VENETO Ristorante Italiano — Restaurant in Salt Lake City

It is diffucult to describe how disappointing and sub-par our dining experience was at Veneto last night, but here it goes:

The greeting/seating part was fine but everything went drastically downhill from there -

We started with the Insalata di Ricotta: warm, wilted radicchio and no dressing whatsoever. 5 minutes in an ice bath and a drizzle of olive oil would have made it ok, but overpriced at $18 in any case. Waiter was polite, but informed us he had to "capture" our entire dinner order at once, without any ability for us to order as we go, as we were not sure we wanted 3 courses when we first ordered. Turns out we dodged a bullet on this because I was contemplating one of their over priced main dishes but wanted to enjoy the first or second course before deciding. I can't imagine how disappointing that would have been, based on what happened next. My date wanted rissoto but Veneto policy is you have to place two full orders to get the risotto (?!). We've ordered risotto at nice Italian restaurants in multiple countries including Italy, and never have seen a ridiculous policy requiring 2 orders. I ended up ordering the gnocchi and my date ordered gluten free ragu pasta. Having also enjoyed gnocchi at many global restaurants, including Italy, I almost couldn't believe my eyes when the waiter served this dish - the best I can describe it is that visually, it resembled a bowl of grey curds. I immediately thought I must have not ordered gnocchi after all and this was something different entirely. Trying to keep an open mind (oh, this is special and unique gnocchi recipe from the Veneto region), I took a bite. Mushy, pasty, fake smokey tasting were the 3 initial impressions. The ragu sauce on my date's gluten free pasta could best be described as somewhat old tasting meat paste coating what was under done pasta (gluten free pasta cooks differently). We could only tolerate a couple bites each and then gave up. At this point we were looking at each other saying "what is happening?!" The wine was ok (we had ours by the glass) but take a look at their wine list. After trying the food, all I can assume is the wine list/prices are a marketing ploy to create the facade of a high-end Italian eatery, which Veneto is absolutely not. After 2-3 small bites of our pasta we were done, and then sat at our table, not eating, for waaaaaay too long before I finally pulled out my credit card and flagged down our waiter for the check. We also asked for to-go boxes (that story below) and our check. Again, we waited way too long for the bill to sign and they never brought us the to-go boxes (they were waiting at hostess desk, unbeknownst to us). We finally got outta there and as one of our friends lives very near the restaurant and has been unemployed for months, we called to see (with no small apprehension due to the poor quality of the food), if they wouldn't like the leftovers. We couldn't reach them, so headed home. On the way, we saw a unsheltered gentleman on 400 South and stopped to offer him our leftovers. He was very grateful, so we're glad the food was able to help someone, although we were again a bit apprehensive to share that food with anyone.

Having enjoyed good Italian fine dining in New York, San Francisco, Boston, Italy and even Tokyo (amazing Italian there!), all I can say is 1 star is generous and if you're wanting good Italian food in SLC go to Osteria Amore or Matteo. Veneto was a painful thumbs down. If you peruse the 1 star reviews you will see several similar experiences. After our experience I cannot fathom the number of 5 star reviews other than maybe fake employee reviews (?) or somehow the restaurant attracts some degree of clientele with little exposure to or appreciation for, truly good...

