Arrivederci Ristorante — Restaurant in Phoenix

I dined here Christmas Eve with my family, at their behest, as they had experienced good food and service during visits over lunch. Rest assured, our Christmas Eve experience was anything but.

We arrived five minutes early for our dinner reservation. We then waited aver 45 minutes, crammed in, standing in a small lobby, with everyone else who waited equally long past their reservation times; they obviously overbooked themselves in the greed of capitalizing on a holiday and maximizing their revenues. Clearly the big picture eludes them.

We were finally sat, at the worst table in the restaurant, directly behind the hostess stand, two feet from the lobby where we stood moments ago, and in a high traffic area where a table obviously, typically never was located. We were almost elbow-to-elbow with the next table, as they had jammed far more rented, banquet-style tables in to take more guests. They also featured a 'Holiday Menu', meaning they dumbed it down their normal menu to pump out the fastest, and often least-desirable menu items to maximize sales.

The server was so patronizing it was shocking. He was smiling, but a ludicrously fake smile that was really saying something very different, and this was verified bhy by his cheeky retorts all night. The worst was almost our first exchange. I ordered a Caprese salad, and I can honestly say, it was the worst I had ever had, as it was obviously prepped hours before, and thrown into a fridge to hold. Caprese is as simple as slicing Romas tomatoes (they used cheap, beefsteak tomatoes), slicing mozzarella, and drizzle with oil and pesto, in their case. Nope. No fresh production here. After two bites, I quit. Upon advising the server politely it was really quite bad, his response was, "Wow. No one else in here has complained. You're the first." Literally word-for-word his response! I was gobsmacked. One family member found a shrimp shell in the tomato sauce of his calamari. The dish had no shrimp in it. Other family members' food was cold, tasteless, and bland. This theme continued throughout dinner, where some dishes, like my sausage and chicken pasta, arrived hot, though totally tasteless, and my Mother's dish arrived actually frozen inside. That one must have been nuked.

My parents used to enjoy their lunches here, but after such a horrific food and service experience, and an obvious cash-grab by ownership, they instead lost loyal customers based on one, poorly run evening.

Highly recommended TO AVOID...

My husband and I had a Groupon and were able to pop in here on a Friday night with a last minute reservation. It was packed. While we were pretty shocked given COVID, we were too hungry to go elsewhere. We were seated in a corner and were able to choose chairs at our table for four away from others. We were greeted promptly and ordered beer. It was served within a few minutes. We put in an order of calamari. I think it fell a little flat. It was pretty salty and over cooked because it was chewy. It went downhill from there. We put our entree order in. My husband ordered the spicy penne with sausage and I ordered the fish special. About 15 minutes later the waiter told us they were really busy...”lots of take out orders”...thankfully, someone came by with some rolls and offered them to us. We were starving. The rolls were great. About 20 mins more went buy and we were told your order is coming soon. At this point, half the restaurant had emptied out. It was a total of an hour and 10 minutes before our food arrived. The food was hot and my husband’s pasta looked good. My sea bass was served with egg noodles not fettuccine. I took a bite and wow, it was over salted and the breading was really soggy from the wine sauce. The dish just didn’t go together....baby carrots, green beans, egg noodles and a super salty breaded sea bass. I barely ate any. The woman came by when she saw we stopped eating and said it looks like you didn’t like it. I said ya, not really. She took my plate and walked away. My husband’s pasta and sausage was much better. I probably won’t return but if I did I would definitely only order pasta. We were glad to be able to try it...

My husband and I were excited to try this restaurant. We’ve lived near the Scottsdale location for 19 years and decided to try it out. Unfortunately, our experience wasn’t as good as many of the reviews. We went last Saturday and the place was totally packed. There were so many people and the tables were to close together. We were seated at the very back of the restaurant at a table in the very corner against the back wall. The table next to us was so close to our table. If we glanced out towards the entire restaurant, it made us look like we were staring at the party next to us. It was the most uncomfortable we’ve ever been at a restaurant. (Many pictures that people have posted of the place on their reviews, show tables not close to each other).

My husband ordered the lobster ravioli which he loved. I love lamb so I ordered the lamb specialty. It was just ok. Our waitress was wonderful and didn’t charge us for our dessert since I didn’t like my dish.

We had such high hopes for this place. Would we go back? Probably not. There are to many other restaurants that aren’t as crowded with better seating arrangements and atmosphere. My husband and I like our space when we’re eating. It’s a popular place, but just not...