Il Caminetto — Restaurant in Whistler Resort Municipality

Food was adequate. Service was bad. Wine was a con. We went here twice. The first time was decent, but the wine tasted sour and cheap, so we thought the next time we went back we'd buy a bottle because maybe they were holding the good ones on the main wine list rather than serving them by the glass. Big mistake. This was literally one of the most unreasonable experiences I've had in a restaurant in my life, and I eat at lots of restaurants ranging from cheap fast food to 3-michelin stars many times a week. In this instance, the reason this was such a bad experience at its core is that the restaurant being unreasonable was compounded 10x by the GM and "sommelier" acting were condescending, incorrect, and unnecessarily aggressive when we were acting completely reasonable. As soon as the "somm" (and I put it in quotes because he knew literally nothing about wine and said explicitly that he doesn't drink the wine on the wine list, so I don't know how he could be defined as a somm rather than a salesman of high markup commoditized booze), came to our table he seemed to have a bee in his bonnet, maybe from another interaction or some other thing? But he was acting weird right out the gate. When I explained that we both like sauvignon blanc and wanted an italian option that was similar and that my husband doesn't like chardonnay, this guy says without any irony or comedy in a completely condescending tone that "there is no difference between sauvignon blanc and chardonnay except the oak, the grapes are the same," (a fact I didn't even bother to argue with because it was already clear that he was on the defense as soon as he came to our table, and I still don't know why, given that all we'd asked for was help choosing a bottle of wine). He then proceeded to say that he "doesn't drink any of the wine on the menu himself" and then served us a $125 bottle of cheap italian white with a screw top he described as a "crowd-pleaser" that tasted so cheap and sour that I googled it while sitting at the table to find that it retailed at $20. When I pointed this out to the GM, that as customers we chose to buy a $100+ bottle to pair with our $200+ food because we expected some reasonable minimum level of quality, he said that he "didn't understand why we were bothered." Umm, here's why we were bothered: a 600% markup is not standard and is offensive, as is serving cheap lighter-fluid tasting wine with a $50 lobster pasta, and somehow implying that it is our tastebuds that are off when we think it tastes sour and cheap (when it is a sour and cheap wine and they know it). I was bothered because their racket of selling bottom shelf cheap wine as high end pairings to lobster pasta is bordering on a con, and the level of unreasonable aggression from the somm, ranging from his condescending and incorrect comments about the basics of wine to then bringing the wrong bottle, then serving the screwtop of the cheap wine with his hand on top of the bottle so we couldn't see it was a screw top until he'd already opened and poured it. This, for the record, was served after we'd had our main course sitting on our table for 10 minutes. It was like being in the presence of a confidence trickster from the 50s who was somehow trying to pull one over by making us feel like we needed to prove ourselves or our knowledge against his "expertise" when all we wanted was a decent bottle of wine for $120 to enjoy on our last night of vacation. As we then sat with the bottle of cheap BBQ wine with our cold main course, the GM literally got mad that we weren't telling him what he could do to fix it. At this point the meal was done, the wine was bad, the somm was mean, I was so stressed out I couldn't even eat, and we cancelled the dessert we'd planned to order for our last night of our trip. And it was all so completely unnecessary. What could he do to fix it? Just act like a normal person, serve reasonable food and wine at a reasonable markup. This literally ruined our last night in whistler, and we had gone in expecting a perfectly fine time....

This restaurant is probably the most hyped but least deserving of all the praise given. Their lacklustre food and extremely mediocre (and bare minimum) service is masked by the ambience and regal look of the place. My girlfriend and I held our hopes high during the entirety of our stay with Il Caminetto however from top till bottom we had nothing but poor experiences. We arrived on-time for our reservation but were told to wait, meanwhile we saw 3 other groups get seated before us. The other groups also varied in size from another couple to a group of almost 7. When we were finally led to our table it was to a table that was set since we arrived. Their excuse for not seating us was that they still needed time to prepare a table. We felt lied to and misled.

We then tried to overlook this inconvenience by keeping positive intent and relying on our server and the food to uphold our expectations, however we felt like an after thought for the restaurant and the staff our entire visit. Our server gave us the bare minimum, the entirety of our stay our server never asked how our meal was. When paying the only words exchanged were “do you need a machine” and “would you like a receipt”, then left in a hurry. Our server didnt even thank us for our stay or hoped that we enjoyed the meal. We received better service at fast food spots. My girlfriend and I were also trying our best to stay warm and polite with the staff and tell them thank you for everything they did for us hoping our service will turn around, but it didn't. We also still left a good tip however when leaving we regretted tipping a restaurant that treated us so poorly. I even tried to entertain the idea that maybe the staff is supposed to be cold and withheld to be “mysterious”, however the table beside us got some of the best service compared to us.

Lastly the food. If the food was remarkable I would have looked past everything else however the food was the final nail in the coffin. Our arugula salad drowned and died in a vinaigrette too lemony for its own sake (one server even told us they forgot one of the toppings for our salad and had to return with it). I ordered a wagyu beef bolognese that was akin to a Chef Boyardee meal, the beef was not done well on top of having pasta noodles that still needed a couple more minutes in the boil. My girlfriend ordered a truffle mushroom risotto, which was our only saving grace alongside our prosecco.

Il Caminetto, thank you for your time. I wish you guys success in the future, I hope when I return in the future I can leave a glowing review in contrast of this one. For now Il Caminetto is an old car sitting in a garage for the last thirty years, you can take its cover off to reveal what seems to be promise in a classic. However once you take it out for a spin you release all of it’s short comings as soon as you bring it off the lot. I can not recommend Il...

Enjoyed a dinner here in Jan 2025 and had a better time than previous visits (previous visit experience is below). Went from a 2 star restaurant to a 4 star one, and one that we’ll definitely return to. To start off, the service was excellent. One could say beyond excellent even. Our server (whom I cannot remember the name of) was exceptional.

The meal was great, excluding the bread. Both the focaccia and sourdough were served cold and stale, while we were expecting warm, freshly-baked bread. Every other dish went above and beyond. The Prosciutto di Parma and pizza were delicious. Everything about the Tagliatelle Bolognese was perfect. The noodles were al dente and the sauce is probably the best I’ve ever tasted. Dessert-wise, the grapefruit/blood orange sorbet was extremely good. The lemon sorbet was very bitter and sour though. I also highly recommend the caramel budino.

Other than the bread, our experience was lovely. Will definitely be returning if we visit Whistler again!

Jan 2024: We had dinner here and the service was incredible given how busy the restaurant was. The environment felt super fancy at first but as the night got busier, we felt more relaxed.

We ordered a lot of dishes to share. For appetizers, the tuna and chestnut soup was really good, but the carpaccio was nothing out of the ordinary. For mains, I ordered the mushroom risotto, which was way too salty for my taste. The gnocchi was amazing though!! Its sauce is probably the best I’ve ever had. We also ordered the pizza which was really good too. Before the dishes came out, a manager came out and told us they accidentally burnt the pizza but they’d make us a new one, which wasn’t a problem. When the daily special, the lasagna, came out, there was a really vibrant neon-green stain on the cheese (last pic). We asked the waiter what it was and apparently, it’s from the food-safe seal that comes on the cheese. The chef took it back, put some fancy salad leaves to cover it, then sent it back to us. Also, for dessert, the salted caramel was delicious!

Overall, the service was great, but the food wasn’t worth a special trip for.

(Also side note, the table beside us ordered the pumpkin ravioli which was supposed to come with a brown butter sauce. It didn’t come with sauce and they had to talk with the chef...