Nonno's Ristorante Italiano — Restaurant in Madison

Bad experience…. I do not recommend it.

We were in town for the night and decided to look at Google and Trip Advisor for a place to eat and decided to pay this restaurant a visit for an early dinner. It was not busy at all yet, when we got there.

This place has so many wrong things that it is hard to start. First, they pour some “Olive oil” and balsamic vinegar in a small bowl and bring some bread. Well there was very little of true olive oil there and it tasted more like canola oil. We ordered the easiest things on the menu: two side salads and two individual pizzas.

We were helped by about 6 different staff: one hostess, one order taker, one person to bring the bread and olive oil, etc., one to bring the drinks, one to bring the food…you get the idea: a depersonalized production line. And of course one of us have a food allergy and because one staff does not talk to the next, the salad came with the allergen in it (they promptly corrected it). The pizza tasted ok but we both felt full and asked for boxes to take the rest back to the hotel. Just to start feeling really bloated about 60 min later and as time passed by the situation got worse. Neither of us could sleep. My tummy felt so hard and achy that at 3AM I really did not know what to do. My spouse did not feel as bad but also had similar symptoms. My guess is that the pizza dough did not rest the needed time and it continued fermenting after being eaten. Maybe the tomato sauce had too much raw garlic?!

A disaster.

Later I realized they subtly alert the guests on the name of the restaurant: it is not Nonno, it is NO ‘n’ NO!

Besides it was kinda expensive for such a basic...

My husband and I were excited to try this place because of the reviews. Sadly, we are incredibly disappointed. The bread with olive oil/balsamic was nice, but it didn't make up for the 6 dollar Caesar salad ordered with dinner that was made with limp, large pieces of lettuce and dressing that tasted like it was bottled. It tasted like the same Caesar I had from a wing place earlier in the week. At least that side salad was only 3 bucks. My entree was the PAGLIA E FIENO ALLA TOSCANA. The pancetta and prosciutto were overcooked to the point of tasting gamey. The pieces were large and tough. Gamey is not a good flavor and chewy meat makes it worse. The pasta was also swimming in oil. My husband went with chicken alfredo. He said it was a "step up from Olive Garden." I think what really made me angry was the dessert. We ordered profiteroles. They failed to mention they were Sam's Club Frozen Cream Puffs drizzled with Hershey's Chocolate Syrup. Seriously. My husband ate that all the time growing up and he instantly knew what it was. I think that cost 6 or 7 bucks as well. This is what their website says: "Nonno's Ristorante offers nothing but meals that are fresh and bursting with flavor. Nested in the Madison, WI area, we serve great tasting food that's prepared with imported and local ingredients of the highest quality. Treat yourself today to an authentic meal from the many in our delicious menu. Almost everything at Nonno's is homemade and prepared from scratch with an eye to bothauthenticityandperfection."

Maybe we had an off experience. Maybe this place is amazing if we ordered other things. But that was our experience. We will not...

We ordered Nonno's through Eatstreet tonight. After reading good reviews I was excited to try their food for the first time. When the food was delivered it was clear that only one of the entrees was in the bag. I asked the delivery girl and she stated she had come straight from the restaurant and she was only given the single bag with the one entree. Missing half our food, I called Nonno's and was told "call eat street, the manager says we made everything." This was after 30 seconds on hold. Why would the girl from eatstreet lie to my face? How is it not more likely that someone in your kitchen or on your staff made a mistake? How do you tell a new customer to essentially f* off rather than try to investigate for more than 30 seconds, and do nothing to make the situation right. Grace this establishment at your own risk, but we never will again.

EDIT after reply: Both of our items were hot, so by your own admission they should have been bagged together. I'm not saying it's impossible that eatstreet made a mistake, but there is no way to "call eatstreet" through their app for quick resolution while half of our meal is getting cold; we had to send an email and of course by that point had to settle for half of the meal we ordered and paid for. You ultimately failed to empathize and take any sort of step to rectify the situation with a new customer. If you had even checked to see if there was another bag for our order that was still there waiting to be picked up, and there was, I would have driven the 5 minutes down the road to get it, but you couldn't even be...