Proof AKA Paradiso — Restaurant in Elizabeth City

Let me preface this by saying that this is the only restaurant on the water in Elizabeth City. This should be special, and it indeed could be, but not yet.

Like most buildings along this corridor, the floors are a little up and down from decay under the building, but I look at this as character. The views are spectacular, as is the service! You can eat inside or outside and both have wonderful views.

We ate inside on the lower level and had a fantastic seat. Crowded night, this is good. They probably should add some soundproofing foam either in various portions on the ceiling and/or the side walls as people's conversations are deafening and it's hard to carry on a conversation with people at your table. Again, not unheard of, even at very nice restaurants.

We both ordered the same pasta dish. They make their own pasta, as well as their own pizza, dough, etc. Bread was brought to the table and it looked fantastic, however, the dough could have used a bit of salt. Of salt. As good as it looked and smelled, it was lacking flavor. Our pasta dishes took an hour and a half to get. There were only two of us at the table. When it came, the pasta was clumped together because they didn't use olive oil after the pasta came out of the water. Also a cardinal sin, you could tell that the pasta was cooked in water that had not been first salted. Anybody? Who knows anything about pasta knows You have to liberally salt the water before the pasta goes in. This resulted in two dishes that desperately needed seasoning.

Again, I can't say enough about how friendly the service was. They did their best to get us everything they could, but the kitchen was horrible. There are problems there. We did talk to another customer who was a regular and almost always orders their pizza and they said that the pizzas are fantastic. We will have to try that next time.

Will we be back? Yes. Like I said, it's the only restaurant in the entire city surrounded by water that is actually on the water. These guys would be in deep doo doo if anybody else were to open another restaurant on the water with good food. They would also be in deep doo doo if somebody buys that building next door as they don't have enough parking to fill...

Alright let’s talk about what I experienced when my boyfriend and I went here. We called in advance because we have an RV and didn’t know if they would have room for us to park, and they were very kind on the phone with us. So we get to the restaurant and are greeting with a warm and friendly hello and instantly seated inside a room next to the water, and despite the gloomy weather it was gorgeous. We were approached by Tyler, our server, who was witty and so kind and he took amazing care of us. We ordered a salad with our Eggplant Parmigiana and when it came out my jaw dropped, the presentation of the plates were absolutely stunning, and the taste was even better! I’ve never had such perfect food in my life. Once we finished our eggplant parm, despite being full, we decided to order two desserts as well. The blueberry cheesecake and the (honestly I can’t remember the name but it was like-) doughnuts. Again presentation was immaculate and the taste, balance and flavor were just perfect. Rebecca, who I assume was the manager/owner, was walking around greeting everyone. She came over to us and greeted us and thanked us for joining and chatted with us for a bit! My boyfriend and I go out to nice restaurants quite a bit, and we agreed this was the best experience we have had. Now when Tyler, our amazing server, brought over the check, we were expecting it to be $80-$100, and when he laid down that check and we saw it was roughly $40 we were astonished. So if you want AMAZING food, AMAZING service and an AMAZING price, I HIGHLY suggest...

We went for the first time this evening at the high recommendation of family. They have been many times and rave about it. They made reservations and joined us. We were all there at 6:30 and seated. The staff was very friendly. We completely understand that they make the dishes as they are ordered. However we did not get our food until approximately 8 pm. Again we understand they make each dish as ordered, but there were tables that arrived after us, and after we ordered, who ordered and received their meals before we did. The waitress did say they had a large party upstairs, and the ovens were backed up, which we can appreciate, but still doesn't justify others arriving after us getting their food first. The pizza was wonderful. Others at the table who dine there frequently said the gnocchi dish was heavily salted this time, the shrimp scampi, was missing the lemon/wine flavoring, and felt like they only had buttered noodles, and the chicken parmesan, was just ok. The family that invited us was disheartened by the experience tonight since they have always had an excellent experience. The drinks were on point! The bread was delicious, and the fried mozzarella was wonderful. We're willing to give the place another try in the future, but our first impression was not great. Perhaps if they are entertaining large parties, those groups should have dedicated staff as to not impact the rest of those dining in, to keep things...