Violino Ristorante Italiano — Restaurant in Winchester

I write this in hopes the Chef will read it and make the changes necessary. Bottom line upfront: It is dissapointing and disturbing Violino is charging the prices they are for the quality of food they are serving. Although the atmosphere and service is great, the food is horrible, both in taste and display.(See photos)

I lived in Italy and have eaten at Michelin Star restaurants throughout the world, as well as mom and pop dive restaurants with great food.. I enjoy good food, Violino's does not even come close to being good.

Appetizer: The meat curtains. Horrible presentation. It looks like my 7 year old plated the dish. The prosciutto was chewy and the other meat (boar, venison, beef) had a lemon zest drizzle on top that is not appropriate on the meat served... The meat curtains draping from a cheap glass bowl is just wrong.

Main Course: The veal seemed processed and was not good quality. The marsala dressing tasted more like Chinese Teriyaki. The "imported" mushrooms were from a can. The potatoes were undercooked and crunchy.

Artichoke Soup: Just gross and to top it off the rice was crunchy.

Other main course: The veal once again was processed and hiding under a disgusting piece of ham and cheese. The 2 worst parts were the overcooked "cheap" "boxed" noodles, that were presented coming out of a small pumpkin, as if the pumpkin was throwing up the noodles. And again, the mushrooms were disgusting, squishy and watery, those found in a can. To top if off, there was a Western Red Arborvitae twig as a decoration. For one, although they are edible, they have no place on the dish with veal. It is embarrassing that people consider the food here good, and or authentic. Oh.. and the breadsticks are laughable.

So with the Cons, there are some pros: Service - friendly Atmosphere quaint and with a live violinist playing. Olive oil was fresh and tasty. Beer- Peroni in a bottle, served with an appropriate glass.

Final bill: $131.50 Tip: $25 Total: $156.50 for 2 people

Do not waste your money until the chef turns this place around. The restaurant claims everything is homemade by the chef. I cry foul, and if it is, he needs to find a new profession.

If you do waste your money, and have never lived in Italy, do not post and mislead others as this place being authentic.

This location has so much potential, unfortunately it feels like the chef...

Violino is a family run restaurant and everyone involved is part of the family. The original owner is now retired and his son runs it, but the original owner is still involved - advising and helping. He sings birthday and anniversary songs when people are celebrating these dates.

The hostess was pleasant and seated us quickly, we had reservations. She provided a drink menu that has no prices for cocktails (~$15). The cocktails were good although the martini was not as cold as it should have been. The other cocktails were well prepared.

Bread is brought out which was good but not great. It seemed to be missing salt although it might not have been rolled well, some bites were flavorful, others lean towards bland.

Our appetizer of muscles is not an order again, I think they were nearing the end of freshness. We could only eat a few of them and decided to not chance eating the rest.

This was followed by a cream of spinach soup (a chef gift brought to all of the tables) which was very good. It was rich and creamy with good seasoning. The spinach was pureed finely and the soup was poured over rice in the cup.

The veal and shrimp dish was excellent. The potatoes were served scallop sliced with cheese. This could have used more seasoning but the overall dish was very good. This was a special.

The other special was a ravioli dish with 6 pieces of ravioli with 3 stuffings. The raviolis were large and the stuffings were good although the duck may have been slightly overcooked. Some of the ravioli pasta was overcooked and slightly gummy, but the overall dish was good. This was also a special of the evening.

They had a wide variety of desserts but we decided we were too full to partake. The red house wine was very good. I like my wine sweeter than my wife, but we both enjoyed this red, it was smooth and full bodied.

The atmosphere was wonderful. As I mentioned, the original owner sang for 2 birthdays and an anniversary while we were there. There is a violinist who played very well without being overly cloying - sometimes live music in a small restaurant can be overpowering but the violinist understood the space very well, conversation was easy.

This is an intimate restaurant with good food, although we would probably not order...

Had been looking forward to trying Violino for quite some time now, and my wife's birthday was a perfect opportunity to give it a go. The reviews tempted us to drive 45 mi to give this a try, but it was worth it! My wife's girlfriend came along to celebrate.

Walking in to the restaurant was a bit of a disappointment - the decor is dated, old office ceiling tiles and the lights were very bright. I was a little bit concerned...

We are greeted by our waiter who gave us quite a bit of attention. We brought our own bottle of wine (corkage is $15) and started off by ordering the cheese plate and their selection of meats. Excellent choice on our part, and excellent choice of cheese and traditional Italian meats on theirs!

We did order a Caesar salad after that, just to see what that was like for future reference. Glad we did, but not for the right reason... It wasn't very good, and I will order it again.

For dinner, my wife ordered the lobster ravioli. Absolutely a hit! The homemade raviolis are spectacular, and the dish is topped with a cold water lobster tail. My wife's girlfriend had a shellfish and pasta dish that was out of this world! She let me try some shrimp and a mussel... Delicious! Me? I had the veal scallopini, but I substituted the vegetables that came with it for homemade linguine aleolio. The veal came in 5 very thin slivers surrounding the pasta. Need for a lovely presentation, but it wasn't what I was expecting. It was for lighter than I had hoped (and different from what I saw on the website). Still, it was very good, but I won't order that again.

We finished off with a lemon cake and key lime pie, and everyone had an espresso. Key lime pie was nothing right home about, but the lemon cake and espresso were spot on.

Throughout the evening, service was well above average, and we were serenaded by a violinist who played beautifully. At the end of our dinner the owner and chef came by to make sure our meals were satisfactory and provide a little chit chat. Charming gentleman, and we learned a number of his family also work at the restaurant, including his children - a true family affair!

The only real mistake I made that night was not choosing to eat outdoors. It was a lovely evening, and their patio is very nice. Will definitely...