Casa di Canzonetta — Restaurant in Youngstown

Edit: must have been an off day. We’ve been back twice since this review and it’s been amazing!

I’ve been wanting to try this restaurant since they opened so wanted to give them a try for my birthday. I emailed on 3/1 to reserve their outdoor igloo for a small birthday celebration on 3/25 and didn’t receive a response - I figured they were already booked so didn’t follow up. We decided to get a reservation for dinner for hubby and myself. I had to give a credit card deposit of $40 to hold the reservation. I don’t know if that was just a card hold or was subtracted from the bill (I didn’t check). We were greeted warmly when we arrived by two hostesses. We were seated at a table near the bar in view of the igloo outside - which sat empty all night (it’s really cute and such a cool idea). This made me think maybe my email went to spam or I misspelled the email addresses. The service was good and our waitress was attentive and friendly - slow week night for them so we got a lot of attention. The menus were comically large and thankfully we had a table for four and could easily stow the menus in the spare space for two next to us. I started with a Hendrick’s martini, which was made well and we ordered two appetizers (focaccia and arancini). The focaccia was not quite what we expected - it was a very large, tall and thick loaf of bread. It was very good and had a really nice rosemary aroma. The arancini was good. Nice size and came with sauce. They had a bottle of Dom Perignon on the menu for $250 and we tried to order one - thought it was a good price and would be a nice treat for my birthday. Unfortunately, they were sold out although there was a bottle on display near where we were seated. They didn’t really have a good backup option to the Dom other than a $595 bottle of Louis Roederer, which I felt was a tad more than I wanted to pay. We settled on a much cheaper bottle of Veuve. I would have liked something a little nicer for my birthday but it was OK. I ordered the pappardelle alla bolognese and hubby ordered cacio e pepe. We both got soups - wedding and the Italian onion. Everything came out lightning fast. Both soups were incredibly salty. The wedding soup was not what I know as wedding soup. Full disclosure, my mom is 100% Italian and makes the absolute best wedding soup based on our family’s recipe so I may be biased. This soup had a slightly sour taste, two very large undercooked meatballs (I needed to cut them to eat them) and two large bread croutons. Even the veggies were large cuts. I actually spilled some of the soup trying to cut the pieces into more bite sized pieces using my spoon. My pappardelle alla bolognese (which is my all time favorite meal) was inedible. The pasta was gluey and soggy. The bolognese was not what I know as traditional, which is usually slow cooked and finely minced (which takes a lot of work and time) into an oatmeal-like consistency ragu. This had large clumps of grayish- colored meat that tasted somewhat gamey and unseasoned - not at all like the layered flavors of soffritto (onions, celery and carrot), wine, broth, passata and small amounts of fatty pork that make this dish amazing. Hubby’s pasta was a little better - his was cooked al dente. He liked it though! Portion sizes were huge. We ordered tiramisu and espresso for dessert. The tiramisu came layered inside one of their drinking glasses. It was just OK. The espresso was fantastic. Atmosphere and decor was interesting and felt laid back - lots of prints of 1980s boxer Boom Boom Mancini where we sat and some car cutouts off in the distance. Checkered napkins as a throw back to Italian red sauce joints was a cute touch. Not sure if this is meant to be an upscale restaurant or more of a chill, sports bar style spot. They seem to be intentionally combining the two. If we had stopped at drinks and appetizers this review would be 5 stars. The bread was the real highlight of the meal. We might be back on a Tuesday again to try the Chicago beef sandwiches. Total bill $246.97...

We are providing feedback regarding our daughter's First Communion party at the Double Tree, catered by the Bistro 1907 earlier this month. This was a party she had been anticipating for over two years. This feedback has already been shared directly with Double Tree staff. We are still waiting to speak with Bistro 1907 staff, leaving three messages for managers. Our disappointment with both companies has still not been addressed after 3 weeks of trying. We do not take this type of public feedback lightly. We wanted to give both the Double Tree and the Bistro an opportunity to work through our issues and disappointments. Neither company has "stepped up" to do so. Please know, that part of the issue is the very blurry line between the two entities when it comes to a party. With our latest call to the Bistro today, (after holding for 16 minutes), my wife spoke to GM Michael, who gave her literally 60 seconds of his time. He was dismissive to my wife and condescending. He was too busy to speak and promised to call back this afternoon. We never received a call within the stated time frame (no call came this afternoon at all). There are issues with the Double Tree and with their events' planning process (full disclosure, open communication, a consultative approach and flexibility are not strong suits for them. Party patrons.... beware! There are many important things that go "unsaid" as you plan your event and then you are surprised with maddening things on the day of the party).

