Ristorante Imperatore — Restaurant in Whitpain Township

The place is extremely attractive, nicer than its long time Mexican restaurant predecessor. Good crowd. Music definitely too loud. Food very good but not great. Prices of menu selections reasonable. Service abysmal.

Arrived at 7:50 for an 8:00 Saturday reservation for party of 4. One hostess told us, repeatedly, which table we were getting as soon as that party finished their wine and left. At 8:10, a second younger hostess proceeds to seat a party of 4 with an 8:15 reservation at what was to be our table(she actually had already seated them elsewhere and they asked to move tables). Ridiculous and we complained to the manager, whose only responses when eventually seating us at 8:20 were "that hostess is new"(so?) and now we have "the best table in the house"(really, so good the last party asked to be moved?!). It was handled very poorly and it only got worse.

Had to ask 3 times for a fourth water glass and sent the original wine glasses back to kitchen because they smelled soapy. But the best was our original server, who was more full of himself that their ravioli. I asked a question about a menu item while he was giving his dramatic presentation about the wonderful specials at this strip mall restaurant and I was shushed. He told me he's "explaining the specials and not the menu!" Really? Dude, can't you work off script and since when is a patron castigated by a server for seemingly asking an inappropriate question. When I then told another member of our party that I'll never return to this place on the heels of this horrific first 30 minutes, Rico Suave gave me a 10 second death stare and promptly exclaimed he could not wait on us and would get us another server. Great! That was the best part of their service all night. There are plenty of other local restaurants( Po Le, Castello, Panache, and San Marco) which all originated from the kitchen at San Marco in Spring House, where I can get comparable if not better food/selections/prices without having the night ruined by incompetent,...

To start with the good: Atmosphere is very cozy and intimate. Service was attentive despite the restaurant being booked. They knew their specials and menus to a T. Kudos to the front of house. Portions were generous.

Now for the bad: We ordered the bruschetta. The bread was a little too thick, the tomatoes were fresh but unseasoned, and the Parmesan was noticeably shaved in advance, it’s bite, dryness, and flavor were completely absent. The only herb on the plate was chopped parsley, and it was bruised and flavorless.

For our entrees we got the chicken parmigiana and saltimbucca. The tomato sauce with the chicken parmiginia was good, but the breading on the chicken lacked any texture and the chicken was chewy, with a little gristle in some of the bites. The carrots that came on the side were slightly undercooked.

It’s an insult to call the saltimbocca just that. I have never before seen a saltimbocca drenched in cheese. The prosciutto was flimsy and flavorless. The chicken was likely too thick to pan fry (it was medallions instead of pounded out; pounding it out would solve the chewiness in the parmigiana), and so the prosciutto couldn’t develop its crust, nor could its saltiness diffuse into the rest of the dish. Normally, fresh sage is tucked between the prosciutto and the chicken, but this restaurant chose to put it in their demi, which really was a weak gravy. When I saw the sage demi on the menu it piqued my interest, but throughout eating the dish I was unable to taste the sage once.

A 4.6 is what this restaurants review rating is when I write this review, and based on my experience this is way too high. Good servers and atmosphere do not compensate for subpar food. The menu is an appropriate size, so there’s no excuse for any dish...

A group of us recently visited this restaurant. The ambiance was wonderful and our waitress was charming. After reading all the rave reviews, I was really looking forward to having great, genuine Italian food. We had calamari fritte which were good, although were seasoned a little heavy and a little over cooked. I ordered fish which was very fresh but completely overcooked to the point of being tough and once again, totally over seasoned with the same mix as the calamari. The roasted veg were delicious and deserts very good. The real disappointment came with the veal Milanese that a colleague ordered. I have to say it was probably one of the worst Milanese’ I’ve ever tried. I’ve no idea why they didn’t return it. I guess they were a lot more polite than myself. However, when you’re paying nearly 30 bucks for a piece of overcooked, over seasoned meat that bore no resemblance whatever to any decent Milanese I’ve had in this country or Italy, that’s 25 dollars too much. It really could have been a frozen piece of veal deep fried for 20 minutes. The clincher was that after our meal, we were rudely told that we had to leave as they needed the table. Needless to say we will not be returning, nor recommend the place to our family and friends. What a shame as it would have been wonderful to finally have a decent Italian restaurant...