Oliverio's Ristorante On The Wharf — Restaurant in Morgantown

I made reservations for 11 people for Oliverio's 3 weeks in advance since it was for Saturday evening of WVU graduation to celebrate our niece's graduation. We were told that they could take our group at 7:30 pm. I called twice to reconfirm the time, the second time the evening prior. We arrived at 7:20 only to find a huge line waiting to go to the hostess stand to give your name to let them know that you have arrived. I stopped an employee and asked if we had to stand in line since we had reservations. They told me to go around through the bar and let the hostess know we had arrived. It was 7:30 at that time. I then found out that they were taking groups with no reservations and seating them ahead of those with reservations (I found this out from one of the couples who had no reservations and was able to get on the list to be seated). Our group continued to wait and wait and WAIT. At 8:15, I went to the hostess stand to find out what was taking so long. I was told they were clearing our table. At 8:30 the table was still not cleared. At 8:40, we were finally seated... and this was WITH A 7:30 RESERVATION. It took another 20 minutes before we were even asked for drink orders and/or appetizers. Because we were starved and my niece had a congratulatory celebration to go to at 10:00, we told our server we had to place our order right then. Again, we waited and waited and WAITED. We received our drinks very slowly but were NEVER offered any refills, including any requests for additional cocktails or wine by our server. He never returned after bringing our initial drink order and appetizers. Our food arrived for 3 people at 10:00 pm but it was cold. My niece had to leave so she did not get to eat her meal (she wouldn't have wanted to eat it anyway because it was stone cold). The remainder of the people in the group received their food over the next 10 minutes in spurts of 1-2 plates, again all cold. My brother never received his accompanying baked potato with his steak (all he got on his plate WAS his steak, nothing else). My pasta dish included angel hair pasta which was so cold that it was all stuck together and the cheese that was on the top was congealed and stuck to the pasta so it had to be cut with a knife. I didn't even bother to eat it. We asked for the manager and she came to the table, however, because she knew one of the young adults in the group, she proceeded to talk to him instead of addressing the older adults in the group who were footing the bill for the dinner. She finally came to my sister and didn't even talk to me who organized the dinner and (politely) asked to speak to the manager. When speaking with my sister, she dismissed everything about our complaints by explaining it was a very busy weekend and they had unexpectedly had a huge number of diners. Isn't that the reason that I made reservations three weeks prior so as to avoid being placed in that position? In addition, we were charged a 20% gratuity because of our group size. I believe servers are very deserving of a 20% gratuity for excellent service but our server was far from being an excellent server. He never returned to ask if we wished to have refills for drinks, never came back to ask if we needed anything additional, never served our dinners while they were hot, and brought our food to the table at varying times to each of the diners. Terrible service. Definitely not worth a 20% gratuity. Just to let Oliverio's Ristorante know, we have used your restaurant for years for family functions and office parties and get-togethers but this was the last straw and will be the LAST TIME that we will use your establishment. We received no "we're sorry about the lack of service" or "how can we improve on the situation?" from your manager but instead were made to feel like this was to be expected on a busy evening. I saw many disgruntled customers that evening so I'm sure that I am not the only person feeling this way. I feel for a locally-owned business that service would be of the utmost importance. Unfortunately, it is not happening on...

Atmosphere (2/5) Oliverio’s is in a prime location along the Monongahela River, with the rail trail running behind it and a pleasant outdoor seating area that overlooks the water. From the outside, it gives the impression of an inviting, upscale spot, and the initial walk-in feels promising. The bar area is spacious, and the dining room has a mix of booths and tables with skylights that bring in natural light. However, closer inspection reveals that the restaurant needs a lot of TLC. The booths are worn and banged up, and surfaces throughout show signs of wear. The bathroom was especially disappointing — the door wouldn’t close properly, the bottom of it was black with grime, and the floor was sticky and unkempt, with the area below the urinal looking filthy. While the outdoor area was set up nicely for what seemed like an event, the interior felt neglected and in need of a deep cleaning.

Service (2/5) Our server was friendly, but the overall service experience was slow and inconsistent. Breadsticks took far too long to arrive. When I ordered Italian wedding soup, the server later informed me it wasn’t ready yet and offered to have me take it home instead. I decided to wait for it, but when the soup finally arrived, it came in a cracked bowl — a crack that went from the rim all the way to the bottom. This is a serious health and safety concern that should have been caught before serving. The salad that came to the table was lackluster, with limp lettuce, a sparse presentation, and what appeared to be a questionable dark piece of produce that initially looked like a bug.

Food (3/5) The food was average at best. The breadsticks were the highlight — warm, buttery, and flavorful. Unfortunately, the rest of the meal fell flat. My spaghetti and meatballs featured bland meatballs and a sauce that was overly sweet and tangy, not to my taste. The chicken parmesan came with lukewarm chicken and pasta topped with the same underwhelming sauce. Both dishes were supposed to feature a meat sauce, but I found no visible meat in mine.

Overall Oliverio’s has a fantastic location and the potential to be a standout waterfront dining spot in Morgantown, but based on my visit, the restaurant needs major improvements in cleanliness, attention to detail, and food consistency. Right now, it’s hard to see how this place maintains its reputation without addressing...

Very bad experience today. I did a reservation for 7pm this evening. This was for my wife's birthday. We came in on time got seated everything was okay so far. The 2 couples that did not have a reservation also were seated after us. How we know this is because we asked them. Its 8:20 the last couple that came in already left and the final one is leaving and asked us if we have not had our food yet. We told them no and have a good evening. Our waiter by far was horrible he told us our food was in it would be out in 20 min . This was not true he came back we asked what was going on he said 5 min and still no food. The food did come out eventually and was bland no taste. This was after one of the other servers were saying hurry and get table 11 ready fast. This was over all a bad experiance we told him the food was not good and we would like to have them take it give us the bill and we were going to leave. He rudely said fine no problem and we will take care of your bill and walked off rudely. I would say the moral of this story was dont judge a book by its cover we did not come lavishly dressed to the establishment because we just got in town to visit relatives and wanted to get a nice dinner for my wife's birthday. We also looked at google reviews for this place and it seemed like it would be a great experiance when we were in town to go to. . If we would have been taken care of and not forgotten this google review would have been a 5 stars and not any stars. I come from a family that is pretty well off I work hard and make great money. That server would have been tipped very nicely and we would have paid our bill no problem the excuse was there was 2 large partys and we had to serve them first. But what about the 2 other couples that came in and left and we still did not have food think about...