Othello's Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Norman

This place screams authenticity and culture from the outside. Beautiful building that holds a lot of promise. Walking inside, the glamour is still there, with a very inviting environment, paint, etc.. It holds so much promise but unfortunately it all ends there.

My romantic party of two love trying new places and we go all out when we do. We ordered 3 appetizers, bar drinks, Italian sodas, and specialty entrees. I can tell you after our experience the Calamari and cheese sticks are frozen. The stuffed mushrooms are extremely tiny and hardly stuffed (no spinach, tomatoes, etc.) The tableside bread was doughy and undercooked and looked sad. The Italian Sodas had no cream even though they charge you for cream (In an Italian soda?) and its not real vanilla just the fake powder. It was club soda on ice. The bar drinks made it out and again no flavor, just colored ice. Cant taste the strawberry, although the peach flavor was at least there. I can look past all of this if at least the marinara and alfredo are authentic. Another disappointment. Marinara was canned and no seasoning. Missing oregano, onion powder, garlic, salt, literally the quintessential ingredients of any Italian fine dining. The alfredo had little cream, no seasoning again (salt, garlic, heavy cream, butter, pepper, etc.) and fell short of having enough parmesan to create flavor and consistency. The breaded chicken was dry and flavorless which infers me to believe the proteins are also frozen and not getting fully thawed before service. The pasta (another quintessential ingredient) tasted that of over-salted boiled water and had no ice bath after being cooked (a soapy taste such the way clean dishes smell). This along with the generic marinara and frozen proteins unfortunately destroyed the lasagna and so both entrees were inedible. I absolutely hate wasting food but for the first time ever in my life I did not take or eat the entrée, nor did the Mrs.. We were just so put off. I apologize for having to bring this to attention. I really do hope this place becomes authentic and wish the owner the best. Right now food is being microwaved by line cooks with no passion and the prices just do not add up for the quality.

I would approach the issues by making everything fresh and with the correct Italian seasoning and flavors. Nothing frozen but IF YOU MUST, then find ways to add healthy flavors in and be sure to thaw everything the correct way to avoid frozen flavors. Add spinach and tomatoes to mushrooms. Its better to use 2 large portabella mushrooms than a million small ones. The Pasta and sauces need to be authentic and, until staff is trained, should be overseen by trusted chef or owner. Avoid generic Italian sodas and bar drinks, Ex. powder flavors, and use fresh ingredients. Vanilla extract works better than powders and can provide an alternative if you do not have the real thing. Also cream is used in all Italian sodas, so its hard to imagine why someone should be charged for it as an add on and still not have the cream taste in their beverage. I would increase the cook time of frozen calamari until it is crispy. Soft and frozen taste together is the worst. Crispiness is everything for frozen foods as long as it isn't burned. Cheese sticks should be made fresh or find methods to thaw and avoid the frozen taste.

I paid in full and tipped healthy. I am no Karen. Jesus knows I am a concerned integral customer. Fine dining used to be eventful and worth the expense. People should expect to get better food than what they can make at home when they go out to eat. I hope to resonate with the owner. I speak for us all when I say "Oklahomans deserve better than frozen food with generic sauces and...

It wasn't voted best Italian restaurant in norman for nothing. Everything from the atmosphere to service to food is top notch. My wife had never been there so I had to show her what it was all about. Italian is her absolute favorite, however she's a bit picky. She normally keeps to her couple of basic dishes until she's comfortable enough to venture out. Upon looking at the menu, to my surprise, she had several dishes picked out that she found desirable. I believe this visit was some of the quietest she's ever been while out on one of our dates. It started to worry me a bit until I asked her how she felt about our trip. She was perfectly satisfied through and through. Some of our common favorites are the fried green beans, mozzarella sticks, anytime the marinara was used, and especially the coconut cream pie. I tell you I don't know if I've ever drooled before, during, and after having any sort of dish before then lol. You would be missing out for sure if you didn't have a slice. Do yourself a favor. The price was a lot lower than expected as well. Sure high quality for a nice low enough price. This far beats the likes of olive garden and zios alike. Only downfall is the parking availability. If you can't parallel park you may want to find a suitable place to park rather than close to the restaurant. Don't let this deter you from having a fantastic night however at by far Norman's best...

Being from Chicago my standards were manufactured extremely high due to the Italian influence in alot of our food so this review is from an outsider. My boyfriend and I have been trying to find a truly authentic Italian restaurant ever since we moved to Oklahoma and it has been very difficult. I ordered the baked ziti and he had spaghetti and meatballs, two absolute classics that any Italian restaurant should be able to make but we didn't eat much of each dish. The sauce was very bland and had no flavor, the noodles also tasted very overcooked. We did start with the bruchetta and it was actually very tasty, I enjoyed it. The one thing that was so dissapointing was the meatballs. If your an Italian restaurant your meatballs should always be homeade! The meatballs tasted terrible we ordered extra and couldn't even finish a whole one and they were tiny. It was mushy with no texture or flavor I'm not too sure what it was. One positive thing about this place was the atmosphere was beautiful and elegant. I also enjoyed hearing live music when we arrived. Our waitress was good just wasn't very attentive at the end of our meal when we were trying to close out the bill. Again, when you grow up on homeade spaghetti and meatballs your standards might be a little high but overall I'd say this visit was a 3. We did not try their pizzas but at least those looked very appetizing as they passed by for...