Underwhelmed. We really wanted to like this place. My family is Italian (my Nonno is from Venezia), so we were excited. It is a small, quaint, romantic restaurant. True to Italian style of eating, you don't tip, and there is a sitting fee of $5 a person. We had a very nice bottle of wine that we had purchased in Montalcino Italy that we brought to the restaurant; we expected to pay a corkage fee, but the fee was ridiculous at $75 a bottle. The food was okay. For the antipasta, we had the Burrata e Prosciutto Crudo, which was the highlight of the meal. The mozzarella and prosciutto were amazing. We also had the Pasta e Fagioli, which was good, and the gnocchi, which was also very good and a very healthy portion, and the Insalata di Ricotta which was good but needed more Ricotta to cut down on the bitterness of the radicchio. They forgot one of our guests' appetizers, and we had to tell them about it. They immediately apologized but weren't able to get it out until the rest of the table was done with their apps, so she had to eat while everyone else sat there. For the main course, we got the following: Tomahawk di Piemontese, Stracotto di Manzo con Polenta di Grano Viola e Riso di Venere Nero, and the Tagliata di Manzo. The main courses do not come with any sides or veggies. It's just the meat. The Tomahawk was cooked to perfection and was very, very good. The portion of the meat was plentiful and more than enough for 2 people to share. The beef filet was decent, but after tasting the Tomahawk, it's hard to compare on its own. The stracotto was extremely disappointing. This is the description: "slow braised beef stew over purple heirloom polenta and black rice". It was basically a pile of shredded beef. The polenta was a small fried disk that was 2-inches in diameter and 1/4 inch thick, and there was maybe an 1/8 cup of rice. It was basically a plate of shredded meat with nothing to eat it with. The meat was dry and over salted. The stracotto was the most disappointing meal of the night. No one asked how it was or questioned why I only ate a few bites before it was taken away. For dessert we had brought a birthday cake, again we expected a cutting fee, but at $25 it was a little high. They cut the cake in the kitchen and brought everyone HUGE slices of a two layer cake, which was just weird. We shared 2 of the pieces among 5 people; that's how large they were cut. Food gets a rating of 3.5-4 stars out of 5, with points being deducted because of the Ricotta with not much Ricotta, the forgotten app, and the awful stracotto. The service was 1 out of 5. At a restaurant of this caliber and cost (our meal was $750 for 5 people), we expect to be treated well and have a good experience with the staff. The wait staff weren't warm or welcoming, and we had to ask for water multiple times. At one point, they weren't even filling the glasses all the way. Another time we had an extra glass, and because the table was rather small, we held it for the waiter to take once he was done filling the water. The waiter snubbed us and left us holding the glass. In Italy, in tourist areas, the service in everyday restaurants is awful, so they were true to the Italian experience of dining...but in Italy, in high-end restaurants the service is amazing and much better than it was in this restaurant. Unless this restaurant steps up their service, I don't see it lasting long. People don't go to a restaurant this expensive to not have the wait staff go out of their way to make their experience positive, warm, and inviting. We definitely won't go back, which is sad, because we had planned to go back and try the tasting menu which...

We were pleased we were able to get a same day Thursday night 8PM reservation; tho it required 4 calls to the restaurant. The first 3 dropped straight to VM. We hoped that there would be specials as the online menu lacked carne choices.

When we arrived there was one other table with 2 guests, and we thought perhaps it's a sign? Considering the gentleman at the host station was so kind, we decided to stay.

We were greeted by this beautiful note on our table suggesting to appreciate and live in the moment. That is a lovely touch.

I requested to see the wine list to order a bottle of champagne and was a little surprised that there were so many very pricey options and very few in a reasonable price range. Okay, we figured we'd roll the dice since I did want to taste Lady Gaga's Dom. So two things happened here: the restaurant does not have proper glasses for champagne, and the champagne was served slightly warm, so it was too bubbly. That was remedied after the first glass as it sat in its ice bucket.

Before the champagne was brought out, a server came to the table and wanted to talk to us about how the menu works? I kindly requested if we could have our champagne delivered first and relax into the experience. I fear I offended him.

There are no specials as they curate their menu. Fair enough; our server was able to recommend a few dishes that sounded delicious.

The chef's amuse-bouche was delicious.

I ordered the Bolognese. Funny enough, the server said it's impossible to mess up a Bolognese. . . But yes, it is possible. A Bolognese is more than crumbled ground beef atop pasta, which is basically this restaurant's rendition of a Bolognese. I tried to remedy it by ordering ricotta cheese and asking for salt and pepper (which was not offered at service); alas, I was unable to make the dish enjoyable.

The beef tartare was delicious.

The server recommended a pork dish that was beautifully presented and delicious at first bite. As I ate more, it got increasingly drier. This part of the pork was described as very fatty, perhaps my peice was just slightly overcooked? I remedied this by requesting additional sauce as it was plated the fancy way with very little of the accoutrement. That did help. Though I was extremely disappointed with the dried up potato rosette. Yes, I requested to have potato with the pork, and I guess the chef wasn't pleased with my ask. It was impossible to cut the fennel because the knife was simply not sufficient. It would have been preferred for the kitchen to remove the orange rinds as they can be bitter.

No one came to the table to follow up after serving food courses.

The seafood dish was delicious.

Espresso is very, very good.

Tiramisu lacked sufficient flavor; the lady fingers were not soaked long enough in the espresso. This resulted in a dry desert. It also appears that it might have been a little old, as you can tell from the photo, the cocoa on top reflects that the desert was not made that day.

Did appreciate that the waiter explained that tips are embedded in their food cost. Though, it was not proactively communicated when the check was dropped. The Medieval Time service charge communicated in other reviews is interesting. And all my travels to Italia, perhaps I wasn't paying attention. Wink.

Overall, it was an okay dining experience. We chalked it up to being in Salt Lake City rather than in the metropolitan areas we...