Tenuta's Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Milwaukee

After thoroughly researching Italian restaurants in Milwaukee, I took my girlfriend and another couple to Tenuta's for my girlfriend's surprise birthday on Nov 19th, 2020, . Tenuta's sounded like the overall best choice, and was very excited for the opportunity. I made reservations for four, advised them that we'd recently visited Italy and that this was a birthday celebration, and that we were coming from Sheboygan and were looking forward to an authentic experience.

We were seated at a small table adjacent to the bar, best suited for two. It was quite cramped. We were greeted by the hostess after a few minutes. We didn't see a server for at least 10 minutes, so I asked the hostess to put in a pizza for our group while we waited. Eventually a server appeared, and she seemed rather distracted and uninterested in our table. We had to sort of guide her through a basic dining experience (we had to ask about the specials, etc).

We understood that it might be a busy night, but even after the restaurant was half empty, the entire experience felt awkward. Each round of drinks came piecemeal, often waiting 10 minutes for a simple Guiness despite the fact that the reasonably-sized crowd had largely dissipated and we were less than 6 ft from the bar.

Essentially, we felt like an afterthought or a bother. We did order several pasta dishes and deserts, and honestly the flavors and portions of those were great. Hence the 2 stars. But the service seemed systemically dysfunctional to the point where I'd be hesitant to return.

Maybe the server/bartenders are new, or were both having bad nights. But some gesture or courtesy could have been made to smooth things out, especially since we again mentioned it was a birthday party and we'd traveled an hour to try the restaurant. But no effort was made. If this is their standard of service, and they seat people at tables clearly too small for the group, and don't offer a gesture or kind word when service is lacking, then I definitely wouldn't recommend it, despite a cute location and appealing menu.

There are just so many other highly rated options in Milwaukee that we're likely to try others before risking another trip...

The short review is that you should definatly try Tenuta's. From service to quality food I would give more stars if I could! However, I feel I cannot do them justice without writing more. So please read.....

Let the gorgeous exterior of Tenuta's pull you in to the start of a beautiful adventure for your senses. My husband and I spent our anniversary dinner here, and I am so thankful he surprised me with it. The interior of the resteraunt is very classy, but with a intimate vibe that makes you feel completely comfortable. Once seated we were greeted by our server Kellen, and from then on it was one amazing thing after another. We struggled to make our choices for dinner because EVERYTHING sounded amazing. We landed on brushetta for an appetizer, and shrimp scampi and bistecca for the main meal as well as a pizza to take home. The bruschetta was perfect. Light crispy bread with quality tomatoes and the balsamic vinegar. You could truly tell that the quality was amazing. We ended up adding tomatoes to our pizza because of the brushetta. That speaks volumes. Our meals came with a small garden salad and after speaking to Kellen we landed on their garden goddess dressing. Again, my expectations were knocked out of the park. I do not eat salads with dressings, but when I tell you this dressing was perfect. A perfect compliment not to powerful not too mild. My bistecca was so savory. The Gnocchi was perfectly cooked, the mushrooms flavorful, and the flank steak tender and rich. My husband's scampi had a garlic butter sauce which paired with the fresh shrimp was the perfect compliment to a seafood meal. The pizza, which was ordered mainly to take home for later we couldn't resist taking a few pieces from. The dough was fresh and just the right thickness, the sauce was amazing as well as the cheese and tomatoes of course. The tiramasu for dessert was the perfect treat to end the night. Special mention as well for our waiter Kellen. Truly great service, advice, attention to detail, and...

Oh.. my this is a first for me.. We are renting an Airbnb right across from this restaurant. My husband has had food here once before while working in this area. Well, while visiting, we decided to eat here our first night. Our kids wanted cheese stuffed crust.

This is the worst pizza I have ever tried in my life. My 12 year old daughter said it was really bad, and she could swallow, and she spit out. Oh my, I thought she was messing with me. I had to spit out, too..

The top was so covered in seasoning that no one could eat this. Then I messed with me, and I was able to take off the first layer of seasoning and cheese. Then, the pizza looked more normal. But then I tried still too much seasoning underneath. I don't know if they just messed up ours, but no one could eat this, let alone a child without getting sick. Thankfully, my husband and I got something different so our kids could still eat. The face of my toddler was so funny.. I thought we got lucky to have a restaurant right in front of us to get food while we are here for a month. They really just lost a lot of money from us.

While in Muscatine milwakee, we order from Salvatore's a couple times a week. We ordered so much that they knew us by name and sent free food to our kids. When it comes to pizza, u really shouldn't have this issue, and no one could not, notice they messed up on this order. So that means they left it like this and didn't care.

As u can see, we pulled off the extra layer of seasoning that was on top of the extra cheese we ordered. the bottom half of the pizza had half the amount of seasoning underneath, too. Which was way overboard with just half seasoning.

We wasted money on this order. I never give bad reviews, but I have never seen someone mess up this bad and give...