Red, White and Basil — Restaurant in Delaware

Disappointing First Visit to Red, White & Basil: We had high hopes for Red, White & Basil after hearing mixed reviews—so we went in with an open mind and a craving for good Italian. Unfortunately, our experience left much to be desired.

The ambiance is minimalist—stark, cold, and not at all cosy or inviting. Metal chairs and hard wooden benches give it more of a cafeteria vibe than a cozy Italian trattoria. Likely very noisy/echo-y when crowded as there's not a lot of upholstery/curtains to buffer/absorb. As I was seated on a hard bench, the host casually remarked, “There’s a pillow around here somewhere if you can find it.” Sure enough, there was one pillow—in the far corner across the room. Just one. For the entire room. And I had to get up and go retrieve it myself.

On a positive note, the cocktail menu was creative and the wine list had some nice options. Our server Rob was friendly, attentive, and definitely the highlight of the evening. We ordered a selection of appetizers and entrees to get a good sense of the menu. Sadly, the execution just wasn’t there.

Fried Calamari: Def overcooked, with the 2 tentacle pieces brownish black. A refrigerator-cold and verrry oily lemon half accompanied it. Oddly, it was served with a sweet Thai chili sauce instead of classic marinara—a confusing miss for an Italian restaurant.

Clams Oreganata ($13): Only three clams, and rather than using whole, fresh belly clams, with a topping, it appeared to be breadcrumbs/herbs mixed with canned minced clams.

Beet Salad: Nice combo, but on the dry side. The vinaigrette was on the beets, not the greens, so barely noticeable.

Lasagna: Described as made with bolognese, but good luck finding or tasting any meat. The tomato sauce tasted VERY acidic and looked of tomatoes/skins pulsed in the food processor. The dish was a cheesy, mushy bake topped with an overly thick/slick layer (3/4"+) of melted mozzarella.

Chicken Parm: The cutlet was also over-fried, with one end blackened in the frying. It came with fresh bucatini that was completely bland and tasteless—like it had never seen salted water.

Oddly, for a restaurant with "basil" in the name, there wasn’t a single menu item that celebrated it. (And it's definitely in season locally!) Not even the burrata—menu said served with fruit instead of the classic tomato & basil combo.

The Bottom Line: Our total for three apps, two entrees, one iced tea, and no alcohol or dessert came to over $91, not including tip. For that price, there are far better Italian dining experiences to be...

I understand it's a relatively new establishment and there will be growing pains. We had a 7:30pm reservation on a Saturday. The dining room was busy but only about half full. Our waitress was pleasant. That's it for the good stuff. By 9pm we still did not have our food. When we asked the waitress, she told us there were only three people in the kitchen. She must have said something to someone because a guy came to our table a few minutes later and said, "Is there a problem here?" Again, I understand there are growing pains but don't talk to us like that. We told him we'd been waiting 90 minutes for our food and he offered to comp our appetizer. A nice gesture but it was still on our bill. Our food came 15 minutes later and my vegetarian lasagna was ice cold. (At this point I would suggest reading the food description very carefully because I found out the vegetarian lasagna is 1 slice of zucchini, 1 slice of yellow squash and 1 slice of eggplant and about a half a pound of cheese). The same guy came to our table while we were eating to make sure we got our food and said he'd "also take 20% off each of our entrees." Again a nice gesture but according to the bill it was 10%. I'm not going to say don't go here because I'm sure it was just an unfortunate experience for us but I'm also...

We’ve been wanting to try here since it opened. When we walked in, the atmosphere was pretty decent, above average. The menus were paper, a little well used for the price point. Things were a little pricey, small portions, we each had two glasses of wine, ordered one appetizer and one entree to share and with tip, we were right at $100. The place was clean, never checked the restrooms lol, the runners were super attentive and fast. The food however was super bland. Nothing you couldn’t make yourself by doing a quick Walmart grocery order from the great value section. No real flavor, chicken a little overdone, nothing to really complain about, just wasn’t what was expected or worth the price point. My only actual complaint would be the the comfort of the seating. The benches and chairs were horrible! Super uncomfortable, I had to keep readjusting and noticed others also. Overall, I’m glad we tried it out but it is not some place I would personally go again. Not really worth the money and no real actual flavor to the food. I’m not super picky when it comes to Italian food, but I will say the great value brand breadsticks we typically purchase have much more flavor than what came with the meal. Again, glad we tried it out, just not somewhere...