Costantino's Venda Bar & Ristorante — Restaurant in Providence

As someone who has spent 20 years in the service industry, I made a promise to myself a long time ago to never leave a negative review, but I need to break that promise after having one of the worst dining experiences I’ve ever had at Constantino’s yesterday.

My best friend was in town celebrating her birthday and wanted to go out for pasta. We didn’t have a reservation anywhere, and tried a few places with no luck, they were either closing early or totally booked. We ended up finding some seats together at the bar at Constantino’s. Our first clue that we were about to have a bad experience should have been the disgusting bar. It was sticky, smelled terrible and was covered in food particles. I never saw a bar towel, and definitely no sanitizer or disinfectant buckets. The bartender just picked up some of the bigger food pieces with a cocktail napkin. There was also a dirty table behind us, that was never cleaned the entire two hours we were there.

We did get a first round of drinks quickly, but struggled to get an employee’s attention to get another round. The easiest way to bring up a check total is adding drinks to the guests’ tab. We were out celebrating and ready to spend money. Higher check = higher tips. It was honestly unfortunate that the bartenders were so overwhelmed by side work, stocking, and making drinks for the tables, they weren’t able to take care of their bar guests appropriately. Especially when I observed other staff standing around doing absolutely nothing to help, and no manager in sight. We were repeatedly told they are understaffed, which during these times is definitely a problem and concern for the restaurant industry, but if that was the case, we shouldn’t have seen so many employees with so little to do.

When the food came, my birthday friend’s pasta dish was cold, and when she bit into a piece of chicken, there was a long blonde hair wrapped around it. I had the pork ragu, and about three bites in, I bit into a large chunk of lobster… in my pork dish. Thankfully I don’t have a shellfish allergy, but that kind of mistake can have very serious consequences. They remade my friend’s pasta but I was turned off to the ragu and ordered chicken piccata. After about twenty minutes my friend’s pasta came out, but not mine. I was told mine was on its way. Twenty more minutes, still nothing. I inquired about it, because at this point, the three others I was with were done with their meals AND had already split a dessert. Someone went back to the kitchen, and again told me it would be out soon. Another 15 minutes went by and I received a plate of very hot food because I’m sure it was forgotten about and made hastily after the last inquiry. In fact the potatoes it came with were still raw.

I asked for a manager several times and was told they were taking care of other guests and didn’t have time for us, totally unacceptable. The bartender made a big showing of telling us we wouldn’t be charged for the ragu but of course they would have to charge for the piccata. For the high prices they charge, the food should be amazing and it just was not good at all. The bartender was finally able to offer us a round of drinks and comped desserts (one of which was never actually taken off the bill even though we were told it would be).

Some other “highlights”: the bathrooms were horrendous and the floor all over the restaurant was covered in food and trash. The bar area was not well lit, I could not see their selection of wine or spirits clearly, and frankly that is just bad business and unfair to your employees trying to make money. A team is only as good as its leader, and the fact that I never saw a manager asking staff if they needed anything, or schmoozing with guests, is a problem, especially for a place, that in their own words, “is renowned throughout Providence and beyond for authentic Italian cuisine, award-winning wine list, and exceptional service.” I didn’t see any evidence backing that...

