Mangia Qui Italian Bistro — Restaurant in Virginia Beach

I’m pretty sure that I have never left a 1-star review before. I’m sad to say, however, that this place has earned it.

This was my wife and I’s first time. We were told a “swing group” was performing from 6-9pm and that it would be $75 a person with a 4-course meal. We thought, "Great, some entertainment with dinner like a great evening." Anticipating a lovely meal with some swing music would unfortunately be the apex of our evening.

After being seated, the server took our entire evening order at one time, promising that the food wouldn’t “stack” on our table. We ordered the calamari and prosciutto shrimp for an appetizer, caesar and house salads, short ribs ravioli and pork tenderloin, and cheesecake and tiramisu. We also ordered a bottle of Pinot Noir that cost $34, but tasted like a $14 bottle of wine (which is what it costs retail).

The calamari was tolerable at best and the marinara sauce tasted straight from a can. The prosciutto shrimp dish only had two shrimp, had clearly just been defrosted, and by our rough math cost ~$6 per shrimp.

The salads were average, arriving almost an hour after our appetizers. I then realized the intent was for the food to cover the entire 3-hour span of the musical performance. I told our server that it was okay to “stack” the food to which the server replied that only two people were working in the kitchen. Having worked in the food service industry, I was surprised that he would divulge such information, but I sensed he was flustered.

I should note that the “swing group” was in no way a swing group. Over 2hrs into their performance, we heard bee bop, R&B, pop, and others, but no swing. I do want to say that they had talent — a 4 piece vocal group singing to backing tracks — well in tune, and a relatively pleasant addition compared to the rest of the experience. HOWEVER, the reason I bring them up is because they restaurant plugged them as a “swing group” which was quite misleading.

Back to the food. We received our main course slightly faster than the salads (maybe 30 minutes). I don’t know if it was because of my “stack the food” statement, but seemed that we were some of the first to receive our dishes. I make that observation because the pork tenderloin was COLD. Now, to be fair, it had a good flavor, but was stone cold. The ravioli was lukewarm at best. In fact, the green beans and potatoes were the only piping hot items on our plates. The potato demi glaze on the ravioli tasted like nothing more than an over-peppered beef gravy.

By this time, it had been over 2hrs since the evening began and my wife and I decided that we were finished with the experience, so we asked for our check and our desserts to go. Later on we tried the desserts: The cheesecake tasted exactly like what we purchase at BJs. The tiramisu was surprisingly okay and turned out to be the best dish overall, albeit you can find much better around town.

This brings me to the final point. At $75 a person, a $34 bottle of wine, plus tax and 20% tip, we spent nearly $250. Now, we expected this much of a cost up front, but for $250, we also expected a much better experience. We have consistently had exponentially better experiences around Hampton Roads at other locally owned restaurants. We always strive to support locally owned establishments but this will sadly be the one and only time that we will support this restaurant ever again, and I STRONGLY caution anyone considering them.

Believe it or not, I’d like to go out on a good note and state why a solid 1 star rating instead of arguing for 0 stars: The young gentleman busing tables. Despite the experience, there was a young gentleman who, in addition to clearing dishes from tables, absolutely refused to let your water glass be less than half an inch from full. I could barely get two sips in before he was back to refresh my glass. He was polite, courteous, and quite frankly hands-down the best part of Mangia Qui. Give that young man a pat on the back...

i eat italian food all around town and this has become my number 1 spot. few years back it was known as the Chefs Table when i first found it, great food then and it just seems to get better with each visit.

we had to go back for the short ribs last night - sat oct 24th........ribs x 2, chris tried a new dish tuna and shrimp puttanesca and E got the special on the board - Chicken Imperial - wow on both, we also shared the app. special on the board: coconut shrimp and another bottle of ghostrunner red - thank you austin for another great dinner out....wow, i forgot the dessert special on the board: pumpkin cheese cake......we loved it

Back once more for dinner: Nov 28th

Back once more for dinner for 5 Feb. 20th Ghost Runner to start chicken noodle soup for 3 - caesar salad for 3 - 1 Focaccia Bread T & E shared a Chicken Marsala, C & H both had Puttanesca and i tried the nightly special: Fried Veal with omg...........Austin took great care of the 5 of us once more. see you soon .

we met T & E there around 5:30 - Austin had us all set up and a bottle of ghost runner was on its way.

several specials on board, one was appetizer called: Shrimp Bruschetta on homemade bread topped with good stuff and jumbo shrimp split....Outstanding. T &E shared large greek salad.

the other dinner special was pan seared flounder with crabmeat: Called it Flounder Imperial - E tried that as her dinner and yet another OMG - T and Chris got their all time favorite: Bolognese, for me the greek salad t&E had looked great, so i ordered a small and added grilled tuna.

we passed on dessert for once and we all carried our leftovers home.

thank you John, Cherly and Austin - see you soon

Back Jan 16th......bottle of Ghost Rider

Chris and i shared a large greek salad, T & E shared the special app.......chicken noodle soup. both of our choices were great.

Our many visits here Chris and T have always gotten the Fettuccine Bolognese, well it was my turn, so we ordered 3, E got the salmon and then we finished with 2 orders of the Spumoni Bomba.

see you soon Mr Austin .

March 28th - sunday dinner for 4.

ghost runner to start, nightly app. special frutti di mare, one salmon special with shrimp, one salmon from menu and i opted for the big daddy porkchop - oh boy what a fat double bones baby it was toooo....dessert was creme brulee. see you...

We really wanted to try this place as heard they were good. Unfortunately we never got to the point of eating the food. When we arrived there was no one waiting, but we were told by the hostess the wait was 30 minutes. We decided to wait at the bar. The first thing we noticed was the manager/owner had set up her own paint by numbers art table at the front and instead of managing was focused on her hobby. We wanted a drink from the bar, but we couldn't figure out where the bartender kept going. Turns out he was one of 2 wait staff in the place. The other one told us she was new and didn't know what she was doing. When we were seated, we stopped the water guy after waiting 20 minutes at our table. He said he couldn't take orders but got the new waitress. She was not pleased but took our order and brought bread, but not plates or utensils. She never came back to our table. After another 20 minutes we had enough and flagged down the guy who was supposed to be our waiter. We told him we were leaving and he said he understood. Not even a question from him just concurance. I think he was greatful for one less table. We went to Bravos and had a great dinner. The poor service was entirely the managers fault. She never got up from her painting to help her struggling employees. The hostess spent most of the time just standing, she could have helped with the small things. The water guy should be promoted and paid to wait tables. He had the skills for it. The bartender should "bartend" and do the few high top tables near the bar. Hire more wait staff. You will loose more business with poor service than gain by being cheap. Train the new waitess. When a customer stares at her, don't make them call out to her. Stop and see what the issue is. It doesn't matter how good the food is if the customer gets so frustrated with the service...