Johnny's Ristorante Italiano — Restaurant in Reno

I'm very sad to report we had the single worst dining experience I've ever had in my life in this restaurant. When we came in, we had prearranged a wedding dinner for 18 people and paid a deposit. Everything went OK for greeting us and seating us, and then it took a long time for everyone to get their orders but with that many people, that's to be expected. The food was fine. But then the bill came. And it was added up incorrectly. Also, one child had asked for a glass of milk and that was listed at $10. Not wanting to upset my son by complaining, I was unsure how to proceed. I very nicely asked to speak to the manager who was the original Johnny Casinari's son. He was argumentative and defensive. I kindly pointed out to him that the bill was added up incorrectly to the tune of over $250. He was volatile, rude and almost threatening. My son noticed what was going on and came over, and I showed him. My son never losses his temper but he told that man he was to fix the bill NOW. That's what it took, a little force, that's what was respected. Well, then, after all that the tip was part of the bill which was to be expected. But we forgot about our deposit. So the next day I called up and nicely asked about the deposit, and the owner said "You can consider that our tip you SOB" and hung up. So I called the police and ended up speaking to a very nice Lieutenant detective on the Reno Police Dept. he said this sort of thing had happened many times. He said they had received many complaints going back over 15 years. Some of the complaints involved assaults. He said they always do this to people from out of town because they know it's hard for them to come back to Reno and report anything or fight. He said he really hoped we'd file charges but he warned us it would mean coming back to Reno multiple times as "that's the kind of games they play". So we never did get our deposit back.

I remember going in there 15 years ago and seeing the young son and the father, and the father was yelling at someone. And then I actually saw the old guy spit on the customers, no kidding, he spit on them. Seems the chip doesn't fall very far off the block, the son is just like the father. Use this restaurant at...

I've been to a lot of Italian places from east coast to west coast and I have to say, this place is pretty expensive and snooty on the surface for lunch lady Italian. Every Italian place claims to be authentic traditional Italian, and since they all do, it makes none of them particularly distinguished, whether it's a hole in the wall or a "family" business. That goes double for this place. It's on a skeezy part of 4th street between a car wash and a trailer park, despite being on the rich side of town. The establishment is lovely inside and service was kind, but obviously they know their client base is rich old white folk that are offended if salsa has too much onion. I'm serious, because even the sausage with peppers was bland.

We got the Numero Uno, which had cannelloni , veal, spaghetti, roasted vegetables, and sausage with polenta and peppers. The most flavorful thing was the veal, as it had a lemony/caper sauce. The roasted vegetable were seasoned well. Everything else was pretty bland and sterile. I don't know how you can make tomato tasteless but they managed. The spaghetti bolognese... I mean, I cannot get over how pasty the sauce was, I think they barely used salt or pepper let alone garlic, onion or basil. The meat was ground to a paste like consistency,and was strange, since it said it came with meat balls. The cannelloni I was particularly disappointed in, it was basically a soggy burrito with a bland blend of meat filling (again, ground to a paste) with no distinguishable flavor. The sausage was good but the polenta a was absolute mush, I was confused what it at first. Everything was just so very under-seasoned...

86 dollars for 2 drinks and the Numero Uno, folks, and the drinks were the tastiest part. 40 dollars a person could have a least afforded some garlic... Or salt, or meat that wasn't ground up into paste. This food seriously tasted like the bland stuff in trays my 89 year old grandmothed gets at her life enrichment. I will not be eating here again or...

Don't bother! Olive Garden has better tasting food and better service!!

Got a reservation. Wasn't needed for the Saturday night we went. Got sat a minute after we arrived. Which is good.

We came dressed up. My girlfriend in a dress and myself in a suit. There were a considerable amount of people in street clothes. So it was advertised fancier than what it seems. Not a big deal. But everything else below isn't pleasant.

Waiter said he'd be right with us as he was serving another table. We obliged. Luckily the bus boy brought us water because it was 15 minutes later until he finally came back to serve us.

A waitress had noticed we'd been there for awhile and asked if we'd been helped. We replied that all we've gotten was water. She was very shocked and got the waiter for us. Pretty sure he only had 2 tables to serve. He was very focused on the other due to a mishap of some sort.

We ordered wine when he finally came over. He didn't even card us. My girlfriend and I are in our 20s. We always get carded. But I continued to pass his service simply because he was struggling with the other table. Which he wasn't taking care of efficiently.

He brought their food out and realized something was wrong. Left to do whatever after making an unprofessional comment. Leaving the food on the serving tray. Basically letting the other table stare at their food while it was getting colder by the second right in front of them.

Eventually get our food ordered. Got the $34 steak. I've had better steaks at Sizzler... Got it ordered medium well. Came back dry and over cooked. Ate it since I was starving from waiting so long. Fortunately he comped the steak. Came with vegetables that tasted like they came out of a can. Same for the minestrone soup I ordered.

My girlfriend's was actually good. Noodles were a little undercooked. Overall not too bad.

The rest of the staff excluding our waiter was very pleasant...