My family had dinner at Costantino’s in May and needless to say WE WILL NEVER RETURN. We had a very large party (23 people) and were celebrating my son’s graduation from college. I had called ahead to confirm that the restaurant was able to accommodate a large party and that they had adequate service. I was repeatedly assured that they served large parties all the time and 23 people would not be a problem. When we arrived, we were seated upstairs in their back room which was perfectly fine. We had plenty of room. We were assigned ONE waiter. He came over promptly once we were seated and stated that someone had requested separate checks so could we please identify who was with what party and asked that we not switch seats so as to keep the orders straight. This was a reasonable request and we were happy to comply, figuring he had his own numbering system to keep track of orders. There were 4 separate parties in all and it did not appear to be a problem to ask for separate checks. Our drink orders were placed…..a full hour later and many attempts to catch our server’s eye….our drinks were served. OK-busy night, large party, enjoying the company---we were ok with the wait. We placed our food orders immediately after receiving our drinks. Again-only ONE waiter for a party of 23-no bus-person, helper, etc. Took us 45 minutes to receive our food….By now it is very late, we are tired, hungry and thirsty. The food was good, not excellent, but good considering the late time and large party. As it took forever to get the drinks and dinner, we all opted out of dessert and coffee and requested our checks. Here is where the real issue begins. We waited another ½ hour to get the checks and when they arrived, all of the checks were completely incorrect. Orders were mixed up; drinks were on the wrong check, food no one ordered was on a couple of checks, etc. We called the waiter over (another 15 minutes). He took back the bills to “straighten” them out. When he returned, they still were incorrect. Someone from each of the 4 parties stated that they would get the menu and list what should be on each bill and requested help from the manager to straighten out the bills. The manager never came to us, the waiter refused our help in figuring out the bills and gave us another set of checks which were again incorrect. At this point, we threw up our hands and paid the bills we got. Now we knew that some items were missing but as the manager didn’t seem to care, we paid what we were told. When we went downstairs to leave the owner, Mike, came running after us stating that there were more checks and accused us of trying to leave without paying our tab. We tried to explain what had occurred and he would not listen, continually accusing us of causing a disturbance, etc. He threw the checks on the floor and at that point we turned around and left. Never once had he come up to try to straighten out the bills when we asked the waiter for the manager. The next day I received a very irate, insulting phone call from Mike Costantino (my phone # was on the reservation) berating me for leaving without paying, calling me very unprofessional names and telling me never to return to his restaurant----trust me-I never will. I am in complete and total shock that a business owner would treat a customer so rudely. So much was wrong with the service, the food, the professionalism of the staff, and the management that this establishment should be shut down. We were not a group of drunken kids. We were adults who were trying to enjoy a meal to celebrate a...

Horrendous, had a reservation that they ignored, we spent about 30-35 minutes alone in a table, water never arrived, beer was warm (you can see the drops from being out of the fridge sitting long time outside waiting to be sent to the table) food took long time to come in, they bring the loaf of bread alone, no butter, no oil, when I’ve asked for it they seem they were bother… did I’ve said water never arrived? Did I’ve said they ignored my reservation? So, food was ok, service was horrendous, I understand you were busy.. perhaps they were overwhelmed too many people to take of? (My opinion) but we had neighboring tables empty.. waited for cheese for our pasta that never arrived… butter or oil never arrived…

I was under the impression that when you go out for dinner is was supposed to be a time to relax.. not to worry about the whole experience.. did I said, they never came back with cheese? Ok, enough of this, I’m busy… I wish you luck if you decide to go there…

So, open table contacted me because we didn’t honor our reservation??

I had to look for my receipt to proof I was there? I had to take time to answer that email to open table because Constantino did not used my reservation…

Sorry.. we used to love this place

Tried again…

On 10/08/22 tried it with the family, (picture of receipt if needed) First, I was told no reservation? We can put you on a freezing cold table (multiple empty tables with heater remained empty while we were there) at the end the nice girl upfront “let us in” near a heater (the option to wait for a table wasn’t given to us) waited not less than 15 min to be greeted while seated, cool kid that bring water an bread to the table (young very charismatic, curly hair and speak Spanish, job well done!!) that kid did a better job than our server (Gianna) She was taking the order for drinks and walked away to talk to another server.

She then came back with one drink, and started to walk away.. we have to ask her to stop, she didn’t brought the other drinks, my wife asked for a Constantino martini, and I asked for “the Constantino” no mistake in our end, I wanted a hot drink.. she came back 20 min later with two martinis… and she said “that’s what you order” when I told her, mine should be hot, (and coffee, whipped cream, and chocolate) she said “that’s your drink” you order that… Lady, c’mon I know what I want… Then my daughter asked her for a hot chocolate… this is a good one: “I don’t think I can get you one, but you want hot water? Or tea? It’s for your hands right? She brought her hot tea… My wife’s food: she asked for veal parm, she got chicken parm… really??????? Then Gianna took the plate, no apologies, just the “we’re busy” and after waiting for the veal to be ready.. she came back with a very cold plate of pasta and a warm veal…

I wish I could have done better rating, the reason of this post, and the edit, is to bring a light to whoever does the training for them, it is a lovely location, food is ok, but everything goes down with one (on my case multiple ) bad experiences.

The promise for all of this mistakes where: a free drink..

We’re in the customer service, hospitality business, we’re not expecting royalty treatment, and we understand staffing issues and every other excuse, at the end of the day, all of this mistakes were 200% avoidable…

Check came in… extra drinks were...