Papa Vino's Italian Kitchen — Restaurant in Warsaw

I took my son here for his birthday. He was so disappointed when the food arrived! All I could say to him was I told you so. When we walked in, all I saw were elderly people and one young couple, obviously on a first date. I knew then before we even ordered the food that it would be subpar just based on the customers in at dinner time. Coming from the Chicagoland area, only restaurants with lines of people in the waiting area to be seated are truly great places to eat. Because no one from the city is waiting in line for mediocre to garbage food. Especially during the rush hours of dinner on a Friday or Saturday. I warned my son that the parking lot is only full most the times because it is a new restaurant to the area and small town people get excited when something new arrives like a restaurant because of dining out and the same old places regularly. I said we should give it a couple of months like Texas Roadhouse and then see what occurs. Will they still be packed with patrons like when they first opened, and if not, then let's not waste our time or money. Whenever I see too many elderly people in a restaurant, I know the food is bland because they can't handle spices, and they've lost their taste buds to mother time. NOT THEIR FAULT! I'm getting their also. But also too many kids on dates to try something new also is an indication of not to eat here. In Chicago, when visiting a restaurant, look around, and when you see a diversity in customers from different age groups and cultural backgrounds in one place, that means the food is excellent, and if every day they stay parking lot is packed and that restaurant has been there for years and people are smiling or holding their belly as they walk out, then that's the place to be! Believe me, you!

Now, when going out of Warsaw to eat, my son notices these places I've just educated you on in the review above. He even noticed that the outside or inside atmosphere and exterior or interior is not as glamorous as Papa Vino's, but the food is to die for. I told him those high prices for aesthetics results in terribly high-priced meals and thus compromises the quality of said meals. Not to mention the low pay the staff must be getting, which in turn means the cooks and servers don't really care about what they send out to customers. On a low note, I would've enjoyed Olive Garden better, and that's hurts me to even say. Whoever the owner is, he/she should be fired first for letting subpar food leave that kitchen after spending all that $ on this establishment and serving fake Italian food. 😡 There are old Italian ladies in Chicago that would walk right up and slap the manager/owner for expecting them to pay for those dry/watered down and rubbery dishes Papa Vino...

I don't know what went wrong, but last time i was in, the food was so much better. This time it was bland, no seasoning at all. I will explain further below.

I had ordered the pizza bread and the chicken parm. Marisah ordered the carrot cake and the cesar salad with salmon. We waited around 40 minutes for our appetizer. when it came, it was soggy, quite literally drenched in oil with a poor excuse for marinara. And above it all, the bottom was like charcoal. We ended up waiting another 15 minutes for our entrees, Marisah's salad was fairly damp. To the point there was a puddle of water and dressing at the bottom of her plate. Quite literally if the salmon was alive, it would be of been living the dream in that dish.

Now my plate was interesting, you'd think my chicken would be cooked properly, but it was far beyond that, towards the center, it was ice cold with a freezer burned taste to it. Sadly the only thing i enjoyed with my dish was the noodles.

I will say the carrot cake was amazing, so thats all with the food. now lets talk about the staff. I had noticed a waitress being fairly rude to one of the bussers, she was kinda skinny and tall with blonde hair. Quite literally heard her say, "take these plates because im busy, now do your job." While the busser was working on 2 tables. Personally disappointed in seeing/hearing this exchange of words from her. Now if it wasn't for a busser last time coming in, I wouldn't of come back. The food was ok last time. But i honestly came back to see this busser that stepped out of his way to see if i was ok. He came up to me to take a plate and somehow just knew i wasn't ok at the time, so he took time to chat with me, and honestly turned my day around. Sadly i didn't see him there this time. If you can, please reply to this review and let me know when he works next, because what he said changed my life.

For others reading this, i ended up capturing his voice in a voicemail to my buddy. this is what he said word for word. "Today might of been terrible, but we make mistakes, were only human man, but as we are human, you have to keep in mind. You'll need to learn from your mistake. Because once you learn from it, you can go back and fix it tomorrow. It might change everything for you, it might not, but at least your changing for the better even if its not noticed immediately, they will soon notice. i promise you. Now i gotta get back to work, just sleep on it, and next time you come in, come speak with me, I'll make time for you". He was genuinely a nice guy. The busser im talking about was tall, white male, with glasses, I believe his name was alec.

Please let me know when he works next, it would mean alot to me...

Where to begin.

The atmosphere is amazing! It is very fancy and Warsaw is lucky to have this restaurant. The portions were just the right size. The decor is really well planned out.

What we didn't like:

Super loud in the restaurant. The tile floors echo everything and there is nothing really on the walls to absorb the sound. Very surprised for a company that is growing that they don't know this by now.

The prices on the check did NOT match the menu. My spaghetti meat sauce showed 10.99 on the menu and my receipt showed 12.99. My daughter's was 11.99 and the receipt showed 19.99. That's a big difference. Maybe there were different sizes or something else we didn't notice but I will be very observant the next time on the prices.

Our waiter (Jesus) was not very quick about anything. When he brought out the food he didn't ask us for cheese and we had to flag him down. Maybe he had an off night but I would imagine after the food was delivered we didn't see him again for a good 25 minutes. Only because another table flagged down a different waitress did Jesus come back in the room and we could ask for the box and the check. I almost went looking.

Speed of food delivery was not super fast. The restaurant at 6:30 PM on a Monday was about 1/3 full (or less) and we waited about 30-40 minutes for our food.

Only saw one manager the entire time we were there.

I am rating this as a 4 star because I felt it was good food and not a terrible experience, just was surprised by these above things.

When asking the rest of the family on the way home: they liked the atmosphere but preferred the food and service at the other Italian...