Pasta D’oro At The Jolly Onion — Restaurant in Town of Warwick

It was our first time here, and we stopped on a whim. It is a 'nicer' restaurant and I felt underdressed in shorts and a sweatshirt. The menu is posted by the door, and I noticed it was pricey but patrons leaving were wearing basketball shorts and t-shirts. The hostess asked if we wanted to eat in the dining room or bar. Although outdoor seating was available, it wasn't offered to us. Due to my attire, I chose the bar. The bar area has a long bar, and tables which are dark. The tables are covered in linen with linen napkins. The area is very loud and between other patrons and the music, it was hard to hear. The menus were hard to read as the font on the printed copies were tiny. I had to take pictures with my phone to enlarge it. We were brought a basket of bread, and a tomato tapenade? I'm not sure as I can't eat tomatoes. The server was pleasant and knew the menu well. She was busy as she was covering the bar area, and the patio. My partner ordered one of the specials, short ribs. I don't like saucy foods, and try to eat low fat. Most of the items on the menu are sauced. I decided to have the veal schnitzel, with spaetzle, and red cabbage. I asked my server to request the spaetzle was lightly buttered. Now, I imagine schnitzel as a thinly sliced, breaded, and fried veal or chicken cutlet. What was presented to me was surprising. It was the above, but it had fried onions on it and was swimming in brown mushroom sauce. The spaetzle was replaced with mashed potatoes which weren't mashed well as there were large chunks of potato throughout. The red cabbage was also covered in the brown mushroom sauce. I ate a small piece of veal (or chicken), and it was tough. My partner had the short ribs which he said were fatty, but the presentation was similar to mine with brown sauce and mashed potatoes. I guess I should have asked the server to describe the plate when I ordered it, but wouldn't have guessed it to be sauced as it wasn't described as that on the menu. Now, one positive is the size of the portions...which are huge. They had live entertainment in the bar, and once started, the sound level went even higher. Based on all the positive reviews, I am at a loss. Maybe we came on an off night. But my suggestion is to ask your server to describe the meal you order and unless you're with a rowdy party, don't...

Last week my daughter and son in law asked where I’d like them to take me for Mother’s Day dinner. Without hesitation I said The Jolly Onion. For many years we had many celebrations at the old Ye Jolly Onion and have many fond memories. We had reservations for 4 adults and a child at 2:30. The waitress who took our orders was very nice but she was not the one who brought out our meals. Two young gentleman brought them out, once I was given the wrong dinner but it was quickly corrected. Twice my daughter was brought the wrong dinner and the second time she just kept it because the main course was right but the side was wrong. Still we had all received ours and she didn’t want to hold us all up. While we were eating one of the young men came up and told her he had given her the wrong order. She said it was okay and that she had already started eating but he persisted and took her entree and gave her another. None of that is worth complaining about and we didn’t.The food was just ok, nothing special and very overpriced! What really upset me was when my son in law got the bill there was an automatic 20% gratuity put on the bill, seriously? For a table of 4 with a well behaved small child? And this was the real eye opener; the tax was put on the gratuity! We owned an Italian restaurant in Middletown for 18 years and I’ve never heard of such a thing! I’m not even sure that’s legal! Of our friends still in the business they were astounded when I told them this. I could see if we were a very large party but not for a table our size. With all of the screwups I’m sure we still would have tipped generously, we were in the business so we understand how difficult the job is but to add the tax on top of the tip is truly ridiculous! Unfortunately I doubt we will be back. I hope you re think your policies because you will lose a lot of business for things like that....

Nice place. Very cozy atmosphere. However the experience left us very disappointed. The waitress was very kind however she did not write anything down. This led to one of our orders being cooked medium rare rather than medium well as was asked for. Not a huge deal, and we chose not to say anything due to how long it took to actually get our meals… but it’s certainly a let down when your meat is not cooked the way you asked for- especially when paying for it. On top of that, all of our soup and entrees were lukewarm, borderline cold when brought out to us. This was after waiting about 45 minutes for the meal. Once served, the waitress was almost impossible to track down during the service. This was consistent throughout the entire meal. We were constantly looking around the restaurant questioning… ”where did she go?” We eventually flagged down one of the food runners to tell her the food was cold and she politely offered to heat it up. This took another 10-15 minutes. For the cost, the portions were certainly large, but to be served four cold entrees is unacceptable. Not completely knocking the place, I’m sure they serve plenty of delicious food. Unfortunately it was not a good experience and left us with no desire to come back again.

Also, I’ve noticed in previous responses from the owner that some reviews are flagged as being “Conflict of Interest Review is from someone who was affiliated with the business or a competitor’s business ”. Though certainly possible in some instances, this is not the case here and would like to make that clear in...