Giacobbi's Cucina Citta — Restaurant in Buffalo

0/2 for restaurants in Buffalo. Arrived at 5:20ish pm. Was immediately sat and given menus. Took waiter five minutes to greet table. Ordered drinks and their steamed clams for an app (for 12 they charged $16…). Drinks came and were small (picture attached) and when I finished the soda, the waiter advised there weren’t free refills. This must be a Buffalo thing because Gabriel’s Gate has the same policy. Odd to think sales are bad enough the restaurant has chosen to collect on soda refills. Steamed clams came out 10 mins later and were average, some of them tasted bad and were off. I asked if they had bread and the waiter said they had some kind of house bread. They brought out the bread 10-15 minutes later. Bread was good, but dipping sauces were not. One tasted like a roasted red pepper hummus dip that I wasn’t a fan of and the oil looking dip was so terrible it almost made me sick. Then they brought out the entrees. I ordered their veal francaise special ($25). They first put the side bowl of spaghetti on the table that was not very tasty, then they put down the veal. The veal was decent, but very thin – schnitzel thin. Was definitely not worth $25 even in pandemic prices. Tops I would say $18 maybe $20 if one is greedy. Server was fine, not rude or overly friendly. As the restaurant got busier, the service got much slower. We ended up waiting far too long for our meal to be cleared. I then asked about dessert and ordered the peach cobbler. Took 20 minutes to get the peach cobbler – big mistake. Peach cobbler was huge and bland, and by that point they had produced the check and they were charging me $8 for that cobbler, so I sent it back as I couldn’t even eat it. Waiter also overcharged me for clam appetizer putting them in at $18 instead of $16 which I then pointed out and he spent five minutes investigating. Here’s the best part! The one small soda with no free refills I got cost $3 and they charged me for the bread……. $5!!!! FIVE DOLLARS FOR BREAD??? I can go to the store and get much better bread than that!!! What a rip off!!! Most places don’t charge for bread and the server NEVER said anything about bread costing money. Once they fixed the bill, which again took forever, I just paid because we had to go to catch a concert as it was 7 pm at that point. So, my recommendations to the restaurant: the food is not of expensive quality, so lower your prices. Your lack of servers isn’t helped by the smallest glasses for water and soda I’ve seen in restaurants, so get bigger glasses so servers don’t have to tend to refills (in this case water for me, which the server had to refill A LOT because the glass is so small). Make sure you’re charging people what you priced on the menus. Free refills!!! And for gosh sakes, FREE BREAD!!! I think it’s rather desperate when a restaurant charges for bread and refills, especially fountain refills. Next time I’ll just...

I am completely willing to chalk it up to a bad night, but I gotta say, it was a bad night. Got to the restaurant at about quarter to 7, had to wait for the last member of our party who arrived around 7:15. We were not out of there until 9 because the service was so extremely slow. There was only one waitress though that I could see and she was very sweet, I just wish she had more help. We easily waited an hour or more for our food and there were only a few customers at that point. I also am not sure how an Italian restaurant can mess up something like pizza, but it's possible because two of our party members ordered different kinds of pizza and both were just sad. I got the Melanzana Caprese and all I asked was "no eggplant" the waitress brought it out, said " Melanzaza Caprese, no eggplant" and the first thing I noticed was it was covered in eggplant. I was so hungry by that point though I couldn't bring myself to send it back, but it was the thinest, hardest "pizza" I have ever eaten. My friend got a regular cheese and I tried to see how that was because she wasn't enjoying it, it was better than mine and I didn't feel like I might chip a tooth on it, but it was still really flavorless. I didn't even take the leftovers and I usually never do that, but I didn't want to eat any of the food again. My friend's other dishes included Chicken Parm and a pasta dish with shrimp. They seemed to think it was ok, but the general consensus was, for those prices and that long of a wait, nothing was worth it. I know some nights are off in any business and I tried to tip as best I could, but I hope they can get things under control, cause there are too many other restaurants producing amazing food, quickly in that area that you...

If you are looking for good Italian food, this is NOT the place for you. We are from NJ, so maybe we are spoiled with good Italian food. We are in the area for the weekend, and we decided to come here based on a recommendation from our hotel front desk. We first ordered soup and salad. Caesar salad was run of the mill, out of the bag salad. My mom's soup was the special of the day and came out cold. She had to ask our server to warm it up in the microwave, and it was luke-warm at best. I had the "award winning" shrimp crab bisque - not sure what kind of awards it would have won. For dinner, my daughter ordered the lasagna... it tasted like it was pre-made frozen lasagna. My mom ordered penne vodka with shrimp. It was NOT vodka sauce. It was closer to marinara, and not at all "pink" as advertised. The shrimp was so chewy and stringy and seasoned awfully. I ordered the chicken marsala. While the portion was huge - two chicken breasts, about a pound of spaghetti and just as many mushrooms, the marsala sauce was AWFUL. I have never in my life tasted marsala sauce like this...it was so bad it tasted sour. It was inedible. We all pretty much moved our food around our plates, without eating much of anything. We did also accept the offered "bread plate"...which, by the way, is an extra $7. In NJ, bread is always placed in a warm basket on the table, no extra charge. We paid extra for the bread and the two rolls were doughy and very undercooked. I have learned a lesson...when in Buffalo, DO NOT order Italian food at Giacobbi's. Stay away. There has to be better Italian...