Andiamo Ristorante & Pizza Napoletana — Restaurant in Chesapeake

My girlfriend and I were unsure what to eat this evening when we entered the shopping center so we decided to walk around a little. We noticed this place and from the atmosphere and appearance of the restaurant we assumed this place was probably out of our budget for a casual dinner. The owner happened to be standing out front and told us the history and heritage of the restaurant. She sounded like the real deal and was very kind. We decided to go in and eat and we were very pleasantly surprised. The lighting and atmosphere were top notch. We were seated almost immediately upon receiving options and everyone was very kind. We ordered calamari to start and it was very tender and breaded to perfection. We heard really great things about the pizza from the owner so we had to try one of those before ordering our individual pasta dishes and it exceeded expectation. It appears they use very fresh ingredients including their mozzarella. And the crust was perfectly baked with just the slightest amount of Charing on the edges which is one thing i look for in a good pizza. They had a great wine selection which was half off today (Wednesday). The pasta arrived and the portions were very generous. I ordered the penne alla vodka with shrimp and everyone agreed it was one of the best they have had. My girlfriend ordered the spinach ravioli and it was also really tasty. The kids ordered the meatball penne pasta which looked really good also. Finally for dessert, we ordered the gelato bomb and a Nutella Pizza and the kids loved it! The check was left after dessert but there was absolutely no rush. Also I feel the need to mention the service was great and nothing went needed for. They even poured my glasses of wine from the bottle. The prices were extremely reasonable especially for the quality. I'm usually really harsh with reviews but I could not think of one thing to complain about. If you're looking for an authentic Italian restaurant with amazing food and great atmosphere this is definitely one place...

To start I was very excited to try this restaurant. I had heard great things and we wanted to find an Italian restaurant whos food rivaled Aldo's ristorante in Virginia Beach and this was about the same price. The drinks here were great, for food was okay we got three different entrees and they were all about the same level of taste in our eyes 6/10, nothing fantastic. But the thing that killed my experience at this restaurant was our server. I specifically called the restaurant back to get her name. Kat was our server who in tonight's dining had two clips in her hair wearing it up with glasses. She did the minimum as a server, she brought us our food. She did not introduce herself, introduce the restaurant (we were first timers.) offer us any form of specials, or even make any form of effort to talk to us. she forgot my one request outside of entrees and drinks which was a extra side of sauce. To make everything much more annoying, I let her know it was our 12 year olds birthday as she served the food (because she hasn't talked to us all dinner) and as she was running away she said "happy birthday" walking in the other direction. The entire time we listened to the other servers giving tables incredible service and all we thought was why didn't we get any of them as our server instead. At the end of our meal another server who had tattoos on her arms asked if we needed a bag for our Togo food and assisted us with putting it away. In the 30 seconds of her being at our table she gave us a more enjoyable experience then Kat did our entire dinner course.

Servers typically add to dinner experiences especially at a Medium price point like this restaurant is at. Our server made our experience much worse and I hope for the restaurants sake that she is a brand new server so they can train her to have better customer service. If she is an established server then Andiamos is getting ripped off by there employee. Kat I really hope the owner sees this so that future customers have a better experience...

Service was just bad. We ordered appetizers and she never brought us plates. We asked for plates when we finally got her attention and she still never brought them so all 4 of us ate off the large appetizer plates. A rather odd thing to do with 4 adult professionals trying to enjoy a dinner. Water ran out, no refills at all and she never came back for drink ordered when we asked her to give us a second since she only left one menu for four adults. Food came out with a stern warning that the top plate is extremely hot so be careful. Finally a chance to redeem the night and guess what, all 4 meals were ice cold. The super hot plate was barely warm. Perhaps because we waited way to long and it sat in the window, who knows. This was a huge bummer because the flavor of my cold manicotti was really good. We also got no bread while waiting an hour and so we finally asked after flagging her down again and we got 4 pieces of bread and that’s it. Bread was probably amazing with oil and warm gravy. Again no plates for the bread so that was fun. I guess it went with the empty Chesapeake water glasses. We tried to laugh off the entire night while the owner went table to table interrupting dinners singing his own praises but lucky for him skipped us. Perhaps he should spend more time in the kitchen or training staff. I mentioned aloud I was surprised we received no oil in an Italian restaurant for our bread. Then ironically before we left I see the waitress eating with her friends with bread, oil, drinks, plates and what looked like a nice warm meal. So for a four top and $180 bill we will not be back! There is a much better Italian place up the street by the locks that has never let me down. I was trying this place out for business meetings but will stick with old faithful and a glass of “wine” up the road! Very...