Ria's Restaurant — Restaurant in Waterbury

"Grazie Maria"

Thank you Maria for deciding to open your own restaurant. My review is based on two visits to Ria's and both were great experiences.

My first visit I had one of the most incredible soups I've ever tasted. It was a Seafood Fagioli. Clams, mussels, salmon, monkfish, and cannelini beans in a light flavorful cream broth. I also had an appetizer for lunch. The Sausage, Potatoes, and Italian Long Hot Peppers. The italian sausage was delicious, the potatoes were nicely browned, and the skin of the peppers was slightly blistered covering the tender hot spicy peppers. The dish was garnished with a lemon wedge that I squeezed on everything which brightened all the flavors of the dish.

New Years Eve, I suggested to my wife that we have dinner at Ria's and it was another delicious meal. My wife began with the Fried Mozzerella. It was fried to a crispy golden brown and served with a very delicious marinara. She also ordered the Baked Stuffed Shrimp because she liked that they prepared it with a Ritz cracker, butter, and sherry wine stuffing. But she was a little disappointed because she felt they went a little heavy on the sherry wine. She said she'll have a pasta dish next time. I began with a Baccala, Escarole and Bean soup. Another very good soup. I also had the Zuppa Di Pesce for dinner. Shrimp, clams, mussels, and calamari served with a fra diavolo sauce over linguine. My dish was outstanding. Ria's is fortunate to have Chef Val creating these delicious dishes.

It was a nice surprise the first time I walked in Ria's to be greeted by the bar manager, Ryan. My wife and I met Ryan at another restaurant last year. I feel that every restaurant should have at least one Ryan. Lol He's so upbeat and friendly that you want to sit at his bar to enjoy your dinner, a few cocktails, and great conversations with him. I also had the pleasure of meeting the owner, Maria Gagliardi. She's friendly, personable, and I heard from other customers that her pizza is very good. I'll have to try it next time.

Ria's Restaurant doesn't look anything like the previous restaurants that were in this space. The space was completely remodeled both inside and out and it looks beautiful. The copper bar top is stunning and the sliding barn doors that separate the dining rooms are very nice.

I'd like to wish the entire staff at Ria's the Best of Luck. I believe that Ria's will be here for many...

Just to set the stage.. I happened to come across this restaurant while I was searching for 'Bolognese', so this review is a little more weighted on that, but takes everything into consideration. I saw this place was one of the few places that offered Bolognese, so I ordered a helping along with a Meat Lover's Pizza. typically, I'd order a Bacon Pizza, but I was shackled to Grub Hub and the closest option was Meat Lover's.

That being said... the Bolognese left me feeling argumentative! A Bolognese is a class of it's own. It's not really a tomato sauce, it's more of a meat sauce. This sauce was accompanied by a small army of tomatoes. There's literally pretty large chunks of tomato upon initial examination, which to me made the think it wasn't going to be a Bolognese at all. That, however, is due to other restaurants taking advantage of the Bolognese price tag and claiming it for pasta in marinara. I found it to be a good mix of beef and sausage and it actually compliments the rest of the ingredients.. albeit a little heavy on the herbs. It was pleasantly flavorful and outside of the large tomato chunks it was pretty official!

For the Meat Lover's Pizza... I love meat and I love pizza! I was torn between 3 and 4 stars for the Bolognese, but the pizza made me consider 5 stars! This one one of the best pizza pies I've had in my life, and I'm middle aged! I'm unsure I'd be able to buy it anywhere else ever again. I really wanted to give it 5 stars, but like I mentioned, I came here in search of Bolognese. I still yet considered the elusive 5 star, but where I ordered from GrubHub, it has that checkbox for "Include utensils?" which I checked and got none. That was the final weigh in for me.

Overall, pretty good Bolognese, though a bit too heavy on a couple ingredients. Pizza is downright unapologetically delicious! However, I ordered soup and Bolognese and didn't get utensils!! Big hit for a piece of cheap plastic, but that's the name of the game in...

Edit : I tried to get an explanation as to why they refused to acknowledge me and my son that day , and they completely ignored me, I reached out a few times no response. I just wanted to know why the server ignored us the entire time as if we weren’t even there? Thought maybe it was just a misunderstanding but since the company still refuses to acknowledge the situation , I can tell it’s just run terribly. Why are you ignoring customers, even with an issue?

I came here a few nights ago for dinner with my son. I was really looking forward to trying it because of the good reviews I saw on Facebook. When we walked in, there was nobody there so we sat down for a minute in the waiting area. When the man came to the front, I got up and he didn’t even acknowledge me. Somebody else came in and he started talking to them about seating, once he was finished talking to them, he looked right at me and continued to ignore me. So me and my son left and brought our business elsewhere. My 6 year old son has asked multiple times why the guy acted as if we were ghosts and didn’t see us. Never again will I try here. How can...