Quanto Basta Italian Eatery & Wine Bar — Restaurant in Winston-Salem

First Timer here. Called in advance, coming in at 6:30 PM on a Friday night with a party of 4, but was told to "come by without a reservation as it should be OK". So we did. Arrived downtown Winston - found a decent parking spot and minor walking. Beautiful place both on the inside and out. Kind of homey feeling. Trendy almost. Corner lot - good location. Upon arrival the Hostess/Manager sat us at the bar waiting on our table. We waited for our other couple to arrive which was about 5 minutes. Myself and hubbie had already ordered our drinks. About 5 min. later we were seated at our table. It was kind of busy. But I didn't think waiting 10 min. overall for a table was bad at all. Now we begin the reason for the "3" rating. We took our (2) drinks to the table and our friends needed to order theirs. We waited 20 minutes for a waitress to show up at our table. Introduce Patina - spelling is probably off. She was obviously distraught by her shortness. Asked if we wanted drinks. We ordered. Told her we were ready to order appetizers too. She said she'd be right back. Another 15 minutes passed and she arrived with drinks. We put in appetizers. But said were ready to order since so much time had passed. She was grumpy over something - she wore it. Said she would be back to take our orders to put in the appetizer order. She came back 15 min. later. We ordered our food 55 min after arriving at 6:30. We finished our appetizers. They were good, but small. We got the $13.98 Venetian Baked seafood which was a seafood dip when it arrived with 4 small toasts and our friends got the Focaccia al Fornia. Both tasted good but were very small portions. Our food arrived 1 hour and 30 minutes after arriving. The portions were incredibly small too. I had the Shrimp Scampi Risotto for $20 and it was like 3/4 cup of risotto and 5 pieces of shrimp. Good, but boring and the portion didn't even fill me. I ate it in minutes. Came in a huge bowl too. Others at the table ordered the Sausage & Pepper Parmesan, Chicken Marsala and Veal Scaloppine alla Saltimbocca for $22. All portions were incredibly small. Took forever to arrive. The other couple we were with their bill was over $100 and left a $20 tip because Patina's attitude improved later in the evening. The table in total was over $175. We stopped and got McDonald's (2) 20 piece McNuggets on the way home. We were still hungry! Considering the bill - that was crazy! I did talk to the manager about all the wait time and volume of food. She complained food prices were up and they were understaffed. No compensation of any sort. Not here's 10% off your next visit. Just sorry and hope you come back. I'm in leadership and that is not good customer service. I hope it all improves - I gave them a 3 because the food and drinks tasted good. And overall the place was nice. But for the Price - I sadly don't...

It's hard to know where to start in reviewing Quanto Basta because having lived in new York City for almost 10 years and traveled to Italy I have experienced a lot of great Italian restaurants. This definitely belongs on my list of favorites. (Disclaimer: I may get the prices and exact dish names wrong here, because we only get to eat there when in town and I'm writing this from our visit several weeks ago from memory.) I'd start by saying upon my first bite of the risotto shrimp scampi appetizer I felt instantly depressed because I knew it would never be enough. And to see that it was something like $11, which I felt was a steal for all that risotto and three shrimp made it even better. It's really enough for a meal but I'll know better next time to hog the whole dish for myself. I loved the combination of creamy risotto, garlicky shrimp, and some kind of savory sauce on the side and it was so hard to watch that last spoonful disappear. Next we ordered the antipasto plate -- a mixture of charcuterie and things you'd expect to go on such a dish -- but the best part of this was the focaccia with Italian cheese and cured meats. When you bite into it fresh from the oven, all of the flavors crunch into a single expression of melty, salty, meaty, crispy goodness. Another lesson learned the hard way -- no sharing that either. The pasta and sauces are singular in Winston-Salem, authentic and comforting for a reason -- I wish I could recall the name of what we ordered but when I asked about it, I found out the founding partner is Italian and some of the recipes date back to the late 1800s before his family members came to the US from Italy. After I heard that, I recognized some of those influences elsewhere throughout the menu. I was surprised to see so many wine choices -- so far I have tried three by the glass options, all very good and affordable. On a side note, it gave me a lot of joy to see so many people dining alone. Dining alone is one of my favorite things to do but not all places make lone diners feel comfortable and the staff went out of their way to be cordial. Speaking off, when it got super busy the crowd had the servers racing around -- but that's what I want to see in a restaurant, that the food is so good it's packed. If see and be seen isn't your thing, go on the early side right when it opens. I wish I could remember the dessert we had that was so amazing -- it was like some sort of pudding or custard with butterscotch or caramel and fresh whipped cream. I won't ever go to Quanto Basta without ordering it -- we got halfway through our little cup of it and ordered a second helping. So much to try on future visits if only I can refrain from filling up on risotto...

Food and service were a disappointment. Atmosphere is the only thing worth giving a star which I would give three. Let's start with the service. The waiter while nice, was clueless. He was unable to name any burbons they had for an old fashioned but did assure me that they had "a lot" of bourbon to choose from. My son who was twelve asked about non alcoholic options and the most he could muster from memory was water, which he was holding in his hand and "coke products", of which he could name zero outside of coke. While I'm not asking the guy to name all coke products perhaps memorizing at least two would be helpful given his profession. Lastly for service when asking where the restrooms were he pointed in one direction but then looked in the opposite direction and said "go down that way,the kitchen is on the left, ya know the building is kind of a circle, so if you keep walking you'll find it" then proceeded to tell us the original use of the building from the 1920s. While it was interesting to hear the building used to service cars it would have been more helpful to know where the bathroom was or at least be pointed in the right direction. Started the night with an old fashioned which was too sweet, hummingbirds would have a hard time getting it down. The tagliatelle bolognese was a non issue as there was no sauce in or on the dish, so I'm not even sure I can comment if the sauce was good. I can state however it was not on the pasta I ate. When asking if the kitchen forgot it I was told it was a white wine bolignese.. the only white of that entire meal was the dish it came on. My wife ordered another pasta dish with pesto sauce. I can say that while the dish was green in nature it was otherwise devoid of all taste. The pasta itself was average pasta one might find at the supermarket. My son ordered the chicken parm which was good actually, largely in part due to the chicken rather than sauce or pasta.

After reading owner's review it appears his/her only response to various patron's bad expierences is to belittle , dimiss and to victim blame. Upon further review of other lower star reviews it appears a pattern of response from the owner has emerged. One of an infantile, immature and egotistical nature and one designed to prevent improvement. Let me be clear on the matter, I will never visit this...