Chianti Il Ristorante — Restaurant in City of Saratoga Springs

Chianti IL Ristorante – Saratoga Springs, NY – 7/30/2016

Saratoga Springs… Known for the horse races… This quaint little town has a downtown that hosts a number of small shops and restaurants… After spending the day at the races, we walked thru downtown visiting some of those stores while we waited for our scheduled dinner reservations…

Tonight's dining adventure would take us to Chianti IL Ristorante… From the moment we announced our arrival, we felt completely welcomed… We were seated in one of the dining rooms to the left. Our server tonight; Kevin… Kevin knew the menu like the back of his hand and with passion described each dish in full detail… I could practically taste each dish from Kevin’s descriptions…

Our feast started with the Salumi e Formaggi… Assortment italian cold cuts and cheeses with spicy mostarda... For the first time I was introduced to the Caper Berry… Beautifully arranged on a wooden cutting board… It tasted as good as it looked!

Next… The Coccio... Calamari, garlic and herbs sautéed in a delicately spiced tomato broth with a side of crostini… An amazing sauce with a kick that just screamed for bread…

Then the Tiger Shrimp… Where do I even begin with this one…? A four ounce Shrimp served with mixed greens… Wow… Just wow!...

If you tell them what you want, if they have it, they'll accommodate your request even if it's not on the menu… The product that executive chef Fabrizio Bazzani creates in his kitchen is nothing short of magic!

Our mains this evening...

Linguini Vongole...Clams with an accompanying sauce over pasta was amazing!

Pork Shoulder Ossobucco served with Roasted Potatoes and Green Beans… I honestly have never tasted a dish this good and mind you I've had this dish in many fine restaurants… Many really well prepared but none exactly perfect like this one!The tangyness of the sauce was something my palate just was not prepared for… Other than the bone, I ate every morsel of this dish…

Veal Chop… Prepared medium rare was another delight to the senses… Like the Ossobucco, accompanied by Roasted Potatoes and Green Beans… Magical…

Strip Steak… Prepared Medium was fabulous!

We shared a half order of the house pasta special… A Rigatoni with white wine, mushrooms and Veal was another one of those amazing accompaniments that just tied everything together… As if our senses weren't already on overload, out comes the dessert… Semifreddo Mascarpone E Ciocciolato...Semi frozen dessert of ricotta and mascarpone cheese with rose water, almonds, and chocolate bits… The chocolate, attached to the plate added a challenge to the dessert placed atop it...

Add to this the Chocolate Hazelnut Gelato, a double Espresso and a couple of Cappuccinos and life is truly complete… And mind you prior to tonight I did not eat anything Hazelnut but this was just so good…

This place is a perfect ten! From the personal attention of Jim the manager, Kevin our server and David the owner, for our first time here it was an extremely special evening! So much so we've already planned our return visit… Despite the fact that it's a seven hour drive round trip, we’ll make a weekend…

If an amazing dining experience with off the charts attentive customer service is your bag, I've got the perfect restaurant for you; Chianti IL Ristorante in Saratoga Springs, New York! Ask for Jim and tell him Paul sent you… You'll love it as much as we did… It bears...

Had a great experience here about 2 yrs ago hosting my boss’ retirement dinner for about 20 of us- great food and service then. So I figured, it was definitely worth going back since I’m in town for work again…. The minute we walked in the door, smacked in the face with low quality air freshener. First off- no good restaurant would take away from the taste of the good by doing that. But second- it wasn’t even limited to the entry way, that garbage was being pumped into the air even by the bar where we were seated at a high top. Imagine a hotel that doesn’t properly clean air freshener smell. Awful. Our server was great initially, made a great dry red wine suggestion and took our order promptly. Then cue the waiting…. No bread or anything at an Italian restaurant- ok maybe we were supposed to order it as a starter? Salads come- now it’s restaurant week so to be fair I only paid $42 for a three course meal - but my Boston Bibb salad with white vinaigrette, Gorgonzola and crispy prosciutto came with precisely 1 tsp of blah dressing, 3 crumbs of Gorgonzola and 7 flecks of crispy prosciutto. My dining partner’s Caesar salad was an untrimmed romaine heart with blah Caesar dressing and 4 Parmesan shavings on top. Cue the 25 min wait until the main course comes. Her spaghetti bolognese got two thumbs up. My penne ala vodka with chicken added? I’ve had better out of a jar and the chicken was unseasoned , un-anything for a $7 up charge. Gluten free pasta available was a plus. Perhaps it actually tasted better but I couldn’t tell because “hotel new car” smell was being pumped into my nose and lungs. Cue a 40 min wait for any attention paid to our 3rd course. At which point, the server notifies us, during restaurant week, they’ve run out of the tiramisu we selected. Seriously?? Substitutions or removed from book were offered, we elected to remove. Then another 30 min wait and a direct request for our bill. My partner’s dessert was removed and I was comped a glass of wine in exchange for the tiramisu let down. Over all a very reasonable price for a let down of a meal. Not sure what changed in two years, but this was a significant disappointment/downgrade in quality of atmosphere and meal. We were so looking forward...

We decided to come here to celebrate my boyfriends birthday while on vacation from NJ because we really wanted to have a nice, fine dining experience and it was everything and more!

We originally booked an 8:45pm reservation (because that's all they had left), but our table wasn't ready when we arrived 5 minutes early so we waited around a while and they decided to offer us seating at the bar around 9pm because they close at 10pm and they didn't want to rush us to eat. We were a little disappointed because we wanted to have a nice romantic table for 2 for this special night, but we settled for the bar. They were very apologetic and after the bartender said that he wouldn't mind coming in and out of the bar to serve us if we moved to a high top table nearby because they were short staffed, we did just that. Everyone was so accommodating, friendly/ sweet, helpful and made us feel very special. We were extremely thankful and gracious for everyone's hospitality.

The food was absolutely delicious! We ordered a bottle of red chianti (they have a very large wine menu of all prices which was fantastic), a carpaccio appetizer that had gorgonzola and truffle oil and 2 duck entrees which were both amazing. The duck had a black cherry reduction that paired perfectly with both the duck and vegetables. Because it was my boyfriends birthday they brought out 2 huge Nutella cannoli's with a candle (that was to die for and needs to be on the menu permanently) and we also ordered chocolate covered profiterols filled with a light, not too sweet cream and some espressos. We had no complaints whatsoever. They were nice enough to give us all desserts and espressos free of charge as an apology for waiting, which we greatly appreciated.

The ambiance of Chianti was very romantic, upscale and definitely on the fancier side, which we loved. Again, we had a great time and loved every part of our new dinner experience! The hostess was helpful and sweet and our bartender/ waiter was super great and conversational and outgoing. If you're looking to go out to eat at a delicious Italian restaurant with a fine dining feel, in a very cute and quaint town, Chianti is highly recommended! If we are ever in the area, we...