Tony D's — Restaurant in City of Rochester

Dined in for the first time with my husband, I’ve been wanting to try Tony Ds for so long, so we decided to go on my birthday. Although the atmosphere is beautiful, I would agree with everyone on the fact that it’s so loud you can’t hear your own conversation. The bread is not fresh or satisfying for an Italian restaurant, the loaf wasn’t even cut all the way through. The bread oil was great though. The 2 top tables that are 1/2 booth and 1/2 chairs are very awkward I felt like the people next to us were WITH us. The inside is very dark, so when you’re facing the window the glare is blinding. Our server was a tall older gentleman, he was very kind and his knowledge of the menu and the specials were great. We started with the artichoke appetizer that was on special. The presentation was beautiful but the batter and artichoke itself was lacking flavor/salt. You had to get a good amount of the whipped ricotta and sauces in order to enjoy the flavor of the dish. My husband liked his dish, he had the ricotta and herb gnudi , the red sauce was tasteful. I ordered the Shrimp Oreganata, now because the menu is lacking description, this stated it was “with orzo pasta” that’s the description…. No details… I figured I would give it a shot but first I started with a side salad… side salad is no where on their menu, so I asked if they had one, he said yes, upon getting the bill, I found that this small side salad was $10. I was very shocked. Going back to my shrimp dish, the shrimp are EXTREMELY ridiculously huge. You can tell they come as is, and they don’t peel them in house because the tails were still on. Why do people serve tails on the shrimp when the shrimp is buried in sauce? Or period for that matter. It was way over cooked. It was like chewing a well done steak. Also, messy and impossible to cut or eat with the tail on. The orzo was drowning in oil, over cooked, none of the flavor in the dish stuck to the orzo, and there were way to many flavors, it had a garlic, parm, herb flavor and then with every other bite I would get a strong lemon taste. After 1 shrimp and 3 small bites of orzo I decided not to eat it. The server was kind enough to remove it off our bill and I was thankful for that considering we weren’t even going to say anything or suggest that. But he clearly seen I didn’t like the dish. The table is not set with salt and pepper, you get rocks glasses for water… just very disappointed. Had way higher expectations for this place and their prices. Especially knowing the Tony Ds history, it just sounds like they are making it off the name. The shrimp really just...

I had a bad experience at Tony D's this evening. It is not a good place to take a group of people. The food was delicious however the service was not up to par. We had a group of 9 people for a birthday and it's a Monday so the place was not busy whatsoever. When sat, we told them we wanted separate checks. The bill came at the end all on one for 9 people. When I approached the server to ask him if he could separate it out since we all brought debit or credit cards, he said they can not do that, but if I wrote out whose was which meal that he could charge each card. I went back to the table, organized everyone's payments, wrote out which item each person ordered, and then brought it back to him. When he looked at it, he somewhat shortly told me that it had to be a specific dollar amount or he was just going to ball park it to include tax.

I responded that I don't understand why it is our responsibility to figure out how much tax each person would be charged also and not theirs. To this he responded "well I don't see why you need to nickle and dime it." I told him that while everyone is friends at the table, we're all paying for our own stuff. He then explained to me that it is restaurant policy to NOT split the bill.

I worked at a pizza restaurant myself for over 2 years, just 2 years prior to this. We were always able to separate out bills, split specific items, and it is not conducive to bigger groups if they are not willing to provide this simple service. This was always done post-sending the order to the kitchen so as to not send the kitchen separate orders (Aloha POS, if you're reading this Tony D's... look it up). If their software program does not allow for it then they need to update it. They are going to lose service of people who try to split checks if they can not provide this service. We go out to eat for convenience. This is...

Not food related but the parking lot is rather small so plan on parking on the street or across the road (will save you 5-10 minutes of driving around like I did!) Our reservation was for 5:45 so we thought it would be rather quiet but it was already quite loud, possibly because it was a Friday. It didn't help that we were seated right next to at least one very unhappy child. There were quite a few tables open but we didn't ask to move. I would request a table with a nice view of the water next time. It also turns out we were right next to the door to the "wine room" so there was lots off traffic in and out from the staff. Our waiter was very attentive and the rest of the evening was very good (). We had the calamari appetizer which was great but wished it had come with a marinara type of sauce instead of the aioli one provided and too overpriced at $18. I had the Friday Clam and Linguine special, I was NOT disappointed. It had TONS of whole and chopped clams (and garlic). They brought a bowl for the shells with the meal and removed it soon after I had filled it which I appreciated and feel is overlooked by many places. My wife had the special of the day which was a Turbot fish and grilled vegetables which was well prepared and tasty. Overpriced however at $37 (IMO). My adult daughter had the (huge) meatball and spaghetti. Meatball was a little mushy and she prefers her sauce a little sweeter. Her boyfriend had the lasagna which he enjoyed (portion size was very generous). It came with a very thick coating of cheese, too much however in his opinion. I had the lemon cake for dessert which my wife and I both enjoyed. I had tea (selection of teas was good) and others had decaf coffee. () Total bill was ~$150 (without tip and no alcohol!) which I thought was high for the "$$" and "$30 and under" ratings I saw listed on Yelp...