Aldo's Ristorante — Restaurant in Virginia Beach

Italian cuisine is something of a touchy issue with me. My father's side of the family is Italian, so I grew up eating family recipes for sauce and meatballs, olive all'ascolana, homemade ravioli, braciola, polenta, etc. Simple dishes, but hearty and flavorful.

I know enough now to understand that Italian cuisine embodies a far broader array of dishes and spice palettes than what I grew up with, but the family dishes I listed above are still among my favorite things to eat. So, inevitably -- whether fair or not -- when I go out for Italian fare, I can't help but measure what I eat against those family favorites. More often than not, I'm underwhelmed at best, which is why I tend to avoid Italian restaurants.

This has been the case with Aldo's. Everyone we know raves about it, but in 20+ years of living in VA Beach, we had never dined there. I was afraid of being disappointed. To celebrate my oldest child's recent high school graduation, we decided it was time to finally pay them a visit.

Things I liked:

• Service was top-notch. Friendly, attentive, entertaining. • It was VERY crowded, but for the most part the atmosphere was still pleasant (more on that below). • I ordered the fried eggplant stack for an appetizer. I thought the thick slices of tomato in the stack were a bit of an odd pairing, but the marinara sauce tasted fresh and bright and had a Goldilocks texture and thickness -- somewhere between crushed and pureed that was just right. The eggplant slices were crispy and cheesy. Not soggy at all or too bready. Eggplant parmigiana is a favorite of mine, and this really hit the spot. Delicious. • My daughter ordered baked lasagna. This is one of those dishes I wouldn't ever consider ordering for myself when dining out. It's just not a huge favorite to begin with, and I tell myself, "I can make that at home." To my surprise, it was delicious. Congratulations, Aldo's -- you have the distinction of being the one restaurant I've been to that could tempt me to order lasagna when dining out! • Sausage umbria was my main course. The cream sauce was fragrant and savory. Great mushroom flavor. I've been spoiled by the sausage a friend of my grandfather used to make, so I don't expect anything to ever be the equal of that. But the sausage had a good taste.

Things I was underwhelmed by:

• I don't typically eat thicker pastas like strozzapreti, because they tend to be too chewy for my taste. That was the case with the strozzapreti in the sausage umbria. Chewy I can tolerate, but some pieces bordered on being gummy. If I'd had my wits about me, I would have inquired about substituting a different kind of pasta when I ordered. That's mainly on me. Honestly, a fan of strozzapreti might have been happier with the pasta's consistency. • I mentioned the atmosphere above. It's an attractive establishment, but I do feel they had patrons a little too tightly packed in when we visited. It was loud, which made conversation difficult -- even with people sitting immediately adjacent to me. And the lighting was a bit too dark for my taste.

In all, though, I can say that we had a pleasant dining experience at...

A few things to know before you go that might not be clear from their website.

First of all, make a reservation, or else it is highly likely you will not eat there. We did, luckily, but we did see some parties turned away because they were 110% booked for the night.

Second, there is a dress code more or less. No hats (odd, but whatever), and I would say at the very least for men, a collared shirt. Women, a dress or something more dressy than jeans. We happened to be dressed up that evening, but would have felt out of place if we're hadn't been.

Ok. So we still had to wait despite a reservation. That's fine. It was only a short time past our reservation time of 7 PM. We were sat promptly and brought water by our terrific server.

This is my first complaint. You don't get bread. There is nothing for the table when you arrive, but I'll get to my next issue with that later.

We ordered the burrata appetizers, which was excellent. The mozzarella was moist and delicious, and the tomatoes and prosciutto was outstanding.

I ordered a French 75 and my wife ordered a Lemondrop Martini. As a big fan of cocktails, I would say they were both excellent. My wife said it was good, but not as sweet as other ones she's had.

Our dinner was good. I ordered the diavlo. The flavor was great, just don't expect anything spicy. I would say zesty is a better term for it. That was a bit of a letdown. I love a great, spicy pasta, but was not impressed with the heat. The shrimp was perfect though, as were the clams and sausage.

My wife ordered the chicken parmesan, and was very pleased with it. It was above average, and was still good the next day.

So here is a continuation of my original complaint. Prices were not cheap. They were not outrageous, but still about $30 a plate. No bread. Come on. When you go out to Italian meals, you break bread. It's family. Bread is a paid appetizer. Also, with your entree, you don't get a salad or anything else. That is an additional $10 or so. To be fair, this trend was encountered at a few other restaurants as well recently. I just take a tiny bit of grievance when you pay premium prices, and I feel this is part of cost cutting which really let's down part of the overall feel of the evening.

However, back to the positive. Meal was good, server was 10 out of 10 great, and we left full. Also, terrific piano player during the evening as well.

Parking was plentiful and easy to find outside. Reservations were easy to make online. Would recommend for...

While I am usually very thrilled with my meal at Aldo’s, and will whole heartedly tell everyone I know to go there for a great meal. My last time there was ruined by poor service. We usually get seated in the booth section and have had absolutely great service from either Chessy or the older gentleman whose name escapes me( maybe John ). They make you feel like you are their only table even when it’s jam packed, rarely forget anything and give five start service.

Unfortunately on our last time there, we had the misfortune of being seated in the front ,right, near the windows instead. We didn’t have reservations but it was after 830 on a rainy Thursday. I don’t want to call anyone out by name but she absolutely ruined the meal. I was a server in a fine dining establishment many moons ago and she was well below what you would expect even from a diner waitress. There is a certain presence one should have and she didn’t. She was disorganized, rushed, extremely forgetful, felt like she was dropping food like we were an after thought while on her way to another table. The tables are close and there is no need to double up on several tables when you can walk a few paces to attend to them in a few beats separately, especially when clearing. Expecting me to pick up my plate and add it to the bunch she cleared from the other table because she didn’t have any hands free. I don’t want other peoples half eaten food in my face. Snapped at me to remove my utensils instead of bringing me new ones. Didn’t check on us during vital moments and dropped the bill without asking if we wanted anything else because I assume she wanted to get out of there. We rarely fuss or complain but if the manager was not chatting with someone else I would have told him that evening that the experience that night was far from great and it was all due to the waitress. She needs to be trained, we don’t just go out to fill our bellies but to also take in the experience. You guys run a tight ship, the bartenders, most of the waitstaff and food are all great but this young lady made us feel undue stress and like we were a burden in an environment that should have been the complete opposite. When you have great service consistently you forget how much poor service can effect your experience. We will be back, of course. On another note- your napoleon is the best around. Rich with flavor without being too sweet. Like it should be....