Little Italy Restaurant — Restaurant in Virginia

LONG AND HONEST REVIEW 1/6/20. ONE OF TWO REVIEWS I’ve been to this place in the past and have had several positive experiences. I take every negative reviews with a grain of salt and take our current times/circumstances into consideration. Im a person that believes it takes a big impact to leave a review wether positive of negative. I’ve been to this establishment a handful of times I’d say over 3-4 years. Once before I had to send the chicken Marsala back because it did not taste correct/edible. The cook came out immediately and apologized and remade the order to satisfaction. That was about 2+ years ago and has thus far been my only issue. Today I came on my birthday. I wanted to go to Tony & Milenas, but they’re closed on Wednesdays. I seriously considered not going to Little Italy after reading the responses to negative reviews that management/ownership has left while I was considering where to have my local birthday dinner. How can you act unprofessionally while maintaining a professional establishment? You can’t. I fully support local businesses but tend to consider otherwise when they’re repeatedly unprofessional. But again, I’ve had previous positive experiences here so I went in hopeful and excited. Here it is: I order shrimp ala vodka. Simple. It’s your pre-made marinara, a shot of vodka and some cream and/or cheese. It’s not hard. Comes out immediately not looking up to the quality I’ve previously experienced (smaller shrimps than previously, not of same quality and less of a portion). I take a bite and immediately know it’s not only incorrect but inedible. My partner agreed. Tastes like the chef dumped half a cup of sugar in the sauce? Did he use Marsala? I tell the very nice waitress about the issue, I’m put off and so I tell her I wouldn’t like anything else. The waitress and cook immediately come out of the kitchen in front of our faces to talk about us in front of our faces. Again, the chef’s temperament matters as much as the wait staff. I had an excellent experience when previously having to send food back when the issue was fully acknowledged (apology) and corrected (correctly remade). Not made to feel like I’m some idiot because I don’t know how a simple alla vodka is supposed to taste. Other notes: the bruschetta was very delicious. The garlic knots were garlic knots. Previous experience they tasted better/were of better quality. My partner had veal parm. He said It was ok, and he’s simple. To me, it tasted like the frozen veal parm I made last week from Aldi at home. I’ve heard this and that about new management and I’m not sure when that was. I did see ramblings, complaints and ownership unprofessionalism about 2yrs ago or so on Facebook but I’m unsure on dates. Seems to line up with the unprofessional responses of unsatisfactory reviews on google.My previous experiences were in fact a year and plus plus ago. Again, it was my birthday. I wanted a good meal and dessert but instead ended up paying $50 for bruschetta, garlic knots, veal parm, house wine and bud light and going home hungry. ONE...

This restaurant is a bit dated, there's a good amount of seating and lots of booths. Our waiters were very nice and we had no complaints about the service. It was definitely the food.

The garlic knots were very doughy and thick. We were super hungry so we just dealt with that as appetizers. Not the best but not the worst. Edible at best. The Caesar salad I had with my fettuccini was ok - the dressing was very tangy and tasted a lot like lemon. I'm not a big lemon fan, so I didn't care for it. My fettuccini was ok. Edible as well. Nothing to write home about, and I ate a little bit and decided to box it because I lost my appetite after taking a small bite of my husband's pizza.

The pizza in the picture is called their Stuffed Steak Pizza. Ingredients listed says "philly meat, sauce, cheese" and I believe one other ingredient - I forgot what it was. I have NEVER eaten a pizza like this before. The meat was overcooked, the sauce was bland and kinda tasted old. I'm assuming the cheese and sauce was watery because it tasted bland and watered down. The crust was soggy and tasted like somehow (Idk how) it was microwaved. It was disgusting. I'm usually very open to trying new places. I love all different types of cuisine, as I was raised in Hawaii. We are a cultural melting pot and the food is as well.

I have never written a review like this before. My husband is a very kind man, and although we told our waiter we would not be taking the pizza home - we still paid for it. My husband finished that one slice and he really didn't feel well afterwards, hence why we left it. I didn't want him eating it later. We are by no means in the market for bashing restaurants. But I choose to be completely honest about my reviews.

We'll not be returning, but we wish this place the best. I highly recommend reading through other reviews before you decide to eat here, I would like people to be well informed...

We stopped at this restaurant when we were in Gloucester last month. After we sat, we waited about 10 minutes before a waitress came by. They were not busy. She brought our drinks a few minutes later and then took our order. I had to repeat my order 3 times. I ordered a Ruben and Veal Marsala. We waited about 20 minutes for our food and the waitress brought my friend Chicken Marsala. The Ruben sandwich was greasy and almost no sauerkraut. The sandwich tasted like a regular corned beef sandwich--not a Rueben. We sent the Chicken Marsala back and I ate my meal while we waited for them to make her Veal Marsala. It was about 15 minutes later when the dish arrived. The sauce was very watery, so my friend said there it just tasted like plain veal. The veal was tough and the only utensils we received were a butter knife and fork.

Service: The waitress never came by to check on us or see if we needed drinks. Another person brought our order out to the table. We saw the waitress a total of 3 times during our meal. I had to go run down the waitress to get our check.

Not a good way to get repeat business. The meal was ok but was more akin to chain fast food than an Italian eatery. Needless to say, we won't...