Gianni's Trattoria
- Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: No
- Takes Reservations: Yes
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: Yes
- Good for: Dinner
- Alcohol: Full Bar
28 Reviews for Gianni's Trattoria
I loved this place. The itallian food was awesome. I went with five people and not one dish was bad. Our server was awesome and had a great personality.
The only major downside was the decor. I felt like someone got lost in an art deco store and it had no connection to the food. There is also a video of wild life on one of the walls. WTF?
I was hesitant to order the Black Spaghetti due to a poor review but i couldn't resist. I thought it was great ( the garlic was in your face but that is a plus to me). I have never never Black Spaghetti before so maybe it is bad as far as black spaghetti goes. I think if you like garlic it is definitely worth a try.
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Always have a good time at Gianni's. That could be because i'm good friends with the bar manager who gets me completely trashed for next to nothing. Or because there's always a hot group of ladies at any given time. True that this isn't this busiest or hottest place to be downtown but since it's located on "the block" of J st you get random people that walk in from Harlow's, Momo's, Blue Cue, iDragon and El Centro's. Sadly theyre closing down soon. But the bar manager is throwing a huge party this friday may 23rd as a final goodbye. So check my myspace for details if youre in the area. if you try to add me message me that you saw this on yelp so ill accept. See you there!
Eh, you can live without this place. If you're really hungry, like we were, you wont mind it as much, but you'll still be annoyed you dropped 60 coins for something that just filled you up, rather than really pleased the palate.
First off, it's not exactly cheap, despite what some people below might tell you. Most apps were 10ish, and ours was 13 and really an odd experience. Somewhat less than fresh arugala piled high on tops of thin slices of veal, with a bizarre mustard like sauce, and far too much salt and cracked pepper. Can't understand where they were going with this dish. But in a way, it was a good intro to what Gianni's is all about.
And that in a word is OFF.
Everything is just a bit not what you expect, and not in a good way.
The seafood pizza ($16? or so), well, had potential, but the seafood, oh dear. Very chewy, and super oily lemony greasy, and that just ruined what could have been quite good. Id think they can make a decent pie of the more normal variety, since the crust was nice, and the cheese not bad.
But what really pissed me off was the dish they called gnocchi. ($14) I got the impression that these were made in a rush. They were all sorts of all sizes and none of them looked like what you expect with gnocchi, and clearly there wasnt time to use the fork method to get the ridges in them. They were rolled, and rapidly and unevenly cut, and then thrown together in a cream sauce with what seemed like raw mushrooms, which were definitely not porcini, as advertised on the menu. I also suspect the gnocchi was made with the wrong type of potatoes, as the texture was very waxy/sticky, which is what you end up with if you dont choose your spud wisely. My guess is it was a yukon instead of russet.
I doubt Id try this again. It reminded me of why people of Italian descent who know how to cook rarely go to Italian restaurants, especially ones that somehow think they are supposed to look like a bar in Miami.
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The first two times I had dinner here, it was pretty damn good. Service was on point, the staff was friendly and the food was tasty.
Fast forward to last week. We read the news that Gianni's was closing shortly, so we made an effort to grab one last meal, since the previous experiences were positive.
So..
I show up, and stand at the podium for at least 3-5 minutes. The owner is sitting at the bar, with his back to me. Upon entering, he glances in my direction. No response. I'm thinking, "okay, maybe he's in the middle of a business convo-no problem." As it turns out, that must've not been the case, since he was now attempting to sing and speak in Italian to his guests.
So I wait some more.
My favorite hostess comes by, sees me waiting, and motions me to sit in the first available booth. I move in that direction, and as my ass touches the seat, I turn around and the owner is standing there with a "what are you doing" pose and expression on his face. Apparently he wanted to seat his friends there. I volunteer to move, and was offered the response of some sort of hand motion. Nice.
My parents then show up. As they move through the people idly standing at the host station, the owner then sees them, and eye contact is made. My parents smile, yet the owner stands there expressionless, staring at them as they make their way to the table.
Apparently, the restaurant is also understaffed that night. Our poor waitress struggled to cover the entire room, with assistance from only one of the bussers. Food took painfully long to arrive, and when it did, it was lackluster, with the exception of the antipasto.
