The Italian — Restaurant in Dolores

This was by far the worst Italian food I have ever eaten in my life! My husband and I decided to stop at this restaurant because our favorite restaurant was closed that day in Dolores. Very nice atmosphere and the little boy who seated us was very kind and took great care of us.

At first, I was a little surprised by the age of our waiter, but I assumed he was just working for his mom which I thought was great. He seated us promptly got our drinks. I ordered a soda. It was four dollars per can! Ok, not too much of a big deal there we order our food. I got the Stuffed raviolis and a side salad my husband ordered pesto chicken and a side salad.

After receiving our side salads, I thought perhaps the young boy had made a mistake and didn’t fully fill up the salad bowls after politely asking someone I was told that they serve such small salads because their dishes are so large. Ok sounds great. We are fine with that..

Our food arrives both served in cold dishes. My raviolis tasted like frozen raviolis with some very bland sauce and a crap ton of Parmesan cheese you know like the one out of the container. My husband’s dish came out a very thin flat piece of chicken that tasted like it had been boiled and then dipped in some sort of batter and then quickly seared on both sides, covered with pesto sauce. It was so bad. My husband could not eat it because some of the batter was mushy.

We took the leftovers with us to take home to our kids thinking, hey maybe if it tastes like kids food they will like it and our $62 meal wouldn’t have went to waste. Sadly, they didn’t eat it either and we ended up giving a $62 meal plus tip...

CUTE PLACE ... I went on Fri 1-26-24 @ 4pm opening ... I thought it was really cute and quaint inside with about six tables for seating, both table and 1/2 booth style. I like that the water was already on the table in a corked bottle. I thought it was a nice touch. This is the first week of their full menu which includes pasta entries.

GOOD FOOD ... I got the pepperoni Detroit style pizza which I thought was really good and was huge! You could easily split that between four people, there were eight large slices. I ate two pieces and was pretty full, it's thick pizza. They serve bread as you are seated, which they don't make fresh in house, but was really good. I got water with my meal and it was just over $21 with tax. I took 3/4 home. Good deal on the pizza!

A neighboring table got the Chicken Francese and Chicken Cacciatore which both looked good, as did the side salads. The patrons that I asked about their orders nodded in approval. They were pretty steady with customers seating and picking up orders the entire time we were there.

I would definitely go again and try another dish.

** Note I only gave three stars for service because it was the waitresses first day and she couldn't answer some of the questions which was okay, but then, she never got back with us on the questions either. The actual service...

Detroit born, lived in West MI, S. Chicago, Savannah, Charleston, Portland and Cortez the last 20 yrs. Cortez for 10.

Man…Pizza was okay at best. Def overpriced. Def pre-made frozen dough. Ratios of dough, sauce and toppings are pretty bad. Tons of dough, too much cheese, buttered edges so it's crusty on the outside of the pan for appearance. Staff was super nice and attentive and kind. Kid's pasta with sauce (appeared to be the same sauce that was on the pizza…I'm guessing, which is weird) was nothing super special. Didn't really feel like anything better than cooking at home with Safeway noodles and some marinara for 8 bucks. Ordered 1 meatball and said they can only sell three in an order (after the fact) and just skipped putting them on the dish or asking us if we still wanted them as an order. Said they come pre packed in 3's…so that tells me they're not homemade either.

$ Total: 1 pizza, 1 kids pasta, 1 sprite, 1 beer - $47.00 + Tip = 54 bucks. Oof.

Prob won't be back as a longtime Cortez resident. Best of luck to you all though. Anyone on this feed, restaurants in the SW are all super bad other than...