Cassese's MVR — Restaurant in Youngstown

The first time I went here, the food was great, great flavor, friendly server. Never met or saw the owner unfortunately. My 3 stars is for a solid reason however and I feel that it could be easily corrected. My first trip there I was served the wrong dish and had to wait to eat with my other friends having already started. I didn't wait very long, but we had elsewhere to go and the purpose was to eat together. Now for the glasses. Both times I always ask for Lemon water besides my natural course for a drink. Both times my glass had lipstick on the glass. This is unforgivable in my eyes. When you have pressed lips with a complete stranger and have no clue who those lips belong to, it makes your stomach lurch. It completely killed my appetite. I also wanted to try the stuffed shells, the server pushed the idea of "hells shells" which has a bad type of spicy. When the hot out weighs the flavor, it's a bad spicy dish. The only thing I could taste was the heat. I was upset about it, I remember asking if it was spicy but flavorful or was it just a spicy hot dish, I was told flavorful. It was OK though, when I noticed the lipstick, it ruined my appetite. I did not think to look for this mistake twice for me that would be lightning striking the same spot twice, yet it had. If it was not for the first time I went there and the dish tasted so good at decent pricing, I would not have returned. This second time really soured me, however... I love Italian restaurants and sometimes a restaurant can't help but have a lazy worker or two. The thing is tho , the visits were spread fat apart, and no manager or owner stopped by the table to ask how things were. They could also use with doing away with some tables, space is nice, a little elbow room. The atmosphere is very confining. Wouldn't take very many tables away to get that "comfortable" level of spacing there. More tables more bucks, and they did not seem to be lacking in customers, but it would do the atmosphere justice. With the zero lack of customers being said, I feel this place is worth a 3rd shot. You don't keep that many customers in there without doing something right, and both times it was packed. My review will be updated with a final verdict the next time we go visit. I did notice some sort of game area built off to the side. Not sure what it was because I went for the restaurant aspect. It does not impact the restaurant section at all. The bar area was classy in style, but we never actually visited the bar for a sit and drink. I strongly caution you to keep a hard eye on their dishes and if there is ANYTHING on the plates, silverware or drink ware, Ask for a manager to complain to IMMEDIATELY! One will not come to your table to apologize as I believe they should with such incidences Their dish handler needs to be fired and I don't make this comment lightly, I make it after dealing with the same issue twice. Space the tables and you have a great atmosphere. Don't knock this place tho, my verdict is it's worth a try, don't let my review keep you from potentially having food...

I haven't been here for about 8 years and I decided to take my girlfriend. I had been bragging about how great the food was to her and she is chef and moved here from Florida in December. The place didn't seem real busy. We were seated immediately and the waitress came over in a few minutes and took our drink order and appetizer order for calamari. It was about 7:50pm. She brought our drinks and I wondered why it was taking so long to get our calamari. There was a party in the next room and it didn't look like they had many servers working. My girlfriend went outside to smoke and finally the waitress came over and asked if we wanted to order while we waited for the calamari. I asked how much longer it was going to take and she said it would be a minute more and said that they had to serve the party in the other room. She immediately returned with the calamari and it was kind of dark, but tasted ok. Big portion with a small cup of marinara. She brings out the salad and it's basically just head lettuce. I ordered blue cheese dressing. She never said there was an extra charge for it, 98 cents (when the bill came). Fettuccine Alfredo was good, some dry pasta on top. Grilled chicken was a little dry but ok.

So the bill comes and extra charge for the dressing and at the bottom it says cash price and for credit card it added $1.98 fee. It wasn't posted anywhere that they're charging a transaction fee and that is against the law according to the Attorney General's office in Ohio. It had been 8 years and I'll never go back! If you're hurting that badly that you can't even post the legal notice of transaction fees, you must be ashamed of being cheap. You've become a joke and your staff won't even tell the customer's of your excess charges. It effected her tip and you've lost a customer. I'll be notifying the Attorney General's office of your illegal transaction fees that you don't...

Growing up in an Italian household, it is a direct route to hell if you like anyone's sauce other than your family's recipe... So, I rarely eat Italian food anywhere but home...because, of course, our family's sauce is the best ever! Amen! But, if I had to eat somewhere, other than home, this is the place I would go. Myself, my husband, and my daughter, all thoroughly enjoyed our pasta dishes. Nice to have a salad and bread. Salad was clean (no brown), just small portion, but well done. They were very, very busy on this particular afternoon. A lot was going on in downtown Youngstown that day...the YSU Arts Festival and the Greek Festival were both very well attended, and both within 2 blocks of MVR. Luckily, service was great! Seriously professional. You would have thought we were the only ones in the restaurant. So, in conclusion, great place, really good vibe, family friendly, fun atmosphere, plus the YSU college crowd...good for any age group or gathering. Certainly well staffed. Food is wonderfully regional, all the traditional favorotes, as well as new and different items. If you have a guest from out of town, and you would like them to experience our unique, fantastic, regional cuisine that resulted from Youngstown"s long history of a rich and varied immigrant populations...From bocce courts to the extensive menu including everything we all grew up with: Wedding Soup, greens, fried cheese, and fried bell peppers, pizzas, and the parmigiana, splashes, pastas anf salads. Plus, they have at least 7 different fish dishes! And so on, and so on. Easy, nearby, free parking. There is a nice little bar, just in case you have to wait for a table, and, like I said, really efficient, friendly,...