Uncle Carlo's Italian Ristorante — Restaurant in Valdosta

This place is a gem! My entire family loved it. This is my favorite kind of restaurant - not a chain - just GREAT homestyle, made-in-house meals served by friendly folks who clearly care care about quality, tasty food, each other and their customers. There were numerous touches to evidence attention to detail and care.

We were immediately greeted upon entering by a friendly gentleman - wish I'd caught his name. This man took the time to listen to and understand our excited 5 year old. He told us right away that everything from the pasta to the sauces to the gelato are made in house. He clearly respects the restaurant's owner and namesake because he credited him several times for the quality and recipes.

We also met Carlo, who was also serving and scooping gelato. We learned he was born in Italy and transplanted to Georgia from our home state of Michigan. He's also been to our hometown several times for Cherry Festival and salmon runs... not pertinent to the quality of the restaurant, but it tells you they are friendly! We also met Carlo's fiance (who's name I also missed) - and she was also friendly and gave great gelato recommendations!

Special touches were seen everywhere... from nice, soft TP to wax warmers to scent the bathroom and bath salt hand scrub to enjoy when washing up...(We are road tripping back to Michigan - the bathroom was kind of a big deal!) to bread and drinks at the table before you could blink! They also brought fries for the family to try and munch on - I suspect because he knew we'd been on the road or because they're just nice?

Our meals were delicious and worth packing up for leftovers despite being 24 hours from home! Truly delicious! I had the Spaghetti al Forno -- but I asked for it with alfredo ADDED to the marinara because that's how I love my pasta...creamy, tangy and extra saucy... and GUYS -- get this: not only did they not say "let me check if we can do that" - the friendly waiter said - oh, we have a new sauce, Palomino sauce, we'll give you that. It combines marinara and Alfredo. I knew immediately... these are my people! It is the best sauce. Bottle it.

My son (15) had the alfredo with chicken - loved it. Couldn't eat it all. My son (5) wanted pizza, so we ordered him the 10" cheese pizza. Definitely a lot of food for a five year old. A kid size personal pizza would be a nice add for the kid's menu, but the full size pizza was the same price. My son (17) had the Stromboli... he also loved it - couldn't finish it. My husband had the Carlo Panini (I think that's what it was called). He loved it, and the man knows a good sandwich! We also had the potato croquettes as an appetizer. Everything was delicious.

For gelato... Carlo's fiance said try this... the popcorn flavor before we'd even had dinner... we were just looking at that time and we were instantly floored. How did they get that to taste excellent and exactly like popcorn? It's crazy. I wasn't going to try that, but it ended up being our favorite. My oldest had lemon cookie and forest berry, which were going to be my picks - both excellent. Again, how did it taste, as my son says, not like cookie, not like lemon, but exactly like lemon cookie? And how can he taste all the berries in the forest berry gelato and not just, "oh, it's berries." My 15-year-old settled on butter pecan and stracciatello after trying and loving most of the flavors. I had the popcorn and tangerine... because I asked Ms. Fiancé what the next best flavor is. (If you are that right about popcorn flavor, how could you steer me wrong??) All flavors were excellent that we sampled.

Now... the locals might not like hearing this, but Uncle Carlo's could definitely get away with raising prices. Now, we did just come from the highly expensive tourist areas of Orlando, BUT even with dessert, appetizers and tip... we spent less than any sit-down meal on our way to or in Orlando. And it was our best meal (and we eat well). And we have leftovers!

So glad we turned around for this place! We will tell everyone we know to skip Valdastro (?) and...

My wife and I love eating at Italian restaurants and we’re looking forward to this one especially since they have gnocchi on their menu. There were only two other tables occupied when we got to the place. While the waitress was taking our order, she stop mid order and ran up to a couple that just entered the restaurant and spent about 3-4 minutes with them. My wife and I were shocked because she just walked away as my wife was ordered. She came back and said, “I’m sorry about that… I haven’t seen her since she graduated from college.” She started to repeat my wife’s order and it was completely wrong. No biggie! We corrected it. My wife ordered gnocchi, and I ordered a panini meatball sub. We waited for our food and after about 45 minutes the waitress came back and said, “I’m so sorry. I have been so busy I forgot to tell you we were out of gnocchi and don’t have anything close to make that. They keep reminding me in the kitchen to talk to you.” At that point we were frustrated because they were not that busy, and the waitress spent a lot of time talking to people.

My wife was upset because that was the only reason we went there. My wife ended up ordering raviolis. Out food finally came after 1 hour and 15 minutes. I ordered a meatball panini and got a meatball sub. The sub was not even pressed. My wife took one bit of her raviolis and it was awful. The sauce tasted like a can of tomato’s was poured over it with no seasoning. My father owned an Italian restaurant, and I could tell by looking at it that it had no seasoning.

The waitress stop by and asked if she didn’t like the raviolis. My wife said no. I asked why I didn't get a panini and she looked at me like I was crazy. See the picture. I told her that the only reason we came was to get gnocchi and wished they had told us right away. She said sorry and that she was going to get a manager.

A manager never came to speak to us. Guess the manager did not want to deal with us. She came back and told us she removed the raviolis. We paid and left. We ended up going to Fazoli’s (fast food Italian) and it tasted a 100x better.

Service and food was awful.

The couple next to us told the waiter that they had an awful experience last time they came but this time was better and glad they tried it again. Don’t think we will...

I had dined at this establishment twice and both visits were lackluster at best. For starters the food was not fresh at all and seemed like it came from a frozen T.V. dinner box. I prize myself with having excellent and refined taste and this was awful. Secondly the prices are outrageous and the descriptions misleading. I ordered a "Gargantuan" eggplant panini. Now most people know gargantuan literally means enormous, a far cry from the description. Not only was my overpriced $13 sandwich miniscule but it also came out as a toasted sub. I explained my displeasure to the vapid waitress that it wasn't even a panini. Furthermore, I had to tell her what a panini was as she had no menu knowledge at all. She took my sandwich to the cooks and instead of receiving a new one, they recooked the toasted sub in the panini press. At this point the bread was overly cooked and charred. The waitress acted annoyed and was neglectful to all her tables, while maintaining her rude, recalcitrant attitude. To put false claims about a food description is downright duplicitous and fraudulent. To make things worse I was a vegetarian at the time and the other half of my burnt sandwich (I saved for later) had chicken in it mixed with the eggplant! The audacity of such a neglectful place! The second time I gave it another chance and again was very disappointed, not only in the services rendered but the quality as well. My girlfriend had ordered lasagna and the food again was overpriced, overcooked, insipid and tasted pre-frozen. My girlfriend expressed her discontentment only to be argued with. She did not eat her meal and when the check was given, the food item was never comped from the check. She told the waitress and the waitress went to talk to Uncle Carlo himself! She brought back the same check uncorrected with the excuse that the owner did not know how to void the item from the check. This was obviously a blatant lie and would be a travesty for any patron. After the whole fiasco my girlfriend and I felt hornswoggled. Take my advice, I'm Italian and know good Italian food. If you want to be cheated on price, service and food quality I recommend Uncle Carlo's...