Vino E Pasta — Restaurant in Tampa

BEWARE: this restaurant is price gouging, false advertising, illegally adding automatic tips, and the man acting as the manager/ owner is unbelievably rude. To briefly explain: 1. Price gouging & false advertising: you can order from them on Grubhub for $10 LESS PER ENTREE than the same items cost to dine in. Also, the restaurant’s official website shows entrees priced $3 less than their actual dine-in menu prices. (See my photos). There is nothing printed on their dine-in menu to explain why dining in costs so much more, especially when tax and tip are still NOT included in their dine-in menu prices.

They included an automatic 22% tip on my table’s bills without notifying us in advance, which is illegal. This tip policy is not printed on their menu and was not communicated in any other way. Then we had to wait about 30 minutes for them to remove it. As if their price gouging and 22% included tip weren't big enough money grabs, their bills show suggested tip amounts of 20%, 25%, 30%, and the first time I've ever seen 35% tip.

The oldest male staff member, who acted like the owner/ manager, repeatedly cut us off mid-sentence and literally walked away while we were still speaking! None of us were angry or raised our voices with him; he just didn’t seem to want to hear what we were about to say, and often incorrectly assumed what we were about to say. For example, he cut us off and walked away before we could finish telling him one item had been put on the wrong person’s bill, and thus 2 bills needed redone. He also would not let us tell him that their website and Grubhub show lower prices than their dine-in menu. When our entrees were served, he spent several awkward minutes standing at the head of our table asking what each person had ordered as we were trying to take our first bites. He said he wanted to get our separate checks correct, but he still mixed them up so monumentally, he made at least five trips back and forth with our bills, and still never corrected that item we were eventually allowed to tell him was on the wrong person’s bill. He also pointed to the security camera above our table and said he’d be watching the footage later to see how we acted, as if we had done something wrong (we hadn’t)! These are just a few examples of his constant, unwarranted rudeness.

None of us will ever be going back, and I will forever recommend others don't buy anything from them either.

If you read the owner's response to my review (which I've uploaded as a screenshot in case he edits it), you'll see his true personality is everything I wrote, including his false assumptions because I have not commented about this experience anywhere else. But it's telling that apparently someone else has written about their bad experience in three...

I have been living in south Tampa for 4 years, and I've been eagerly waiting to try this place. As much as I appreciated the owner giving us a last minute reservation, I have a lot to say about my first experience here. First off, when we arrived, the restaurant had no ice, so I waiting 15 minutes for a glass of ice water and my sangria. By the time I had gotten them, my boyfriend had already drank his 1st glass of wine and we ate our less than mediocre bruschetta. The crostini was hard as a rock, and the brushetta was just diced tomato topped with basil. Definitely wasn't the consistency I'm used to. No bad or good words to say about our Cesar salad. I ordered the Lasagna as an entree. It was delicious in their pink sauce with sausage. My Boyfriend had the chicken picatta. Chicken was overcooked and there were only a few capers on it. It was more along the lines of a pizzeria, not a ristorante. We ended the meal with an espresso and cappuccino of course. After a meal I'm sure I wont be returning for, we landed with a $140 bill and a tip guideline at the bottom that only had 25, 30, and 35%. I can tell you we didn't leave 25%, not because we don't tip generously, but it felt right after this experience.

Beside the food- The mother in her 70s and daughter in her 40s next to us made a comment that the waiter was yelling at her. The mom was also charged for a $175 bill that was not hers. We were both put in the front corner where a fly was buzzing around.

I will say I appreciated the atmosphere once they put music on and it got darker. That was the most authentic part about it.

All in all, I am disappointed in the place I've been looking forward to for so long. I suppose it is a curse I have a NY Italian boyfriend- we know what...

In general, we had a good experience at this local Italian restaurant, but admittedly, nothing spectacular. We ordered a couple of calamari and fried zucchini appetizers, and they were great. There wasn’t much zucchini though and a couple of the calamari’s were chewy and possibly undercooked. The bread was great though, and the pesto was fantastic with the bread. For entrees, we had a variety of plates: Pollo Vino E Pasta, Chicken Marsala, Chicken Parmesan, filet mignon, and Veal Marsala. The Pollo Vino was decent, and it was an interesting sauce. The chicken was a bit chewy though. The Marsalas were mixed - one in our party really liked his Veal Marsala, but the other didn’t think the Chicken Marsala was that great. The Filet Mignon was described as decent, in part because it was overcooked. The Chicken Parmesan was okay, but wasn’t anything to write home about. Perhaps the best part of the meals (by overwhelming group consensus) was the pasta of the day. It was delicious and had an excellent sauce. For service, our server seemed distracted or nonchalant about everything. Service by everyone else though was great overall, as the food runners, beverage servers, and others were attentive, polite, and accommodating. They definitely tried their best to make sure we had an excellent dining experience. Overall, we had a pretty good dinner celebrating a couple birthdays in our party, and nothing about our visit would necessarily stray us away from...