Da Vinci's Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Stillwater

I don't know how everyone else seems to think this place has delicious food. Every time I've gone to Da Vinci's, the food has been unbearably bland. On top of that, based on how quickly food comes out after ordering, and how it's steaming hot, I am completely convinced that it is microwaved.

Aside from the food, service is just okay. It's common to have a few orders to come out wrong. To give some credit though, our servers did bother checking in on us multiple times and made sure our drinks were full.

The atmosphere is dated, and it's far too dark inside (perhaps to prevent guests from clearly seeing the poor quality of their seemingly microwaved meals).

Olive Garden unfairly gets a bad rap, and if you're looking for an Italian dinner, go to the Olive Garden next door instead. It still won't be the best you've ever had, but it's leaps and bounds better than Da Vinci's.

EDIT: So, the response was surprisingly defensive, rather than receptive, which is concerning. I'll certainly acknowledge that everyone has their own tastes when it comes to food, and what may be unbearably bland to me might be just right for someone else. At the same time, I think that is is more than fair for me to use both my experience at the restaurant, and my experience with microwaved food outside the restaurant to come to my conclusion (which I specifically did not present as fact, simply what I was convinced of), that the most likely reason the food was delivered so quickly, and steamed the way it did, was because it was pre-prepared, and microwaved before being served. I'll take your word though that it's not, although I am still dubious how the food, which "is prepared fresh from scratch," could be delivered so unbelievably quickly. I'm not particularly interested in partaking in the generous offer to inspect the kitchen, as I'd rather spend my time enjoying myself at other places that deliver an experience better suited to me. I'd encourage the same time and energy to be spent revisiting recipes rather than trying to placate one specific concern of a single Google reviewer. Please don't shut down your restaurant for me - that's the last thing I'd want. I just think there's room for improvement, and wanted to share my feedback in an effort to shed light on the areas that I think...

I came back with family tonight for the first time in years, I am not big on most Italian restaurants as I'm not a big fan of pasta in general and not all places have good substitutions for it, or dishes that come with something other than pasta, I also have a slight gluten sensitivity and too much of it upsets my stomach but I noticed they do have a gluten free pasta for those with dietary restrictions that love it. That said, I absolutely loved the dish I decided on here, I ordered the Chicken Pomodoro and requested the pasta be substituted for vegetables after asking if they were fresh, frozen or canned.... They are fresh, prepared daily. When I received my food I personally found yellow squash, zucchini, green bell pepper, broccoli and artichoke hearts all as part of the vegetable mixture they prepare everyday as well as the tomato and fresh basil already included in the dish. I'm pretty sure the chicken was a whole breast, or at least half of a large breast. There was a lot of chicken. The sauce was PERFECTLY balanced. The bread was ok, it was light on the garlic and reminded me a LOT of the Rhodes frozen roll dough just in a different shape, and it has me wondering if they use that dough. I don't hold it against them if they do... Its really good and makes excellent rolls and breadsticks as well as pizza crust (We use it for all of those things at home). My kids had the Chicken Parmigiano, Spaghetti with meatballs, and the Lasagna. All three of them loved their food.

On a completely separate note, our waiter was excellent. He was quick, attentive, knowledgeable, and helpful when I had questions about the food. I wish I had gotten his name, I didn't think about it at the time. Anyway, he did an excellent job keeping up with everyone at our table on top of being knowledgeable about the food and patient with my questions.

Lastly, I shared a piece of Tiramisu with my kids and we all loved it! Light and easy to eat with a good balance of flavor. My daughter who doesn't even like coffee, not even sweetened coffee, really liked it.

We will most definitely be back! I told my parents that I changed my mind and that we can eat Italian whenever they want.... As long...

Edit Since I last reviewed it as five stars I felt it was important to explain the changes I made. Tonight when we went they were very crowded. We made a reservation and were immediately seated. The server was not very on top of things. It was difficult to get his attention, our cups were often empty. We asked if someone would sing my niece happy birthday. The answer was a polite no. We were a table of eight. You pay at the front, not at the table but I didn't want to block the front with nine people so I gave the waiter our cards. He didn't bring of our guests their to go drink. Eventually, we actually had a member get up from our table and ask for our cards back and the to go drink. He hadn't even taken the cards to the front and it had been over twenty minutes since we gave them to him. While we were busy checking out we left our group at the table to avoid crowding the entrance and so our guest could continue to wait for his to go cup. I did not witness what happened on that end but was told he spilled the drink all over the guest and then was rude to the guest about it like he was at fault. This is not my favorite visit and I probably won't be bringing anyone here to celebrate until I have come back a couple times with less than three people so I can make sure the service was a one off and not the way...