Sorellas: An Italian Eatery — Restaurant in Virginia Beach

As an Italian with a deep love for Italian cuisine, here's my take on Sorrellas, which (for what it's worth) translates to "sisters".

Went there on a bustling Friday night at approximately 5:00 PM, the wait for a table was around an hour and 30 minutes. This was somewhat anticipated, given that the restaurant is still in its opening debut phase. So my advice, call ahead for reservations. We were seated around 6:30 PM.

Wife and I ordered Octopus for the antipasta, and the Bucatini (cacio e pepe) and Radiatore pasta for our main course. We then finished off with Zeppole for dessert. For drinks, an Aperol Spritz, Roman Tourist cocktail, and Mezcal Negroni.

The beverages were truly outstanding—meticulously crafted with a perfect balance of flavors and precision in ingredient selection. These were indeed expertly made drinks. Hats off to the bartender!

As we anticipated our meals, we were served warm, fresh, and delightful bread with a resemblance to focaccia. Accompanied by a dip of olive oil, garlic, herbs, and balsamic vinegar.

Next up came the Octopus. It was lightly seared and adorned above a bed of creamy polenta. That too was very delicious. The octopus was tender to the bite albeit a couple bites were a touch on the fishy side. Nothing bad though. I would totally order it again.

Regarding the pasta offerings, I find it noteworthy that they craft all their pasta in-house. The bucatini and radiatore, presumably formed using a brass extruder, showcase a commendable execution evident in the taste and texture of the pasta at its core. But what wasn't executed well was the cacio e pepe, the sauce for the bucatini. What was suppose to be a creamy emulsion of cheese and pasta water was instead a broken oily mess. This was the underwhelming dish of the night and not something we would ever order again. It takes a certain finesse to perfectly execute what many would consider the simplest of ingredients, and time and temperature with that dish is everything. If you add to that a busy night in the kitchen, it's most certainly a recipe for disaster. Stir clear of that dish. Could be a fluke, but then why take the chance? Make it yourself at home, or experience it in Italy.

The Radiatore in the lamb ragu was excellent. I loved everything about it. The dollop of ricotta fits the dish beautifully and tames the pungent saffron into submission.

Lastly, for dessert, the Zeppole. Listen, if you're torn on which dessert to get, especially if you want sharing portions, this is the dessert for you. Think if it like little deep fried donut balls stuffed with an amazing creme custard on the inside. It's just bliss.

Overall, the wife and I enjoyed our visit and will certainly be back to experience more of the menu. As for portion size, eh,.. a bit on the small to medium side. Think shrinkflation. But the quality helps, so long as they maintain that.

Is this a true authentic Italian restaurant, umm... NO. Sorry, it's just not. It's a modern take on Italian-style cuisine, and it comes much closer to Italian authenticity than just about any restaurant you will find in this area. But in order to better assess things, I'll need to make several more visits and try other offerings to get a more accurate depiction. And of course, next I will have to experience the Pizza. I'll...

Me and my wife have been here twice. The first time, the food was excellent. We couldn’t wait to come back. The service was okay, not great, but okay. The food more than made up for the server. We shared the Bruschetta appetizer, I had the ravioli and she had a pizza for dinner. We shared the sorbetto for dessert. We recommend this restaurant to multiple people who took our advice. The second time we came was for our anniversary. This experience was completely different. We got a “Happy Anniversary” from the manager, as we were walking away from the hostess stand, as if it was an afterthought. Other than that, it was never mentioned again. Why ask if there’s a special occasion, if you’re not going to do anything with that information? Once we got to the table, it took our waitress forever to come acknowledge us. She had zero personality. We asked for recommendations on a few things, but getting an answer out of her left is feeling like we were putting her out. She was a horrible server. Once the food was dropped (by someone else) she came back one time to check on us, then that was it. We ordered the Burrata appetizer. It comes with two small pieces of bread and a small portion of burrata, about the size of a small child’s palm. It was very underwhelming. I got the special which was gnocchi with braised short ribs. It was absolutely nasty. The gnocchi was so over cooked, it was like eating boiled mashed potatoes. I took 3 bites and didn’t eat anymore. My wife’s pizza (the same one she ordered before and loved) was drenched in balsamic glaze. It was so soggy, she could barely eat it. We invited friends to have dinner with us, and they had the calamari appetizer, which they enjoyed. One ordered the gnocchi special, she hated it. The other person ordered a spicy dish. She said it was okay, but she didn’t eat it all and didn’t take the leftovers.. We all ordered the sorbetto, which we enjoyed. The takeaway of this review is both times I’ve been there, the service was less than desirable, and the food was excellent one time and horrible the next. Sorella’s, if you don’t work on consistency with your food, and the friendliness of your wait staff, you’re not going...

Wow! Shocked at how bad and how unprofessional! I frequent Sorellas' sister restaurant, The Atlantic, and LOVE it and expected the same. On my first visit to Sorellas in early January, I order arancini (delicious!) and octopus. The octopus came out with a fowl odor which even my neighbor sitting at the bar commented on and when I asked the server to smell it and tell me what he thought (I don't return food!), he brought it immediately to the manager (I think his name is Vincent?). The manager, who also previously managed the Atlantic, brought the plate back to me and said "if you don't like a fish smell, you shouldn't have ordered octopus!" Seriously?? There are certain types of seafood that SHOULD NOT smell fishy - octopus, crab and even oysters to name a few! Rude. I returned to Sorellas Valentine's week with my boyfriend who attended culinary school because 1) I believe in and want to support the Atlantic family of restaurants, and 2) I figured my boyfriend may be more open-minded than I am when it comes to food. We had the arancini again (delicious again!) and we ordered mussels and crab in pasta shells. The crab in the pasta had a WICKED fish smell and taste so was not eaten, and several of my boyfriend's mussels were still closed - meaning they were not ready for serving! Saddened by the fish experience, we ordered a pizza and that, too, was awful. To add insult to injury, that same rude manager poured himself NO LESS than 6 shots of Hornitos tequila and drank with an off-duty server from the restaurant from BEHIND THE BAR who drank and cursed like a sailor the whole time! The food is inedible and YOU ARE POURING YOURSELF TEQUILA SHOTS??? I'm a CEO of a business and that is rude/disrepectful both to your guests and to your staff. Poor Lewis at the bar was our server and tried his best, but the manager is ignorant. Perhaps he's related to the owners, because he has ZERO REDEEMING professional qualities! I'll stick with...