Vaccaros Trattoria — Restaurant in Bath Township

My husband and I pick a restaurant each week for a “date night”. We spend time looking at reviews and going through the websites before we decide. Sometimes we look for a dive, sometimes a specify type of food we are craving, or we may drive an hour away for a place looks extraordinary. On Tuesday morning, after looking at their website and seeing the low lighting, the ambiance and pictures of the food, we decided to stay closer to home and try a restaurant we have passed by many times, but never tried. I made a reservation for Friday night at “ Vaccaros Trattoria”. WHAT A MISTAKE!

We arrived at the restaurant 5 minutes before our reservation. We stepped inside and the hostess then turned us around and took us back out to the front entrance/hallway. It was lit up brighter than a superstore with stark white walls, dirty cracked concrete floor, dirty red and black door mats and windows into the parking lot (no curtains) so each time a car pulled in the headlights were annoying. Meantime the parking lot lights constantly glared through the windows. Bulbs hung from cords and the heaters overhead would turn on from time to time with a whine, as it was cold due to the constant opening and closing of the door, which was about 4 feet from our table.

You won’t see any pictures of this on the website…. I asked about being reseated inside and was told that the seats were assigned when you booked the reservation, so all tables were taken. So, no matter how early you arrived or when you booked, they decided where to seat you. No notification that you really weren’t inside the restaurant, but in an enclose entrance and not even a classy one and no ambiance.

We thought about walking out, but decided we were there and would make the best of it and try the food, maybe it was worth sitting at the worst table in the restaurant. Unfortunately, that was not the case. We both order pasta. The meatballs were very good, but the pasta was overcooked, mushy and it was either broken before cooking or it just came apart due to being overcooked. The Bolognese sauce was pasty with no sign of meat in it. Very disappointing.

The tables in this area should never be reserved or at least not reserved without the customer knowing what they are getting. They should be held for walk ins only, that way the customer could accept the seating or not. The only nice thing about the restaurant was our server. We tipped her accordingly as no server should be punished because of the short slightness...

This used to be my favorite Italian restaurant in Northeastern Ohio, but I couldn't be more disappointed in our experience on Monday.

Previously the food and service was outstanding and I don't want to be too critical of the service because the one waitress was in training, but it just took forever for food to come out and they never really checked on us for drinks.

The presentation of the fried provolone appetizer was almost comical , the provolone pads were placed in little fryer baskets where the cheese leaked out of the pads and clumped together, there was a cup of marinara sauce that came with it too, presumably to dip the provolone pad into like you were eating fried tater tots or something.

We also ordered a half of a grilled Caesar salad, that was garnished with part of an anchovies, I might have missed that garnishment on the menu, but I just didn't expect it... The Caesar dressing was bitter and the romaine lettuce had like a burnt flavor to it from being grilled, maybe this just wasn't my thing, but I feel like I have had this before at Vaccaro's and it was much better.

When I ordered the Chicken Parmesan, they warned me that they were out of the ravioli that it usually comes with but I could substitute rigatoni, my mom and I both ordered the Chicken Parmesan, I went with the marinara sauce and she went with the Alfredo sauce. Both of our chicken breasts were floating in their respective sauces, the chicken also didn't feel fully cooked through in some spots.

My dad ordered the chicken piccata, and it didn't come out like any chicken piccata we had ever seen before. There was only like an oily sauce on his angel hair pasta and he didn't even eat it.

I am sure I will eventually be back at Vaccaro's at some point. The table next to us got a pizza and that looked delicious.. maybe this was an off night.. but for the price you have a certain expectation of how things should be and this latest experience completely missed the mark, which was very sad to see for one of my favorite...

Took my lovely wife of 30+ years to Trattoria Vaccaro's last evening to celebrate Valentines Day. I had the Pasta with bolognaise sauce and added mushrooms, my wife had the local grass fed beef with mashed potatoes and gravy. I've been to Italy and I can honestly say I've never had better pasta. It's made fresh each morning. My pasta dish was $16 plus whatever they charged for the mushrooms. Had a bite of my wife's steak and it was delicious and tender. I even loved the onions in the gravy and mashed potatoes. Our waitress was terrific. The price is very fair. This is fine dining that won't break the budget. This is not a fast food restaurant so don't expect your meal in 5 minutes after you place the order. When you want to have good conversation and great Italian food, no better place in NE Ohio. 5 Stars! Rafael the owner does a lot of giving back to the community. I had never met him before last evening. About 6 months ago, I attended an event to benefit TRY Ministries which helps rehabilitate men out of prison and Trattoria Vacarro's was a sponsor of the event. I mentioned that to the waitress and she said he does a lot of giving to...