All that being said, a large portion of our issues are with the food and staff that supported our event, those important pieces to this puzzle were supplied by Bistro 1907. As we look at the overall picture, with time, the way we were treated gets even more upsetting. If we were provided the experience that we were expecting and that we paid for, if we received the customer service that should be associated with the brands of Doubletree and Bistro, we would feel 100% different; we would be happy to pay the cost associated with our event because of the wonderful memories created. We do not have wonderful memories. We instead feel completely taken advantage of...we were robbed of the event for which we handsomely paid. We paid for a top notch experience for my daughter and the rest of our family. We in no way received it. So here it is...the staff acted as if they were bothered and burdened. We were chased out of the venue half way through our allotted time. The staff was overall unhappy, inflexible and uncaring about the celebration at hand. We paid to be taken care of, not to worry about the food & service aspects of the day. Yet, we could not enjoy our time with our guests.... we had to watch every plate of food, every beverage that we individually paid for (over and above the catering charge) and even our pieces of cake. We asked over and over of the staff to slow down, they were clearing our tables before any of us could enjoy our food and drink. No one felt safe to visit another table or use the restroom! By the way, if your 7 year old is having too much fun and wants to take her chicken fingers home to eat later.... FORGET IT. NO FOOD that you have paid for (even the $15 chicken finger lunches....$15 per child!) may leave the premises. And when you ask where those full pans of roast beef and chicken marsala are going, as they are removed from the buffet after one hour...you will not get an answer. Seriously....they will not answer you. And you will not get any of it to take home, even though you paid for all of it in full 10 days in advance of the party. Everyone in our community should be aware of this experience and how it has made us feel about the Double Tree and the Bistro 1907. Read every line of every piece of paper they ever give you even 5 months in advance, and even if it was not in the contract. They will not give you ANY courtesy. This is truly...

We went there last night with a party of 22 people and our overall experience was NOT a good one by any means. First, the seating area they put us in was upstairs, above the kitchen and the air was not working. It was unbearably hot and humid. We were told by the waitress twice that the air was on, and then by one manager who came up to "try" to get it to work but said it had been "finicky" lately and then later on by yet another manager who said they knew it wasn't working and he didn't know what we wanted him to do about it!!! We wanted you to either notify a large party ahead of time that it wasn't working, seat us in a section that at least had a little circulation of air or how about NOT lying about it when we can all see and feel that the air is clearly not on and nothing is blowing out of the overhead vents!

Our party ordered a few round of appetizers, most of which were delicious. Those that ordered salads were impressed as well, although the soups and salads were not included in the meal price and the waitress didn't say that, she simply asked if you wanted soup or salad when you ordered your meal.

When it came to the main entrees only a few were pleased with their meals. I personally had the Alfredo Di Lelio and it was awful! The salt taste was so overpowering in this dish that it was almost inedible. Several in our party complained of a heavy salt flavor in their meal. Mine tasted like buttered noodles with salt. Not a hint of garlic. The noodles were gummy and undercooked. My dish did come out hot but the person sitting next to me ordered the Spicy Rigatoni Ala Vodka and his food came out at the same time as mine and his plate was scorching but his food was barely room temp. The entire party was miserable during our meal due to the heat situation but then to add the taste...especially considering the price point of the food and drinks. A few members of our party attempted to speak to a manager after our meals about the overall experience but were treated with disrespect and arrogance. No one publicly complained about the food as it seemed the overall dissatisfaction amongst our group was not just a one off but rather the overall way in which the menu items were prepared. No one took out our dissatisfaction with the atmosphere or food on our servers as it was clearly not something they could control. Overall a terrible experience and based on the managers response to simply complaining about the heat situation....not even the food....I would not recommend this establishment to anyone. We at no point asked for any items be removed from our bills, for a discount or anything for free. With so many other wonderful places to dine in the area, and obviously everyone's tastes are different, hospitality and atmosphere need to be the thing that sets them apart and they certainly did...