Grazie Modern Italian Kitchen — Restaurant in Orlando

Waited to make a review to not say anything too rash after dinner last night. Want to give some constructive criticism and not say anything too mean. Last night me and my friend sat at the bar and had really bad service. When we asked one of the servers if the oil and balsamic had nuts after I had started eating it she said yes. When we informed her my friend is deathly allergic she didn’t offer to get us a new oil and balsamic without nuts. It was incredibly odd and the table next to us was a lot more concerned than our server. When we asked if any of our other dishes had nuts on them she went on her phone to google it….. how do you not know about each dish and common allergies that concern said dish?? Second off they were waaaay understaffed. I mean 3 people in front of house on a Thursday night. I get it that it wasn’t expected to be busy but I have never worked at a restaurant where there weren’t people on call on a Thursday night. Server didn’t apologize for the super long wait to take care of us and I was honestly not sure if she was going to take our order it took so long. Kitchen is doing a great job! Food came out fast and penne alla vodka was great. Carbonara wasn’t really carbonara no pancetta and just tasted like straight heavy whipping cream with crumpled bacon, but it was decent none the less. Arancini and Caesar where also good. As someone who has spent many years working in the service industry I try to give the benefit of the doubt and the being understaffed might’ve been a rare occurrence and I get it, it happens. The allergy situation and not offering it without nuts or comping anything after it took so long to take our order was really just odd. I hope some more training is done and don’t recommend this restaurant to anyone with...

Stop in with some friends for dinner. Nicely done dining room and good location. Parking was not a problem. Pleasant dining room staff with average table service skills.

We shared a few appetizers. The prices were reasonable, but the quality and presentation were not the best. The Brushetta was bland, the tomatoes had that green house texture, the olive oil tasted like pomace oil, feta, not sure why feta, was chalky and tasteless. It had the slapped on the plate look to it. The Calamari was rubbery, cut too large and overcooked is my guess. I did not have a seafood taste, seasoning taste. The meat balls were rather disappointing, they tasted like processed beef meat balls. We were hoping for traditional Italian style meat balls – beef, veal, pork – made in house for the price.

Penne alla Vodka being my favorite I overlooked the $24 cost. The taste of cream dominated the dish. They added some type of unpleasant cured meat to it. I kind of made me think it was a Carbonara with cream and tomato sauce. One friend had the Margherita Pizza. They used tomato sauce on it. She said it had that frozen pizza favor to it. My other friend ordered the Chicken Marsella. It was not the traditional Chicken Marsella – chicken on oyster or cremini mushrooms, deglazed with Masella wine and demi-glace. She the chicken was over cooked with the tasted pomace oil and a sauce.

Admittingly, we were hoping Graze served in house made menu items using the traditional techniques of Italian cuisine since so many new restaurants opening are getting away from the processed food and quick service style of cooking, but as a food service professional I understand the difficulties of hiring talented and knowledge chef in the...

I am rating this 5 stars for only one reason—so you can save yourself if you don’t check the bad reviews. If you look at the reviews, a good portion will mention DOMU, the very popular Japanese restaurant down the street. Probably the main reason Grazie is still in business is due to DOBU and its popularity. Why? Because Grazie gets the overflow of would-be DOBU diners who don’t want to wait an hour and a half to be seated— DOBU is that packed. My wife and I ended up trying Grazie simply because it was close by and didn’t look bad. We were wrong.

The tables are way too close. It is way too loud. I could hear half of everyone else’s conversation, and about a quarter of what my wife was saying to me. Also definitely not up to fire code, if you care about that sort of thing, haha. People who came in after us were served before us. I don’t want to personally attack any one individual, but the service was not quite professional, both the tone and the timing. The ambience (or lack thereof) is just… weird. It appears to be a repurposed house, which I have no problem with, but that combined with the eclectic pairing of a black and white Sinatra photo and a neon light cliche about pasta and love just makes for a very odd atmosphere. This is not fine dining. At all. If it were weird, a little run-down, cozy, with delicious food and friendly service I would still recommend it. But it’s overpriced subpar food and service.

Also, it was so funny to be asked if we had a reservation when the restaurant was bare. EMPTY. Especially after the only reason we came there was because DOBU was packed out the door.

I will not be coming here again, and I do not...