Italian Bistro — Restaurant in Roanoke

We decided to visit this restaurant on Mother's Day evening. Since most restaurants were booked up for the lunchtime hours, we waited till 7pm to venture out. When we arrived, the place did not seem that busy with customers eating in. However, they did set us at a table way too small for 4 adults and a baby that needed a highchair. (Just wait, I will come back to the highchair ordeal). Once seated, they brought over menus and a highchair for our 1-year-old daughter. The buckle did not clasp closed so I asked for another chair. It took a bit, but they did bring another one out. Still no waiter / waitress in sight. Well, I take that back, they were everywhere but not attending to us. After about 5-7 minutes of waiting and still no-one attending to us (I actually lost track of time because the second highchair did not buckle either) I got up and asked who our waiter was. 2 people came over right away, a man and a woman. The woman said that she would take us, and didn't seem real happy to take us on. She took our drink order and disappeared. In the meantime, my 1-year-old had gotten quite busy and had performed a magic trick if getting loose and standing up in the highchair. I asked a waiter that happened to be passing by if they had any working highchairs. His response was, "no, they are all like that." I responded by saying, "so you only have unsafe chairs for children in this establishment?" He walked off and about 3 minutes returned with a working buckle on a highchair. Finally, our waitress returned with our drink order and took our food order. I will say the food was delicious. And I will also say that it appeared that the takeout area was quite busy, but with all this said, we will never return to...

Just left here and will never come back. The food was absolutely horrible. My wife ordered a Caesar salad and the dressing was so sweet it ruined the salad. My house salad dressing tasted like a mix of ketchup and salsa juice. My daughters fettuccine Alfredo was overpowered by garlic and onion flavoring. My chicken parmigiana was tough as rubber and when you were finally able to cut a piece off to eat the flavor was close to what you’d expect from a frozen microwave dinner but this one had two slices of cheese on it. Eventually the waiter came back and brought our check which is when I asked to speak with a manager. After having to tell the waiter exactly why I then got to speak with the owner. I then told the owner the same as I described. Instead of apologizing he started mumbling how he’s been doing this for 18 years and never has complaints about his food while crumpling up the check and telling us to leave. What a piece of work this guy is. Our family was then leaving and I mentioned I’ll be leaving a review. The owner then started uncrumpling the check and called the police. He followed us out to my truck scaring my 6yo daughter before my family was met by the Roanoke police. I have no idea what the owner said we did but I’m pretty sure when you’re told not to pay and have a crumpled check on the bill plate you’re free to go. Instead of bickering with the police and getting things escalated I paid the bill. No fault to our PD doing there job either. Great response time and I appreciate you all for doing what you do. I hope people read this and just go...

If I could give it no stars I would. Have been coming here off and on for 10+ years but haven't in a while. Will NEVER come here again! I ordered Calamari, Chicken Alfredo, Manicotti and 3 Pasta Trio. The whole meal was horrible except for the bread. The chicken was albino while like it had been boiled not grilled and no flavor. The alfredo sauce was like water. The other dishes tasted like canned tomato sauce from the grocery and I don't even want to know what they use for ricotta. The Calamari was like rubber cuz it was over fried and greasy and hard. My grandparents came to this country from Naples Italy, I know what Italian food is supposed to taste like and this is far from it. I called the restaurant in regards to our meal and the manger I spoke with was apologetic but the owner wanted to speak with me and was very rude and disrespectful. Told me I was lying and that I needed to bring the food back if I wanted a refund. I said it's already in the trash where it's going to stay. Nor am I going to take it out of the trash and drive it back up there. And I will defiantly be leaving a negative review on this place. His response was I better tell the truth. I should have known when I wanted to order Cannoli's and they said they where out of filling and I asked them how they are making my Manicotti and 3 Trio pasta that all have Ricotta in it. Cashier said its made with cream cheese. Ummm no Cannoli's are made with Ricotta. Stay away from this place. Go to Vinny's in Trophy Club, the staff and owner are nice and humble and the...