Valentini's — Restaurant in Hermantown

I am not often motivated enough to write a review of a negative experience, but today was unacceptable. My friend and I were grabbing lunch and arrived at the restaurant. We walked in and waited a few minutes. Multiple staff members looked over at us and proceeded to chat and go on about their business. We then sat down in the waiting area and waited a few more minutes. This was during lunch hour and the restaurant was moderately busy, but open tables were available and we witnessed staff members conversing instead of greeting us. This is purely bad customer service to not be greeted for almost 10 minutes after arriving. One of the servers came up to us and asked if we had been helped. When I told her no and expressed frustration that we had been there for at least 5 minutes, she stated that it was because we were seated in the waiting area and that staff assumed we were waiting for a to-go order. This was her justifying us not being greeted and a poor excuse. On to the food and service, our waiter was friendly, but he was also in charge of bussing the tables. He was running around constantly and hence was not present at our table very often. We both ordered coke and he brought a can of pop to refill my glass after I asked for a refill. I had a ton of ice in the glass that was melting and this made it unpleasant. We were expecting fresh fountain drinks. We both ordered the lunch menu and our portions left us hoping for more. They were extremely small portion sized. My shrimp scampi had two shrimp. Food was good, but the overall experience was a turn off and left me hungry. Would not recommend and will...

My partner and I made our reservations a week in advance. When we arrived in the evening for dinner they were playing live music. We did not request any special seating arrangement but when we arrived we found out our table was basically in the live musicians lap. We were pinned in between the music and everyone else in a cramped room, all eyes in our direction. Uncomfortably close to the music, and certainly not what we envisioned for a romantic evening together. To us, it was the worst seat in the house. It just seemed odd that they would put our reserved table so close, while giving walk-ins what, in my opinion, was much more desirable seating. Anywhere else was better. We expressed our concerns and after a couple minutes the host cleaned a table and sat us down at a table further away from the music. This was our first time at the Hermantown location since they moved up from London Rd. The new space is extremely cramped and uncomfortable. They have as many tables as they can fit inside the cramped space. Everyone is so close together, it is very hard to feel like you're having a special evening. Neither of us drink alcohol anymore and we quickly noticed there were no mocktails on the drink menu. Unfortunately it is common to have limited options but none at all was disappointing for a restaurant of this caliber. Drinking soda or lemonade with our Italian food just did not feel right so we stuck with the water. With that being said, the food was excellent, just as i remember it. Our server was very nice and helpful. The food is undeniably great. The...

Food was very good. Service was meh: must have been a new server because she never removed any of our salad dishes, bread basket, empty glasses, etc so our tiny table so full it was nearly unmanageable. The worst part was the terrible restaurant management! We called days earlier for a reservation since we were going to be dining there the day before Grandma’s Marathon but were told they don’t accept reservations. When we arrived, we were asked if we made a reservation! After a bit of “discussion” we were given a small table in the bar area. While we were there from 4:30ish to 6:00ish every single table in the restaurant except about five were unoccupied with “reserved” placards on them while other people were lined up at the entry and eating at the bar. Now when I say bar, I mean a 5-stool 6-foot long area next to the entry. When we left, still the restaurant was still nearly empty. Makes me wonder how many customers walked out and makes me wonder why we were stuck in a corner at a tiny table with people watching us the whole time (waiting for our table) because there were only 3 available for NON-reservation customers while there was a restaurant rife with unoccupied tables for the 1 1/2 hours we were there. If it weren’t for the food being great, the experience would have made my birthday...