Cosentino's Ristorante — Restaurant in City of Geneva

I rarely leave reviews, but I feel this one is important as it hits home. My best friend and her husband were visiting from North Carolina and staying in Geneva. Since it was late on a Sunday, we picked this restaurant because it was open and seemed to have decent reviews. Unfortunately, what followed was hands down the worst dining experience I’ve ever had. We arrived at 7:30. No one else was waiting, yet we stood at the hostess stand for about 15 minutes before being seated. After that, another 10 minutes passed before a server (waitress A) finally took our drink order;just a Coke, a water, and a glass of red wine. Twenty minutes later, still nothing. Waitress B came over and took the same drink order again. Another 15 minutes passed with no drinks. At this point 45 minutes had passed, waitress C noticed we’d been sitting for 45 minutes with nothing and kindly offered to take our food order, only to be shut down by waitress B yelling from the kitchen that “she had us.” Well I didn’t get to say it but THANK YOU to that waitress for trying and noticing, I really wanted to leave HER a tip for being empathetic and trying to rectify the clear oversight that was occurring.YOU are a true professional and I felt empathetic when you were rudely addressed out loud for trying to help your team that was clearly struggling. I wish you had spoken up to her across the dining room as she did to you. I was second hand embarrassed for you. Ten minutes later,nearly an hour after we sat down our drinks finally arrived. By now it was near closing, and if there had been any option other than pizza or Chinese, we would have walked out long before ordering. We had plenty of time to frantically search for an exit strategy if there had been one.Sadly, we stayed. My fried scallops came sitting in half an inch of cold water. They were soggy, tasteless, and carried the rancid flavor of fryer oil that hadn’t been changed in far too long. I’m pregnant and wasn’t willing to risk more than one bite,it was that concerning. I suggest the owners try them asap.The owner did notice I hadn’t touched them and politely asked. I was reluctant to answer because that’s not who I am, I was willing to just pay for them and leave when the bill came.When I explained, she removed them from the bill, which I appreciated. But that was the only sign of attentiveness the entire night, aside from waitress C, who genuinely tried to help. The pasta side that became my main dish,angel hair Alfredo—was mushy, overcooked, flavorless, and falling apart as soon as the fork touched it. Much like I remember pasta day at school lunches to be. The “bread service” was stale bread paired with cold, hard, prepackaged butter. Nothing about it said Italian hospitality, let alone Sicilian heritage. I mean really, have you tried the bread? It was SO dry I could not swallow the bite I took.

What stings the most is I read the story on your website and felt connected to it as someone from a Sicilian immigrant family. Italian cooking is meant to be fresh, simple, soulful, and full of love. What we were served was the opposite. It was bland, careless, and uninspired. An insult to what Nonna herself would have stood for from the “story.”

Most of the clientele appeared to be elderly locals, which may keep the lights on for now, but if this is the standard, I honestly don’t know how this restaurant will survive in the long run which is sad. Serving fresh pasta, offering real garlic bread with a proper spread, and cooking food with heart is not difficult. But those basic standards weren’t met. I KNOW there couldn’t have been pride when my food was plated, it was so obviously careless.. it was not just a disappointing meal,it was embarrassing for a restaurant that claims Sicilian roots. I left nauseous, frustrated, and saddened that something with so much potential has lost sight of what Italian food truly means. I sincerely hope changes are made, because in its current state, I cannot recommend this...

Very disappointing having the owner refute the word of my daughter's boyfriend. Dylan is a kind, honest, intelligent honor student, who took the experience with our server upon himself. I have lived in Geneva for 6 years, and hadn't been to Cosentino's yet, but had looked forward to it for a while. It was a cold snowy night. I had plowed all day. When we arrived, the restaurant didnt appear very busy. I could tell right after we were seated that I was not wild about our server. She was slow to get to our table and left us for long periods as we dined. My daughter found a hair in her salad that was not her color or hair type. When the server finally returned we told her of the hair. Instead of just apologizing and removing the salad from the bill, she became argumentative and suggested the hair came from my daughters hair tie! After she came back, she told me she only charged us ½ price!! There was an employees hair in her dish!! I at that point asked for the manager. Another woman came over, though she seemed a little bothered by our complaint, she at least removed the meal! None of us were having a bad day, and the hair was absolutely 100% not my daughter's!! PERIOD!! The server's service was so bad, that for the first time in my life, I did not leave a tip!! I am truly offended that the owner would try to pass the buck instead of just saying I am sorry about the hair!! I would have definitely gone back as I thought the food was decent, though maybe a tad pricey for the portion. Honestly, leaving 1 star for her service is being generous!!

Honestly, I am stunned the owner took time to argue, just as the server and the manager did!!

Just say I am sorry you had a damn hair in...

The positives. Really friendly staff. It feels like a nice family restaurant. The ambiance is nice. Indoor outdoor. Most patrons seeming to take their time and enjoy their meal. Sadly the food was just bad and poorly executed. Bang bang shrimp. I've had this several times at other restaurants. This was heavily breaded shrimp under huge scoops of something. Spicy- but gloppy. We really tried with this.

We ordered a prime rib dinner with pasta and salad and a fish fry with baked potato and clam chowder.

Some time after the shrimp out came prime rib, and fish. Only. No soup and salad. No sides The sides came next. Then soup and salad.

2.The fish looked huge! Amazing. But it was alllllllll breading. We really had to dig and the fish inside seemed like it had just soaked in too much cooking oil.

Prime rib was ok. It was very tough cutting. Not much flavor. I asked for horse radish. They had it but it didn't do much to help.

The salad that came last was also ok but it had a huge scoop of thick dressing plopped on one spot.

Soup was ok. Not much taste.

Bread and baked potato were good.

Pasta was a little too al dente for me.

Mostly we payed $75 for good bread, water, and a baked potato. I apologize to the nice people for a bad review and hope maybe this will save someone a bad meal and maybe help with areas to improve. I realize Covid changes and we expected and did not mind the slow service. They really hustled and...