Bonta Italian Ristorante — Restaurant in Vancouver

If you want to be price gouged, then this is the place. In this day, age and time, I expect increasing prices. However, 30-plus% increase? That is insane. The food is decent but not stellar for the pricing. $95 for 2 pastas and 2 drinks (and only one alcoholic beverage at that). Generally I would have expected such a dinner to be around $80, at least from experience at other similar establishments. No complimentary focaccia, soup or salad even. At least that would have made the pricing somewhat palatable.

The pastas: The prosciutto and ricotta ravioli in creamy white wine mushroom sauce was out of this world. One of the best.

The second pasta--the gnocchi with seafood in an olive oil, garlic and herb sauce was good but could have been much better. The disappointment? The gnocchi did not taste hand-made but rather, had that packaged gnocchi texture. For $34 of my hard-earned money, it had better be handmade. We were charged 26$ for the sauce and surcharged 8$ for the pasta. That I thought was very odd (menu seemed a bit confusing now, come to think of it). Perhaps we should have been more vocal when the bill arrived.

So there you have it, folks. Perhaps your experience might...

OH MY GOODNESS!!! If you haven't been here yet, you are missing out! I'm kinda sad i only recently discovered this place!!! Me and my roommate pass by this place all the time, and I randomly decided we should go here for dinner tonight.. it was half price wine night!! So our handsome and professional server recommended a bottle of Snoop Doggs Rose! Delicious off dry rose! We then had the "chef special" appetizer.. I wish I had taken a picture.. but it looked so good we finished before I even thought about it! Great appetizer! Super yummy! Bruschetta with different delicious toppings. Then our pastas came, and when I say I have never seen that much pasta on a plate in front of me, I'm not exaggerating! The portion sizes are huge! Come on an empty stomach. I got the Alla borina with gluten free rotini! Soooo DELICIOUS!!! Creamy, garlic sauce with a hint of spice from the sausage was perfect!! Also not to mention Bonta is on davie street and it's very queer friendly!!! They host a drag night on Tuesdays I believe! I love it here, definitely coming back, wish there was a 6...

I was disapointed by my experience. I ordered penne arrabiata an spaghetti bolognese. Both sauces were thick with tomato concentrate and both too salty, the arrabiata, or angry, sauce had no heat or kick to it. I think we were the first meal of lunch services and maybe the chef hadn't tasted them. The server scraped our plates at the table in front of my face then passed us a chip and pin terminal with 18% set as the minimum tip for ok service. It was 48$ plus tip for 2 half portions of pasta with no drinks, which feels way too high for a high street lunch. The food was well presented, the restaurant was clean and they had typical italian music playing. The menus were large laminated sheets, cocktails ranged from 10-14$. I tipped 10% on the bill. We were given a small chocolate after leaving.

If the pasta was 50% cheaper I wouldn't have written this review, but with a premium price comes an expectation of high quality. I hope this is a one off because I live close by, and if they offered some kind of lunch menue or deal I would love to have somewere...