We made the best of it, ordered a bottle of Boeger, and enjoyed our time, and noticed a few things:
1) the owner ONLY paid attention to the older caucasian "pretty" crowd. He made a point to stop by every table with the exception of ours and the other "ethnic" table present.
2) a Black couple entered the restaurant and stood their aimlessly for 5 minutes before the owner even acknowledged their presence. Even then, he made ABSOLUTELY no attempt to greet/seat them. He simply stared and walked off.
Needless to say, it was a sour send-off for what was at first, one of the favorite spots for me to grab dinner with my parents. With the exception of the server and busboy, our experience was pretty damn negative, and maybe that's why the place is shutting down.
I used to see the owner out and about, and I've always held a decent amount of respect for the guy and his history of Sacramento businesses. My opinion of him has changed tremendously, and its unfortunate that it took numerous visits and lots of money to realize that my initial positive impressions of this guy were so off.
Good luck to the servers, and the people whom made our experiences at Gianni's memorable. Good riddance to the owner, and I'm sure you will be getting a visit from Karma soon, if not already.
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I went to Gianni's for a drink right as the bartender was closing the place down, told him I was meeting some friends for a birthday drink, and he warmly welcomed us and said it would be no problem to keep the bar open a little longer. We ended up staying for nearly an hour and a half, only had one drink each, and nobody asked us to hurry or gave us any indication that we were not welcome. I can't wait to go back for dinner!
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Even though Gianni's is right around the corner from my house - I would travel long distances for the creamy polenta alone. It has hot Italian sausage and mushrooms, wow, awesome!
and the pizza!
I had the Just Cheese. The pizza is a gourmet pie. Four cheeses, maybe more. About 12 inches. Enough for two - but being the pizza eating machine that I am - I think I had every slice but one.
I love the food and its moderately priced. I also heard they are opening a late night pizza by the slice place next to Giannis. There are, in my opinion, never enough pizza by the slice places. I know there is Luigi's (which is great) and Vito's (which is cool) but they are not within a stones throw from my house and if someone wants to open a pizza by the slice place by my house, in this case Gianni's, they have my blessings.
Highly recommend this place.
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Lets just say that this bad experience is what led to me rating restaurants on yelp. So here it is in a nutshell: We finally get time to squeeze in a date night, the S.O. finds the reviews on yelp of Gianni's irresistible so we go. We set a reservation, and had been skipped over by 2 other parties. As we are speaking with the "host', he's not even giving us his full attention,as he has his laptop on the host podium, and browsing Amazon.com.... sad really, I had high expectations. We get seated, go thru 2 forgettable appetizers , I have the risotto, and the S.O. has the ravioli. First of all, I gives a flying f^&k that I pronounced it Rhis-oetoe, and really don't need a 23 year old HS dropout that spent the whole day wiping down menus and now thinks she learned how to speak italian by osmosis to enunciate in an "as a matter of fact" fashion and show to the world that the Sacramento public school system really does need to re-inject etiquette programs back into its curriculum!
Anyways...
The Risotto was OK... a little bit on the mushy-side - poor texture- but flavorful (to be fair its what earned the 2nd star) but the S.O. had the Ravioli and it was undercooked, and her last piece had a cold spot on it.
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Since the closure of Americo's years ago, we've been without an excellent Italian restaurant in Sacramento - until Gianni's opened.
I'm glad that I live walking distance from this terrific spot. The food is absolutely excellent - from the more experimental modern takes to the classics, everything tastes good and is served attractively in large portions.
The service continues to be some of the best in town. The maitre d' is kind and pleasant, and all the servers we've had are very, very competent.
The house-made pasta is all terrific. The cocktails, while not inexpensive, are generous and always good.
I like the mod contemporary interior, and while there's always music, it's never too loud. If I could afford it, I'd go here every week.
I've been three times and never had a dish that wasn't excellent. This and Aioli Bodega Espanol remain my wife's and my favorite "date night" restaurants downtown. Never stuffy, always pleasant, always good.
