Ristorante LIDI — Restaurant in Charleston

We always make it a point to get a table here when we are in the area. We have been coming here for about 6 years and the staff has been pretty consistent with chef and service personnel- all great people with a passion for good food and service. We started with the calamari for an appetizer which is always very good which was crispy and hot, an even mix of rings and bodies, lightly breaded and fried to perfection served with a tomato marinara. I had some a'la cart items - italian sausage over a bed of sauted spinach, and a side of meatballs - excellent. My wife had her usual wild mushroom blend gnocchi which is one of their signature dishes featuring five kinds of mushrooms with cut asparagus in a truffle broth. I am not a personal fan of mushroom dishes but even I thought it was very good. Good wine and desert selections. For desert we chose limoncello cake and tiramisu which were both excellent. They also had NY style cheesecake, cannoli, and Bomba which is a strawberry and pistachio gelato in a chocolate shell. We have had each of these deserts over our visits and each are worth ordering. Everything we have ordered over the years have been excellent, not just average. As with any good Italian restaurant, you will need take away boxes to take all the food you cannot eat as the portions are generous. They have nice outdoor seating and plenty of in door plus a nice bar you can drink and or eat at. A beautiful setting, wonderful food, often filled with families young and old and the young professionals at the bar after working hours. Put it on your list to enjoy when you are...

THE WORST experience at an Italian restaurant I’ve ever had in my entire life. The sauce tastes like pure sugar, no acidity to it at all to the point it knocked me sick it was so sweet. The waitress was HORRIBLE. She gave no recommendations, helped people who came in after us first while we waited 20 minutes just to put a drink order in. We asked for a side of butter… waited 30 minutes until I had to ask the KITCHEN STAFF to help us. She asked us what kind of salad we wanted with our meal so everyone just picked something… well she didn’t tell us that the salads were AN EXTRA $10 EACH because they don’t come included in our meal! Why would you even offer them? We had a group of 6 and all 6 of us will NEVER come back and NEVER give this monstrosity of a place a second chance. That was by far the worst restaurant experience of our lives. We will be telling ALL of our friends to avoid this restaurant AT ALL COSTS! Take my advice and just avoid that stress and disappointment. About the food: Veal Parm was so tough and hard to chew.

Chicken Parm tasted like an elementary school chicken patty… soggy breading with a weird texture.

Just don’t order the ravioli, they give you $14 worth of sauce and $1 worth of ravioli… there were only 4 in the bowl of sauce.

House salad had two grape tomatoes and was just a head of lettuce cut in half with a gross piece of burnt bacon on top…

10/10 would NEVER recommend due to food...

Awesome Food (Five Stars). Terrible Customer Service (One Star)

We went to LIDI this past Friday night while visiting my brother who lives in the area.

What We Liked -Food was awesome - great portions, high quality, top notch -Ambiance - warm and family friendly

What Almost Ruined the Experience for Us -The hostess very rudely barked at my wife for not wearing her mask appropriately (she was literally putting it on as we walked in...didn't even get a chance to put it on before the hostess was all over her). It was humiliating for my sweet wife -The hostess was huffing and puffing around the restaurant giving us dirty looks...the place was basically empty so obviously she was angry with us. -Service was sub par. Again, the place was virtually empty and we had to wait for our server multiple times, she took half of our drink orders and forgot the other half...just bad

Final Note - We totally get that we are required to wear masks due to the COVID restrictions - that's unfortunately life right now. However, treating guests rudely and like cattle in a TSA line is not the way to win over hearts and minds. Treating others with respect goes a long way. I can only imagine the pain that restaurants are experiencing nowadays, but don't shoot yourselves in the foot by being rude to your patrons...doesn't make...