Valentino's Restaurant — Restaurant in Ledyard

Twice now I have called in orders over the phone & when I arrived, nobody actually sent it back to the kitchen. I was forgiving the first time, as accidents sometimes happen. This time I was met with the same situation, but the customer service from the manager on duty was abysmal. I was perfectly pleasant & forgiving, had proof I called in the order to the correct number, & the boys remember speaking to me due to a specific request I made. The kitchen staff was extremely kind & apologetic, & made my order within minutes of learning they messed up, especially for the second time. I get home, & I am missing a significant item from my order that I requested over the phone & twice at the counter to confirm. The boy at the counter even told me my item would be done in just a few minutes. I called back to let them know, & the woman managing was extremely condescending, saying they did not charge me for this item because I did not order one, which is most certainly not the case. Listen to the call, even check the cameras if you’re looking to double down, but don’t gaslight your customers in an attempt to save face. I am unsure if I was mistakenly not charged for it on their end, as I didn’t take a receipt, but that is beside the point. I was even going to return to the restaurant to get what was missing (& obviously pay for it if they did indeed forget to charge me), but after this phone call I did not want to be met with the same level of passive aggressive disrespect in person. She was clearly agitated, rude & in no way apologetic for the carelessness in this situation. The food here is okay for what it is, but being one of the only popular restaurants in Ledyard Center, one would think a manager wouldn’t resort to hostility instead of a simple apology, & an offer to make things right. That is all,...

If I could give zero stars I would… After sitting there for 40 minutes the waitress comes over and says ‘I’m so sorry I completely forgot to put your order in, I’ll get that started now’ … at this point we should have left and we were honestly irritated but trying to be optimistic…

We had ordered mozz sticks as an appetizer. Never received them even after she claimed to have finally put in our order. I ordered a razz iced tea… there was black stuff floating in it so I had to send it back. Since we had been waiting forever we asked for 6 garlic knots to hold us over bc we were so hungry. 15 min later they arrived. About 10 min after than (already an hour after having originally placed the order, our food finally arrived). The waitress apologized stating ‘I will make sure to take stuff off the bill’… as we are eating the waitress says once again (without being asked) ‘I took the mozz sticks off your bill and half the other stuff off and even threw in a discount’… which is hilarious considering we didn’t get the mozz sticks anyway so of course they were taken off.

Fast forward to us getting the bill. WHAT A JOKE ! We got $5 taken off our $60 bill… the only thing actually taken off the bill ? 3 garlic knots .. a total of $1.50 saved .

The only positive thing about the entire visit was that the pizza was good. I just don’t understand why the waitress would go out of her way to ensure she was taking stuff off the bill just to lie about it… it made zero...

I brought a friend with me tonight from out of town because I didn't feel like cooking. I should have just cooked. We ate in the dining area. The salad dressing looked like colored mayonnaise, not creamy garlic. We both ordered the gnocchi which arrived swimming in olive oil. It looked suspicious and tasted worse. The waitress was very nice and brought us each pasta dishes as complimentary replacements (we figured they could handle simple pasta). I got a huge ball of angel hair completely covered in tomato sauce, not tossed to distribute the sauce, no garnishment, just a big ball that looked like it was plopped out of pint-size bucket on the plate then another bucket of red dumped on that. At least it tasted okay. My friend's ravioli looked better than my plate at least. I am embarrassed that I brought my friend there. I should have known better since the last time I ate in the Valentino's dining room, the food was also too bad to eat, but I didn't complain then. Valentino's is a mainstay in Ledyard and I hate to be so critical, but the place would really benefit from consulting with a professional chef who could teach the kitchen staff what the food should look...