Grappa Italian Nouveau — Restaurant in City of Rochester

Hmmm... Well after driving to 2 other restaurants to find Italian for lunch and finding them closed despite the hours listed, Grappa was open. Score! Except there aren't really any Italian options for lunch. Just pizza and panninis and salad. I was too sick of driving around to find a real Italian lunch spot so I stayed. Ordering was at the counter, which was OK, whatever. Got up-sold on the combo pannini/side/drink combo. Had the braised short rib pannini and tomato soup. Only diet drink to go with my combo was unsweetened iced tea. OK, still no big deal. But we've moved into the "really?" portion of the visit.

Food arrived in 3 minutes. On a metal tray with paper liner, plastic silverware in a plastic wrapper, plastic bowl for the soup, and sandwich wrapper with the type of sandwich on it. This was clearly not food that was just prepared. At maximum it was nuked and assembled quickly without real quality control. They must bulk make food for the lunch rush (all 5 people that came in). The soup was tasty but luke warm. Had to gobble it down before it got cold. Sandwich was decent? Had a weird almost fishy taste. Meh.

It didn't cost a fortune ($20 for the combo) but imo it wasn't worth the cost. Maybe dinner is way better but I'd 100% never ever come here for lunch. Why would you? If you want a great sandwich go half a mile down to Pelligrinos. It felt like "let's add arugula and peppadew to a sandwich, charge double, and serve it cafeteria style. No one will notice!" (can't seem to post a photo to show what I got, I'll keep trying)

Service was... Well it was counter service, tho bc I was drinking wine I did get asked once if I wanted another (small, overpriced pour). Everyone was polite but so are people at McDonald's (sometimes).

Poorly done for a place that gets great dinner reviews. I feel a little duped by the rating which doesn't reflect lunch reality. Save yourself the money and irritation and don't come here for lunch. Sure it's close for college kids and their parents visiting, but rochester is small. Venture out another mile or 2 for decent food. This has also soured me on trying other restaurants in this area since it seems like they cater to the college parent looking for convenience crowd.

Wish I'd gone to Alladins on Monroe like I'd originally thought of. Lesson learned about trying new places in Rochester when there are already so many established...

Most of the food was good (greens and beans were great), and the drinks were good, however the host (tall skinny guy) and service in general was below average and ruined our experience. Our first impression as we walked in was a beautiful atmosphere, yet an unprofessional staff. On our way in through the outdoor seating area we walked by the host who told us he'd meet us at the host stand as he scurried away. First issue, we had no idea where the host stand was as he should have at the very least pointed it out, but a real professional would have walked us to it. Second issue, his body language and tone were terrible as he looked and sounded incredibly ticked off. After another staff member saw us wondering around they pointed out the host stand on the other side of the room. The host then proceeded to walk to the host stand, bickered with a couple other staff members and then starred down at some papers and did not greet us for at least a minute. When he did greet us he simply asked if we had reservations, which we did. It felt incredibly awkward, he then mumbled something which turned out to be him asking us to follow him. Then came our waitress 10 minutes later as we watched her walk by multiple times without mentioning she'd be with us in a few. When she finally did address us and bring water, it was obvious she was far from a professional. Overall there is a ton of potential here, but we had a very...

Overall, Grappa is a really nice restaurant with a nice atmosphere and good food. It’s a little pricy, but not outrageous. The white pizza is one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had. The sauce is rich and creamy, the crust is crispy and buttery, and the cheese has this delicious sharpness. For $19 it’s pretty expensive for what is essentially a medium pizza, but it is very much worth trying! The Grappa burger was cooked perfectly (I asked for Medium) and was very juicy and flavorful. I still liked the pizza better. The chips on the side are just okay. I tried the Rigatoni Ala Utica and it was wonderful! The sauce is cheesy, creamy, and a little spicy. An amazing combination that I wasn’t expecting to work so well. The pasta was cooked perfectly and the chicken was a delicious addition. The truffle and Parmesan fries are $9. Honestly, they were also just okay. They are crispy and tasty. But I felt that for the price they honestly weren’t worth it. The service was great, the wait staff were always checking on us and were extremely friendly. For large groups a service charge of ~20% is applied automatically, which I took to be the gratuity? Just keep that in mind if you’re there with a large group. They also don’t split checks. So our group of 11 had to pay on one card and then everyone had to pay back that person. Not a big deal, but very inconvenient. I will probably come again for the...