Savini Restaurant — Restaurant in Allendale

Don't let the valet parking and high menu prices deceive you, this restaurant's only area of culinary expertise is in the deep fryer. They're really good with the deep fryer. I had the misfortune of sampling this overrated italianish hodgepodge several times now, dragged along by the tasteless masses that believe a restaurant is delicious because a teenager parked their car for them, and the lighting is sad and dim. I've "Fanum Taxed" many of their orders. Their pasta and salad dishes are on par with your average 7-page-menu jersey diner. The sauces are bland and underseasoned, the pesto is goopy and and filled with jarred pesto thickening agents. The fresh housemade gnocchi is rubbery and thick, unlike any fresh gnocchi I've ever tries or made, and very much every frozen gnocchi I've reheated. Their single protein dishes, which comprise the largest portion of the menu, are the biggest embarrassment of this restaurant. While all of the my earlier criticisms would not be made at an appropriately priced restaurant, the various fish and cuts of meat served at high prices are prepared at an embarrassingly low quality. If you wanted a cut of fish poorly seasoned with a random amount of salt, some lemon juice, and some useless garnish cooked for an amount of time on the far extremes within overcooked and food hazard, do it at home and save yourself the money. I promise you, as long as you own a heat source, and have access to a grocery store, you can do equally as poorly ad this place does on a daily basis. They do know how to plate something just okay, but you can't eat plating, and I can't taste plating. Don't eat here. It's bad Italian cuisine. It's great Italian American corner pizza really cuisine. And it's really expensive. And some teenager will park your car in an oversized lot in the suburbs, just to trick you into thinking you're about to eat anything special, unless you're just going in for...

Unfortunately a very disappointing experience. My family of 5 dined at Savini last night and would not return. The food was very good, service was good (waiter was new). We are a family of 5 with 3 daughters ranging in ages from 6 to 11 and were seated directly next to the bar. At the bar was a group of men who had clearly been at the restaurant drinking for many, many hours. These men were watching a football game and shouting obscenities for the entire duration of our dinner. F words galore. My eldest daughter would jump out of her seat whenever there was a play that made them shout at the top of their lungs. My daughters were afraid and subjected to language they do not hear at home and my husband was annoyed for the entirety of our meal (wanting to say something). I did not allow him to because when people are that inebriated nothing good can come of a rational conversation. Our waiter and the "manager" who was in the red shirt both were witness to these outbreaks and curse words and did not say a single thing. Would never return, zero class about the restaurant. Have had classier meals at true pubs where the entire purpose is to go watch a game. We took our daughters for a nice, elegant dinner and instead received a classless lesson on how to never behave at a restaurant, especially in front of little girls. Go elsewhere - no where near worth the $300 dinner we paid. In the future I would suggest not seating a party with little girls (or children for the matter) next to a group of drunk men with filthy mouths and zero respect for their surroundings. There were many opportunities where the bartender, the waiter or the manager could have said hey guys, there is a family with children seated behind you, lets leave the curse words but no one said anything. A truly terrible...

We ate at the restaurant on July 17. My girlfriend has gluten and dairy allergies and we went to great lengths to tell our server of her restrictions. She wanted the grilled veal chop, which came with a sauce. We reiterated her food allergies, that she didn't want a dry chop on the plate, and the server said that he understood and that he would tell the kitchen staff. When the food came out, needless to say, it was a dry piece of veal on the plate. When we had issues with this, the server brought over the manager, who said he understood. We had to explain to the staff how to make a gluten and dairy free sauce without using flour or butter! 10 minutes later the server brought our a small bowl of sauce.

While they did apologize, because the server was new, never once did the manager or hostess come over and offer to take off a glass of wine from the bill (we had four) or a complementary cup of coffee for our troubles.

Our issues didn't end there, that evening were strong thunderstorms. The valet who brought around my car was soaking wet. When he brought around my car, the driver's seat was a puddle of water! Not only did he not have a towel to dry my seat, when I said something to him he looked at me like I was crazy. Fortunately I had napkins in my car so I didn't have to sit in a puddle.

When you're spending over $200 on dinner, you expect to receive value for your money and have an enjoyable evening. My girlfriend and I had high expectations for Savini's as it has good overall reviews. We were deeply disappointed at almost every aspect of our meal and service. It'll be a while, perhaps a long time before we even...