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i came here for my cousins birthday! the place looks nice inside. reminds me of a restaurant that would appear on CSI miami =). anyhow, the food was so-so. i ordered the fuselli with artichokes, olives, chicken.. etc.. It reminded me of dried ramen noodles. i also tried some creamy polenta which was actually okay. we also ordered the calamari which was acceptable too.
anyhow, i can't quite grasp why this place didn't "wow" me.
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Gianni's, in my opinion, is the best Italian restaurant in Sacramento. It's my favorite place to go for special occasions. And this is coming from a San Francisco native with a very large Italian family. My favorite is the Pumpkin Gnocchi! The Calamari is delish as well. Gianni's is easily ranked at the same levels as top Italian restaurants in the city. Even if the decor remindsThe food is similar to that of Pazzia's on 3rd St., owned by my dear friend Massimo.
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Ever watch one of those antique shows, where some poor schmuck brings on a rare "antique" lamp on to be appraised? You know the lamp that his Great-Great-Great Grandma Gertrude strapped to her back and brought with her on the boat from Poland that's supposedly 100% gold? The lamp that the appraiser inevitably flips over and rubs the bottom with his thumb to...lo and behold...uncover in tiny script the words, "Made in Taiwan"? Well, that's what Gianni's reminds me of. At first glance, its sleek Tiffany blue colored tables and exposed brickwork radiates an oh-so South Beach hipster cool but a little rub with the thumb uncovers a multitude of imperfections in its polished facade.
Let me explain...Gianni's was our choice for our January girls' night out. We entered the establishment around seven o'clock on a Friday and were greeted by a polite silver haired gentleman within seconds and were assured that we would be seated shortly. True to his word, the host ushered us over to a nice roomy booth within five minutes. Wonderful! From that point on though, the night pretty much went downhill. Now I'm a pretty easy going customer, I don't expect my waiters to channel Mr. Belvedere and wait on me hand and foot but our waiter that night took the term piss poor service to a whole new level. Seriously, when the service wasn't non-existent it was horrendous. Our waiter would disappear for extended lengths of time and we had to flag him down to order both our drinks and our meals. Had the restaurant been even remotely busy, I could understand but not only was it barely full but I could see the waiter slacking off a few feet away. In addition to this, our waiter actually got into an argument with us about what type of wine we should order and whether we should order individual glasses or a bottle. When we held fast and reiterated what we wanted (the Antinori Super Tuscan), his reaction was to pout and spout off a smartass remark...classy! Whatever happened to the customer's always right? At this point we hadn't even eaten and I was disgusted with Gianni's.
For our orders, we decided to share several appetizers and two pizzas. For the apps we opted for the house salad, the creamy polenta dish and the calamari. The creamy polenta dish was smooth and accented with a light hint of what I believe was truffle oil. The calamari was a good sized portion, marinated in buttermilk (unbreaded) and tossed with tomatoes, basil and chilies-- in my opinion, the best dish out of what we ordered. As for the salad and pizzas, they weren't anything to write home about but did the job of satisfying our hunger. During the course of our meal, the ex-waitress in me noticed that the silverware was dirty (I had to ask for another fork and knife because there were remnants from someone else's dinner encrusted on the tines and blade), the glassware was spotty and several plates had obvious chips and cracks. In addition, our busser was slow to refill our water and early in the evening had dropped a large hunk of bread in the middle of the table. I found it amusing that throughout the night, he continued to carefully bus around the bread as though it were a centerpiece. My guess is that bread is probably still sitting in the same spot on the table even to this day.
Now usually when I go to dinner with my girlfriends, it's customary for us to linger over dessert and some coffee, perhaps even an after dinner drink. At Gianni's, we couldn't get out of there fast enough. Although we did leave our server a tip, I sincerely felt it was undeserved and that he should have tipped us for having to endure his crappy subpar service and abhorrent attitude. I most definitely would not waste my money at Gianni's again nor would I ever subject anyone I know to such a hellacious dining experience by recommending it. It just goes to show that a restaurant can look pretty, but to get customers to return it needs to be able to offer up a pleasant dining experience as well. I believe Gianni's is what the Italians refer to as, "Tutto fumo e niente arrost," (all smoke and no fire) and places like that rarely stick around for long.
