Hostaria da Vittorio — Restaurant in Aruba

We booked a table by calling them as we wanted to let them know we were local, had a gift certificate and would be celebrating out anniversary. Upon arriving no reservation for us was to be found and we got seated in a corner next to a waiter station. A bus girl (Raquel)showed up and gave us water (she was awesome the whole evening, compliments to her). Then our waiter (Giancarlo) showed up and asked us for our order and to our surprise we were not allowed to just order appetizers at that moment and our dinner later. The reason he gave for this is that everything is made fresh and ala minute so it takes more time. After explaining to him that we were not in a rush and wanted to enjoy our evening he kept persisting that we must order everything at the same time. After some more discussion we finally where able to order just appetizers. The one true compliment I have is that the Carpaccio was out of this world! It might have been the best I ever had. After taking our time and enjoying some bubblies, we ordered our dinner by Richie Rich as Giancarlo never ever returned. Richie Rich was not the most charming and knowledgeable waiter and he let us know in the way he acted that he knew we were locals and that he was in a rush to serve tourist who (he thought) would tip better. After asking some questions about the menu we ordered our main courses and I can not describe how disappointed they where. They promote the Caprese salad online as a beautiful dish with sliced and diced mozzarella while in real life a was just a ball of cheese with some salad, tomatoes and have some fun with that. As most people know basil is one of the most important ingredients of the Caprese salad and we where able to identify a quarter of a basil leaf in the salad (try to find it in the picture, Waldo was easier to find). The veal parm was a complete disappointment. Who serves fried potatoes with a veal parm in an Italian restaurant?? I was "allowed" to order a side of paste for only $6 if I wanted pasta with my meal (plain pasta no sauce!). The veal was over cooked and with way to much breading and I was basically eating a veal sandwich with tomato sauce. After Raquel cleaned our table we never saw anybody coming back for desert or coffee or even asking how our dinner/evening was. After about 15 minutes we flagged down Raquel and asked for our bill. That gave us the time to look at the restaurant and it turned out it really shows its age. The table clothes have threats all over and definitely has seen better days. The silverware shows signs over overuse as spots are just dull from where people hold them. After receiving the check we noticed that they include a service charge of 16%. Personally I dislike service charge as I feel that people have to earn their money (tips) and not feel entitled to receive it. When restaurants in Aruba have service charge it generally l is 15% but that was not enough for this place so they made it 16%. After paying the bill we left the restaurant and were completely ignored by our two "servers" and the host. Only Raquel came over and apologized for the below par service and wished us a great evening and asked us to come back and give them a second change. As you might have figured out by now that...

I should start by saying I don't care to write unfavorable reviews, especially when it comes to dinning out because I know its a roll of the dice. My experience here was a bit more than that. Being of Italian decent I was looking forward to experiencing a Lasagna dinner here. Being this dish is one of my favorites I can say I have had many of them from many different places made in various ways. One of my least favorable ways is to have the Lasagna served in a bowl sitting in sea of sauce. I personally don't understand this method of serving Lasagna this way simply because have 1/2 to 2/3rds of the pasta 'underwater' does nothing more then change that portion of the pasta into little more than mush. Because of this I now always ask how its served. I was assured by our waiter that they do not serve theirs in a bowl but in a flat plate with a helping of sauce served on top of the pasta. You've probably already guessed that it didn't come in a plate but in a bowl. I confronted the waiter and asked why he lied to me and was simply answered with thats the way we serve it. When asked about our conversation about bowl vs. plate he replied that if I really wanted it in a plate he would take it back and put it in a plate. Really! If I wanted in a plate, what was your first clue?? Because wait staff other then the waiter who took our order actually were the ones who served our food several minutes had passed and I knew from experience that the texture of the Lasagna had changed and re-plateing it wasn't going to help. Returning it for another would have had me eating at a different time then the rest of the group I was with. I know my review isn't likely going to change your mind about visiting this restaurant but because of the out an out lie and complete indifference I was shown I though you should be prepared to receive something less then what you though you were...

We chose this restaurant over Gianni's and Lucca based on our concierge's recommendation. We had 8:00 reservations which we had no problem changing to 6:30. When we got to the restaurant there wasn't a customer in site. By the time we left at 8:00 there were only 2 tables other than ours that were seated, even though the area where the restaurant is was hopping with tons of people walking around and entering surrounding restaurants. Now we know why. We split a Caeser salad and ordered 2 pasta dishes. The food was very good, however, unfortunately this review is more about the service and the presentation of the check. The woman server was less than attentive. I don't know whether there was a language barrier or she wanted there to be a language barrier, however, she didn't seem to understand the questions we had on the menu, she disappeared, food & drinks were delivered by someone else. She only returned to give us the check. After presenting us with the check she stood there at my husband's side with the credit card machine and made it very uncomfortable for us to review the check or discuss anything amongst ourselves. When my husband asked her about the 15% service fee knowing that that is added on the check in some restaurants and we tip between 20 and 25% so we wanted to figure out a fair tip. She advised us at the service fee was not for her and it was for the kitchen only. She continued to stand there making us very uncomfortable as we unwillingly felt obligated to tip an additional 20%. Ultimately it was our decision however it left a very bad taste in our mouth and for that reason we will never return. I can understand now why the restaurant stands empty. I'm sure that they've done that to other customers. It really is sad because the food was very good and they could probably have something there but they need to straighten...