Giovanni's — Restaurant in Beachwood

i feel bad leaving this review because our server was lovely but this restaurant is absolutely not what it used to be. it’s NOT fine dining, although i’m sure some people think it is.

first, the ambiance and decor is not great. the decor is outdated and the lighting gives a bright white clinical feeling to the space. also, the random plate that is on the table that the busboy takes away is unnecessary.

the major issue was our food. the bread that you receive before your meal is cold and hard to cut into. the butter doesn’t melt onto it. you also get a random crostini. i ordered the seafood linguini—one of my favs at italian restaurants. what came out wasn’t a linguini but a spaghetti (it tasted like it was from a box). ok no big deal. but, there were about 2 mussels and 2 clams!! ok, well, i was willing to overlook it. the lobster, however, had the texture of RUBBER. i couldn’t cut into it with a knife, let alone eat it. it was also in the shell which for a fine dining/expensive meal is kind of annoying. for $60 we felt as though we got ripped off (my mother in law got the same dish and it was the same for her).

my father in law got the steak which was mostly fat. the sauce that came with it was tahini based and just didn’t suit the steak. the small mushrooms on the side tasted like fish—they probably cooked them in the same oil as something else. he didn’t finish his meal (over $80 for the steak).

my husband enjoyed his veal scallopini, however, the salt levels were pretty high.

we complained about the seafood pasta and sent it back so they could see for themselves how rubbery the lobster was. they offered us a free dessert but we really just wanted to leave so they gave us tiramisu to go. i tried the tiramisu later and was once again let down— it was awful! i’ve never had bad tiramisu but this was just so bad. it wasn’t sweet and was very cloying.

overall we were really disappointed with the whole experience, and felt as though we had been ripped off. i think this place was once great but it seems, from what i could gather, that it’s full of people who have no idea what fine dining is and come here because...

First off, this restaurant appears to be in a small business park or general office building, so it's an odd location, but has valet parking. I already knew it was going to be the fancier type of Italian restaurant, but you can see they're trying very hard with their decor to classy the place up with their given space. Most of the other people in the restaurant were dressed in suits (or dress shirts) or dresses/skirts, so I assume and hope they were celebrating something (like an anniversary). Otherwise, this place would be too pretentious.

We ordered the ceviche, which was tiny and pricey, but still decent. I had never had gnocchi before (I'm more of an Old Spaghetti Factory or Buca di beppo - look it up- kind of person), so I thought I'd try it here for the first time. Also, it was because I didn't see anything else I really liked on the limited menu. I was hoping for some ravioli or lasagna type foods, but this place is too fancy and high class to have those. If they do have anything like that, maybe I'm just too ignorant and don't know Italian well enough to be able to tell which ones are.

The closest thing to lasagna here is probably the pappardelle, which I tried, but wasn't a fan of. I'm big on sauce (and cheese), so I felt like everything I ate was lacking in sauce and very dry. Also, there was not enough cheese... The desserts are tasty and as expected. Nothing that special. I wouldn't recommend coming here unless you live nearby and want an excuse to blow a ton of money on food to feel "fancy". Even if you're here for an anniversary or "romantic" date, you're not going to get a lot of privacy or an intimate setting. I also suggest ordering from their special menu because those items appeared to taste and be cooked better.

There was a huge wedding reception group (older couples) that came in towards the middle of our meal. They were seated in a circular table in the middle of the room, and basically the entire room was focused on them because of how loud and raucous they were. Hopefully, that doesn't happen to you, but it provided some interesting...

Not real good. At all. I ordered a steak and she brought me a fancy hamburger that I had decided against after reviewing some of the condiments it came with, and decided on the steak medium rare: after the wait we were all staring at the hamburger she brought me and I only ate it so that the clearly new waitress wouldn't get grief back in the kitchen. It was 'ok..' after a while the bus boy took my table mates plate away after he said not yet and less than three seconds later the waitress offered to clear the table while my sister was still eating. my sister said no, she still eating and the lady said are you sure? Her scallops were 'okay' she said, and he said his chicken parmigiano was 'okay' too. Was sort of expecting world class, but..no. Not at all. Oh and there's no pepper at the table you have to ask for it ...and seconds after the three of us felt completely rushed in a place that wasn't that busy with plenty of Empty Tables visible, the fake fancy maitre de swooped in, put his hand on my back and said was everything okay? Don't put your hand on my back, guy. -We all immediately brushed him off, because what was the point? I also forgot my sister's dark blue slacks were covered with napkin lint and my black slacks were covered, once outside we all noticed in white napkin lint. out of 10, I'd give a 2. When my sister made the reservation earlier that day she got a text message saying reservation for two. My sister called back and said reservation for three and the girl said something trite, and when we got there the reservation remained for two. Now this was a Wednesday evening, nothing special, not Saturday or Friday or date night. None of us are restaurants snobs by any means. We left there with no sense of ambiance or wow or world class, or anything other than my brother-in-law wondering if we paid for the steak I ordered but got hamburger, because my sister's not one to scour the check when it comes to the table. PS I almost forgot I had to take the top of the salt shaker off each time to use the salt....the spinach was very...