Gervasoni's Restaurant — Restaurant in California

Well, this is the first 1-star I've given for a review. Note that I am writing this review from a date-night or family-night perspective. Here's a simple rundown: Pros: Decent wine and beer selection

Cons: Service was sub-par. Took way to long to get our food, and restaurant seemed very under-staffed Hardly any Italian options for an Italian restaurant Food was priced at a higher-end restaurant type pricing, which did not match the food that came out Very loud Flavor and portion-size of food was subpar

I came into town to stay with my girlfriend's family while escaping the fires down in Ventura. There was a lot of hype about Gervasonis, so her family decided to try it out. It was a Friday night. We had made reservations ahead of time (a good choice, otherwise it was a 1.5 - 2 hour wait). We were seated at a table near the bar. There were various bar games that seemed to cause a lot of noise, almost like a hammer pounding on wood. The menu consisted of sandwiches, burgers, steaks, salads, and a small selection of pasta. Other than the pasta, nothing really stood out as Italian. The prices were about $17-$25 a meal, excluding some of the prime-cut steaks.

After about 15 minutes our waitress came to take our order. We ordered wine, appetizers, and our meals. She said they were very busy tonight and it would take about 45 minutes before we got our food. They brought out the wine, and about 35 minutes in the appetizers. I ordered the clam chowder (of which the clams were so chewy I couldn't swallow), but the salads were good and seemed to be a good portion size.

About 45 minutes in, when we were supposed to get our food, we were told it would be about another hour to an hour and a half. We had several glasses of wine in between to hold us over. About an hour and 15 minutes later, 3 of the 4 of us got our food. I had ordered the ravioli, in which some of the ravioli was cold. The dish looked to be a good portion size, but I quickly realized there was a surplus of meat sauce on top, and actually only about 10 mini-raviolis. The ravioli themselves were bland, but the sauce has a little flavor to them. The two other dishes that came out were spaghetti. The spaghetti was cold for one dish and super hot for the other dish.

About 25 minutes after we got (and finished) our food, the dish for the 4th person arrived. It was cold.

After the entire night, we had spent over 2 and a half hours between waiting for our food and paying our check (that was with reservations!). It seemed greatly understaffed for the consistent popularity at the moment, and the food seemed subpar. I would avoid this place for now, and maybe wait for others to review in several months when the...

Don't order the Ribeye if you are expecting a real ribeye steak. I ordered one yesterday and I immediately knew it was a low quality piece of meat when it arrived. I asked them if I could instead get the NY steak since that is what my daughter ordered and I could tell was a better cut of meat compared to mine. The server took the ribeye and requested a NY steak. Two minutes later, another woman (the Manager or Owner) came to the table with the steak and asked me what the problem was. I showed her how the steak was separating in sections but held together by all the gristle and fat. She told me she would throw on the NY but she was still going to also charge me for the ribeye. I ended up just taking the ribeye and this is what I ended up with at the end after picking through it for a few bites. I wouldn't have minded paying the $38 for the ribeye but instead get the NY steak. But expecting me to pay for both is poor customer service. I used to recommend this place to people...

Wife and I ate lunch here and it was just, okay. Now to be fair, being Italian myself, I have very high standards. However, for the money I think you could go to the Olive Garden and have better quality food. I had the Shrimp Linguine with the white sauce. For starters there was very little shrimp to be found and the pasta itself seemed like if had been sitting for a while, had no flavor, and was just, meh. The sauce also had no flavor at all. Was less creamy and more watered down than anything else.

Our waitress was friendly but sadly seemed overwhelmed as she was the only one, I saw, waiting tables. There was also a screaming/crying kid in the back of the restaurant where the staff was and it was not too fun trying to have a fun little lunch date with a screaming kid.

Overall we're not going back. For what we got and how everything tasted, it just...