Don Giovanni — Restaurant in Mountain View

Don Giovanni on Castro Avenue is an absolute gem in Mountain View! I've eaten at so many Italian restaurants, and this one is by far the best I've ever been to. The food quality is out of this world, the service is incredible, and the atmosphere is just perfect. If you're looking for authentic Italian food with a great vibe for a date night or a family dinner, this is definitely the place. We actually just stumbled upon Don Giovanni while looking for a place to eat on Castro. The manager was standing at the door, and as a customer walked out, he said, "This is the best Italian food I've ever had!" We weren't sure if we had enough time to eat, but the manager was so incredibly nice, and with his charming Italian accent, he just invited us right in and told us to grab a table. What a welcome! The menu has such a wonderful selection of authentic Italian dishes. Our waiter was a fantastic guy, so courteous and super attentive. We started with a fresh salad and some warm bread, which came with this amazing authentic olive oil, garlic, and pesto dip. For our main courses, we ordered the fettuccine, the fettuccine with prawns, and the penne pasta with Italian sausage and bell peppers in a red sauce. Let me tell you, this was the best quality Italian food I've ever been served in a restaurant. The pastas tasted so fresh. The fettuccine sauces were genuinely creamy and seasoned just perfectly, clearly made with real ingredients. The prawns were generous and super fresh. And that penne pasta with the Italian sausage and bell peppers? It had such a delicious, fresh tomato flavor! I honestly can't explain how fresh and how much care went into making these perfect plates of food. The restaurant's atmosphere is just wonderful. It has this charming, old-world feel that's really comfortable and pleasant. Everything was spotless, the tables, the silverware. And the service? It was truly the best we've ever received, with so much attention to detail. The manager himself was a wonderful guy; he made sure we were comfortable and enjoying our meal and was great to chat with. Overall, this place gets 10 out of 5 stars from me! This is some of the best Italian food I've enjoyed in a very long time. This is hands down the best Italian food in the Bay Area. We are absolutely coming...

I have a reason why I gave one star for this restaurant. In fact, I have never given any restaurant one star before.

(1) I would have given 4 stars for the food since the price was quite cheap for a decent Italian restaurant. (2) I gave one star because of the waitress who provided us with very poor service. I rarely complain about the service unless it is very bad. So here was what happening:

My friend and I were serviced with a rushing attitude the entire time, but we still gave a 20%+ tip and didn't think much about it although I wasn't so satisfied. Then my friend asked for a box. The waitress brought a box together with a lid. After asking for a bag, the friend was struggling with the lid, and I realized it was smaller than it was supposed to be. Hence, I decided to ask the waiter for the correct lid for the box she gave us. The other waiters were trying to help by looking for and giving us a lid that fits the box.

However, while others getting the lid, the traitress (that served us) seemed to be "uncomfortable" (I guess since we ask several times for help with something she was supposed to do in the first place) and told the other waiters that let her handle it. She approached me and tried to teach me that she knew it was the wrong lid, but I could have just used the plastic bag and tightened it enough to keep the food not leaking. I was assuming they just don't have the lid and were fine with the solution ... until literally the next second, the other waiter brought the lid that fits and solved the problem. She walked away suddenly in anger or something (I guess). So, I spent my time and money to get an attitude ...

Disclaimers: the other staffs seemed to be nice so I don't complain about them. This could be also just my own experience and won't apply to others.

But I am sure I won't come back and will recommend others similarly. There are better options when you are happy with both food and...

My wife and I visited this restaurant while visiting the area. The service was less than fair. The restaurant was not busy as it only had three tables with 6-8 people in the tables and about 6 tables with 2 and 4 people. I estimate it to be 1/3 full at best. The waiter appeared to be overwhelmed. He stopped by to take order 3 times but since we had questions, he would leave every time until we were ready. I finally got his attention and just went with the simplest dish. Spaghetti with meat sauce and a lemonade for a drink. My wife went with linguine pesto and a green salad. After waiting for longer than we thought we should, we were told they ran out of a simple green salad, they only had Cesar's salad. Again we waited and finally got the salad.

It consisted of only Romain lettuce and a light amount of salad dressing. Not much of a taste.

After another 10 minutes we got our pasta. My spaghetti was salty. Not edible. The presentation was terrible. It looked like they opened a can of spaghetti and dumped in the middle of the plate. It was dry. It appeared like the a can of spaghetti from the Military MRE's we got in Vietnam. At least the MRE's tasted better.

My wife's linguine had no taste. Some type of oily green sauce. Did not taste bad but had no real taste.

I send the spaghetti back and the waiter came back and offered another plate and stated the cook agreed the meat sauce was salty.

I decline. My wife and I shared her pasta as we were hungry and did not want to risk getting some food that has been tainted.

The bread they served was the only food item that was decent.

Prices are high. Never got a refill on my lemonade. The prices are high, specially when food is less than OK.

The restaurant has a nice appearance and ambience is good but that's as far as it goes.

I read the other comments. I think they are not real or people have very...