Valentino's Pasta and Wine — Restaurant in Ottawa

it was not a very good experience, that's for sure.. we started off the meal with an order of rubbery, overcooked calamari.. The batter on it was crunchy and tasted fine, but the meat was stretchy and rubbery.. Anyone knows, from experience that that is overcooked characteristics.. I had the chicken marsala, my wife the tortellini con , something, and so did our friend..I also got a Caesar Salad.. The Ceasar Salad was the best thing tasting that I had all night.. My wine was not even remotely close enough to being cooked out of my marsala.. The chicken was a bit tough.. Without the marsala wine sauce, the dish may have passed for the evening.. Then there was something starchy and pasty on the plate, but I couldn't tell what it was.. It was a cross between rice and cous cous.. but it was all pasty and clumped that I couldn't tell what it was.. The dish was supposed to come with "crispy" potatoes, but honestly they just tasted like large lumps of boiled red potatoes, which are hard to mess up as long as they're cooked, which they were the best thing on my entrée.. My wife had the tortellini and said while they were tasty, the sauce in the dish was too rich tasting and was too salty.. The bread with the EVO was good start of the meal.. We should have gotten up and left, like I see on TV, but I've never done that before, so we paid the 95 dollar bill, which idw to pay cuz of our first ever meal we've ever had there.. Oh and while everyone needs to start somewhere, the young thin blonde waitress we had, was very inexperienced and needs to be taught some better customer service and wait staff skills.. The last thing that I need to speak up about is the Required ADA items needed were not met at this restaurant.. The chairs at the tables were clearly boughten on purely looks and not with customers in mind.. They were small, short, and sided chairs that looked and felt like they could crumble under you. I wasn't the only heavier person in the restaurant while we were there, there was also a man that had the same problem as me.. Im guessing that the chairs were only 18" wide across it, so a heavier person had to sit on the tops of the sided chairs, which kind of formed around you, hit you right at the sciatic nerve... And there were ZERO Handicapped Parking Spots for street parking available.. We ended up luckily finding one H/C lot space that was in a parking lot across the street from the restaurant, which was ina very busy part of a downtown area, which had a very active park right across the street as well.. We were lucky to have seen a show by young dancers from around the area to go along with our horrible meal.. Oh, I forgot, there were people that were very inappropriate working either in the kitchen and in the wait staff.. One kid (boy)in the kitchen, none the less,had a poofy, curly, shoulder length hair was serving food while his hair was neither pulled back nor had a hair net on.. The 2nd was a boy as well, from the wait staff that had hair that was long enough that he also needed a hair net and he also had multiple hickies on his neck that were completely visible to all.. I hope that I got everything now that was horrible with this newly opened restaurant in Ottawa, IL ( about 2 weeks since opening).. Like I said, we will NEVER EVER return here and it has a TON OF ISSUES that need addressed and fixed b4 they find their doors being closed down.. Way too expensive for the quality, taste of food.. It was very loud too.. No carpet anywhere to absorb any kind of...

This is not an Italian restaurant.

This is ready-to-serve food assembly establishment with cuisine that is italian inspired.

Nothing was executed well.

We had an appetizer, meatball. It was a single large meatball, obviously pre-cooked and reheated. The texture was gritty and dry and there wasnt much flavor. The ricotta they served it with was too salty but necessary because the meatball was bland.

We had a salad. Burrata peach. The peaches were under ripe, cold, and hard. There was no flavor. The prosciutto, pesto and vinegarette helped add flavor to the dish and this was the highlight of the experience.

I wanted the Chicken Vesuvio. They were sold out. I got Chicken Marsala instead. The marsala sauce was inedible. Pure salt no other flavor. The chicken was obviously pre-cooked, dry chicken breast with no flavor. The crispy potatoes were in no way crispy, just whole red potatoes that were on the verge of undercooked.

My partner had the Chicken Parmesan. The sauce seemed to be a can of crushed tomato that had not been cooked. Very little flavor in the tomato sauce. The chicken portion was large and looked nice but the breading was soggy not crispy. The worst part was the spaghetti. Obviously pre-cooked and well beyond overcooked, it was unseasoned mush.

The contrast between the two dishes, and the speed at which they arrived after being ordered with the marsala extremely salty and parmesan with no flavor led me to suspect that they do not actually cook here during service hours. They assembly pre-cooked items.

We had a good time regardless but won't be back unless they actually start cooking here.

I'd recommend hiring a consultant to the owners. This restaurant does not seem to...

Great addition to Ottawa! Most of the places are a variety of bar food so having this fresh Italian option is fantastic. The inside is gorgeous and inviting. All the staff was super attentive and nice. The only thing I think could be approved upon was some of the food. The flavors are so great on some things and then we noticed it was lacking in other places. Some people I have talked to noticed their chicken dishes were dry. The asparagus on the piccata was unflavored and it was a bit disappointing because I had gotten a side of their grilled asparagus and it was so good! The potatoes on the chicken dishes are pretty bland and could do with some more flavor. Pasta being served with the chicken dishes or having the option would be great because I found my self wanting to try the fresh pasta but also the chicken dishes. The country rigatoni was amazing and the flavor was great, I found the spice to be a tad bit overwhelming for me which stinks because I really could’ve eaten it all if my mouth hadn’t been on fire. The drinks were delicious and I love the mocktail menu!! I would have loved for grated parmesan to be served with the bread and olive oil, shredded parm in it didn’t quite do the trick, haha. Overall a great place and I know it just opened and still finding their legs! Definitely...