner. We got the N'duja pizza and the rigatoni amatricianna.

PROS: -very nice ambiance -the bread they serve is delicious. Perfectly crusty on the outside and very chewy on the inside with a sour dough like flavour -portions are good -the pasta was very al dente which I love

CONS: -tables are low and seating feels cramped -They serve water in glasses slightly bigger than shot glasses which I personally find very annoying. -our server's pretentious behaviour ruined our experience at this restaurant. When ordering the pizza, we asked that the olives be put on only half of the pizza or even on the side. She simply said "no, we can't" and answered with "you can take them off?" Yes, thank you Captain Obvious. She said she could ask (the chef) but the answer would most likely be no. So I said in that case, I will just take the dish as is. When served with the pizza, she explained that she got them to put fewer olives and some pieces that I could cut which had no olives on it. Which is exactly the opposite of what I asked for. So not only was I treated like an idiot for asking questions about the food that I was paying for, this server decided how I should eat my own food. -When asked for the bill, she took her time to bring the machine- stopping to talk to some customers who she seemingly knew based on her now warm and genuinely friendly disposition. -like other Terroni's there are no substitutions for the food you are paying for. However, the servers there are polite and apologetic for the strictness in their establishment's pompous rule about modifications. Why not just make patrons sign a waiver that if you make modifications which you end up not liking, the restaurant is not responsible, etc. -both dishes had slightly strong smokey flavours which did nothing to enhance the dishes. -the pizza comes uncut, which I found irritating and do not understand.

I would not return here. If I wanted to be spoken to condescendingly and have decisions made for me about my food, I would rather go eat at any of my relatives' homes. At least there, I'm...

I came here the other night before a show to have a nice meal with friends. To start the service was awful. Our waitress ignored us and for the first 10mins we were not even offered water. We then waited another 20mins to actually place our order because our servers AND the surrounding servers ignored my table. And I mean this by no exaggeration. They looked at us wave towards them and walked around us looking to serve other tables and provide them with what they had asked for before even considering coming towards us. Eventually, we asked another server if we could order. They said “For sure, just give me a second.” She never came back, we watched her serve drinks and take orders from two other tables and did not make eye contact with us for the duration of our meal. Finally we were able to order, I confirmed with the server that we would be out of there in at most an hour to make it on time for our show. Before leaving, she said she would bring some bread. The bread never came. Our food arrived, another 15mins later and still no bread. The food was subpar, unsalted and would taste better if you made it at home. I ordered a vongole dish that tasted like soap. No amount of salt or chili peppers could save that dish. The other plates at the table were unimpressive and borderline tasteless. Of course, we had to ask 3 different people for salt and chili flakes. So we didn’t eat for the first 10mins after being served. Upon leaving a guest at another table dropped and broke a glass. I watched as our server, another server and the hostess had no urgency to clean it up, nor did they even warn other guests that there was broken glass all over the floor. As they strolled to get a broom I watched another 2 guests come from the bathroom and realize too late that they were stepping on broken glass. One of them even tried to move a large piece out of the pathway so that they could walk.

Overall this was a terrible dining experience. I had high hopes for this place as I had been here before without any issue. Would not recommend. Would...