Girasole — Restaurant in Atlantic City

Warning: LONG review coming. :) I was skeptic when my wife said she made reservations for dinner at an Italian Restaurant I’m a 1st generation Italian / American male who has been spoiled in life with all the BEST of Italian cooking with generations of home made recipes and hand made foods.

I’m EXTREMELY picky with red sauces because of not home made and fresh I get heartburn and I also just don’t like them, once again …. Spoiled as I grew up with generations and decades of the best cooks serving me home made recipes and meals for the family.

I knew immediately after I had the olive oil and bread I knew I would be ok. The bread was fresh right out of the oven. Two selections and perfect examples of “Italian dinner bread”. The olive oil was FRESH. I can’t explain too much because the review will go longer. Let me say I know A LOT about olive oil as I worked at a small factory making if off the southern Abruuzzi Trees from my uncles farm lands. We been greeting it sent to us here in USA for decades and I’ve never had any comparable to what I get sent directly from Italy, until last night…..

We ordered the eggplant appetizer. Both my wife and I on the first bite remarked “wow” !

It was incredible and more like a small meal. That mixed with the assorted cheese allotted and greasy bread with a nice glass of red wine was a perfect meal in itself , but we were just getting started.

I love tagliatelle with meat / ragu sauce and figured if they made the appetizer that well then I’m in for a sure treat. I surly was.

The ENTIRE meal was delicious. Everything served was fresh and hand made.

The pastas were hand made , the veal cutlet was a full 16oz veal stake (bone in) pounded flat and left bone in. It was so large it took up my entire plate!!!

Plates were hot when served not cooling off due to ooor communications a lack of proper planning and timing from servers and chefs.

The staff was properly trained and “on point“ with every action. If you dropped any silverware someone was right there to help and relapse with new. Parmesan cheese or fresh ground pepper was readily available immediately after servings placed

They were a well moving machine of precision and excellence with pleasurable staff members and delicious meals.

I appreciated the efforts and success of the owners You can tell that this was his passion and desire to establish a little piece of Italy into the USA. It was a wonderful meal with excellent service and large portions. I took home half of what I ordered only because I wanted to try everything.

My wife laughed when she saw I was wiping my plate with a piece of bread and stated “I’ve never seen you do that anywhere but at home”. My answer was: “ because I’ve never been at where that watered or justified me doing that unless it was home cooking”

And that’s the God to honest truth! This meal was like sitting at a home table an Benny served neals from members of my family in Italy. It was a true representation of Italian HOME COOKING. .

I was truly amazed that it was such a wonderful mix of true Italian home cooking offering meals from both Northern and Southern parts of Italy.

They were clean cut and truly feliciouskt simole. Not over spiced with garlic cloves and oregano like most Italian places (o don’t know why people think that Italians love garlic and oregano on everything!). I personally don’t like either much at all.

Anyhow, not much more I can Assy aside from I was truly amazed and extremely happy with my wife’s decision to make reservations and try it out

I will certainly go back again. There are many other home favorites of mine that I intend on trying Im sure I’ll be amazed with anything else I try off their manure and am looking forward to it.

It was a wonderful experience. If you haven’t gone yet, you must go. You will not regret it.

I will be...

Solid Italian home cooking at Michelin Guide Prices. Girasole’s prices reflect the generally expensive food scene in Atlantic City and they put their prices accordingly. Not a criticism of them at all, just a reality to keep in mind if you’re going to visit. I would definitely visit again as the food was good and if you’re after something good then you’ll have to pay for it in this City. The ingredients were simple and well executed. There was nothing special about the flavour or any of the dishes we had but it just came the way you want home cooked food to be: no frills & reminding you of Italy. Although the initial service and starters were quick, the other courses came quite slowly. The feeling you get is a family affair, run for the joy of being together and no one is in a rush - we enjoyed our time!

I’ve explained the dishes I had in more below but if I was to come again here is what I’d do differently: I’d get a pizza as a starter - although not wood-fired, it came out looking and smelling great - I’d have a go at one of them. For the rest of the menu, I’d avoid anything that requires a level of technical cooking to bring out flavour. I’d avoid the main menu and just stick to the first course pasta menu. I’d get three or four pasta dishes and stick to a dish that is known for its richness: the rigatoni ragù or the farfalle for sure.

We had the soup of the day: Minestrone Soup - it was light and had a soft melody of vegetables but it was all quite bland, a little more flavour in the broth would have gone a long way.

The Mixed Seafood Pasta, the seafood was slightly over cooked - particularly the prawns - but the pasta had a perfect texture. The sauce could have had a little more richness or depth to its seasoning. I was expecting that classic simple Italian dedication to fresh tomatoes but it just wasn’t there.

Side Dishes: The mushroom dish was surprisingly the best dish of the day. In stark constraint to the poorly chosen tomatoes, the mushrooms were brilliantly selected and full of flavour. We also had the asparagus but it was quite bland and the creamy hollandaise sauce to accompany it lacked any kind of flavour.

To the main dish of the day, the Salt Baked Sea Bass. It was really good. Subtle salt matched with a very good lemon and caper sauce. The dish is more style/theatre than substance (the waiter breaks the salt crust and serves the fillets to you) but it...

My husband and I were excited to try Girasole for our 23rd Wedding Anniversary for the first time (we are regular Chef Vola patrons when in the area). Unfortunately what should have been an amazing night turned into a disaster. I suffer from a serious dairy allergy, which I made known to our waitress on more than 1 occasion, which fell on deaf ears.

Initially, we had to send back our fried calamari appetizers because it was so tough we could barely chew it. When our entrees came out and I took a few bites (that's all it takes to affect my issue), I knew immediately that there was dairy in my meal. We spoke to the manager and owner who confirmed that yes there was dairy in what I ordered, even after I made our waitress aware of my allergy.

This mistake resulted in me being violently ill for the remainder of the night. I barely made it back to the hotel before getting sick. My anniversary was ruined because of a simple mistake that should have been avoided especially after I mentioned my condition more than once. The owner was apologetic and did comp our meal, but spending my 23rd wedding anniversary in the bathroom all night was not my idea of celebrating. We will NEVER be dining here again. BTW, my husband ordered the veal parm (chop pounded thin), which is his go to at Chef Vola's. Unfortunately, it was just OK (tender but not flavorful); not in the same...