Arrivederci Cucina Italiana — Restaurant in Fountain Hills

Rather than leave a bad review, because I do not want to hurt your business having not eaten there tonight (I did eat there the night before), so I will simply give advice, since there is not a way to contact you on Facebook or on your web page. That is obviously a management failure.

I am currently sitting next door at Grapeable's wine bar on Fri night Oct 27, 2023. I have pried out of the staff that they have an exclusive contract with you to provide Italian food. The restaurant or the other side of Grapeables, the excellent EuroCafe, is not allowed to make pizza for Grapeables people. Free market non-compete agreements are fine. I tried to order something else, but learned that you had closed early because you ran out of food.

Ummm. Duh. I have planned poorly as well, but a good manager thinks on their feet, pulls out their own credit card, and sends someone to a local grocery store for a bunch of hamburger meat, a bunch of chicken breasts, a bunch of bottles of marinara and alfredo sauce, and some pasta. Customers are told, "I messed up and ran out of food, but you nice people want our awesome food, so we have a special menu for the rest of the night - one item - spaghetti. It is 33% off of our normal price and you may choose white sauce or red sauce and chicken or beef." Improvise and overcome. I have ever been in the restaurant business, but business is business and problem-solving is problem-solving. A manager MUST be able to do that and know that the owners want them to, "make stuff happen!" They should also have a Facebook page with a Messenger button so that stuff like this would not have to be on a review site.

Had this happened, I would not have had to go off-property out to the sidewalk to get a pizza from EuroCafe, then walk back to Grapeables for a sip of my wine. I know, "developed world...

One of the worst dining experiences I've ever had. Our waitress only came to the table twice the entire time: once 15 minutes after we sat down and once again when we got the bill. All 5 of our entrees arrived stone cold and we couldn't even flag down our waitress to address the food problems. The place wasn't even busy. Besides them being cold, the food was awful-tasting. Just to name a few, the minestrone tasted like someone dumped an entire container of salt in it. Inedible. The vegetarian panini was full of cold, uncooked vegetables and wasn't even a panini (not grilled).

I don't know if we just hit them on a really bad day for both food and service, but man that was awful. When we finally got our waitress's attention, she was not apologetic in the slightest and didn't seem to care one bit. The manager was no better. Never apologized once and simply blamed the chef for the food then disappeared. Eventually they comped 2 of the entrees and brought a dessert (which still wasn't even that good lol). The entire time I could see our waitress inside through the window pointing and laughing at our table. Will literally never go back here or any other locations.

To top it all off, social-distancing is non-existent on their patio! Your back is literally touching the person at the table behind you. Since I was so close, I could hear the people behind me complaining about their meal as well. Guess there were issues all around.

The only redeeming factor at this restaurant was some seriously amazing busboys/runners. These guys were SO nice and SO willing to pick up the slack of the wait staff. They should be the...

It says a lot about a restaurant in its longevity in a community. Few in the Phoenix area can boast decades of serving Italian food so well for so long. You know it has to be consistent, tasty, enjoyable and hearty along with their penchant for everyone being part of the famiglia-vibe. Needless to say, for apparently not specializing in a singular region of Italian cuisine, they seem to have brought together an excellent consolidation of the entirety of what Italy’s varied foodways has to offer. In our last visit we enjoyed laying back in their modern yet comfortable resto with a Barramundi Bass and Riff Pinot Grigio before commencing with our excellent upcoming meal. The Cioppino dello Chef stands out to me big time. Although a Bouillabaisse connoisseur, or fish stew freak period, I found their Cioppino dello Chef with incredibly tender and fresh fish, succulent shrimp, tender scallops, mouthwatering calamari, and delectable mussels and clams, in a perfectly put together garlic tomato broth, on top of finely prepared and served fettucine to be amazingly fantastic! We finished off the meal with an excellent White and Dark Sambucas, delish finish! This is not your run-of-the-mill Italian Restaurant. You can tell they care and strive to achieve excellence – coming close, very close. Although I missed their Arancini from our previous visit, we still walked away delightfully pleased, and notoriously satisfied and bursting at the seams. Next visit, I must try the Vitello Marsala – can’t wait. I already have my heart set on the menu items to be had at...