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2.5 stars. So I went here for my bday with the cousins. They basically hate this place based on their reviews. I only chose this place as a last minute resort but I also wanted somewhere modern. This place is definately mod, sleek, white (the color of the inside not the people) and stylish. It does give that south beach vibe and even the host looks like someone who is a retiree from Florida. I had a party of about 11 people and they had a projector playing animal/nature video on the wall. The service was not bad but I guess I wasn't paying too much attention because I was trying to talk to everyone. I tried some of the appetizers that were ordered and they were good. I ordered the chicken cutlet and I liked it but it was only luke warm when I ate it. I don't know whether or not it was because I was waiting for everyone to recieve their food. I tried my bf's sole which was good but he said it was missing some lemon on it. I also tried my cousin's fulsili which was very plain and bland. The portions weren't bad. I think this place does potential just hafta spruce up some loose ends. I mostly rated this place based on my guests opinions because it matters if they are happy but I didn't think it really was that bad. Also, I don't they care much for the atmosphere and prices. I guess I hafta try those type of places by myself :(. Anyway I would go back here for drinks at the bar and until I hear they have better service and food then I'll return here to eat.
My husband and our friends enjoyed dinner at Gianni's. The decor is, as another reviewer pointed out, the Jetson's meets disco -- it is unique for Sacramento and I will give them that. The wine selection is nice but they did not have the wine we wanted available that evening. Besides having to wait too long for my liking for a glass of wine, we thoroughly enjoyed our visit. I would recommend the mushroom pizza, canneloni, polenta and asparagus.
My veggie friend and I picked this restaurant as a test. A test of what Sacramento has become in the six years we have both lived here (well she's been here a little bit longer but she didn't get out much at first) and our first impression was a older gentlemen in white linen pants (the day before Labor Day, brave man, you are being judged by two Southern-ish women), whitiesh liney shirt, and full head of gray hair asking us if we had reservations! Oh Sacramento, what have you evolved into? This is not a cheap pasta joint. Glass tables, polished Sacto crowd, and expensive drinks.
The pasta (fuselli, archichoke hearts, chicken) I order was yummy, despite the waiter's bad pasta joke, and my friend's pizza was tasty. The salad had an incredible about of garlic and my glass of wine was generous. Overall it was a yummy meal and I probably reeked garlic for a day or so. My leftovers didn't make it much longer after my after-dinner party.
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So much potential, but missing the mark too frequently.
Not only is Gianni's in the former Black Pearl locale, it has the same owner. Unfortunately, the place feels like a South Beach second-tier hot spot onto which an Italian menu was grafted. The sparse, austere decor and sharp lines are frankly the polar opposite of what one expects from a homey, casual Italian eatery.
This would be less important if not for the food, which misfires as often as it succeeds. An antipasto platter, for example, had an impressive array of goods, but lacked focus. The roasted portabella mushroom was virtually incinerated, to boot. Entrees were a mixed bag. A shrimp fettuccine was well-composed, with red pepper and garlic mingling with a bright cream sauce. The "black spaghetti," recommended by our server, had a watery sauce and harsh side taste. A side order of cauliflower gratin looked promising, as it arrived bubbling hot and well-browned. However, the cauliflower was swimming in a soupy mess of a sauce with strands of stringy cheese.
Service was somewhat lackluster, especially on a half-full Thursday night. There seemed to be 2 or 3 servers for the whole room, and things just plain plodded along at a slow pace, with little attention to our dining experience. Although I considered ordering more wine with the entree, for example, nobody asked if I wanted any or even offered a wine list again.
I suppose this place deserves another try; it has a good location, others have reviewed it well, and its owner's and chef's hearts seem to be in the right place. They simply need to ramp up the quality, consistency, and execution to fulfill their goal of a hip Midtown trattoria.
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Thoroughly enjoyable, fresh and well-prepared meal, especially if you have time to savor it. Five stars for the food, four for ambiance, four for the service.
Do yourself a favor and order the calamari, as Robin N. has suggested. Succulent rings in a well-seasoned tomato broth with chopped fresh basil and parsley. With the warm, crunchy, soft-in-the-middle bread they serve, you could clearly make a meal of this. When I see salad caprese I always order it. The tomatoes were absolutely perfect - deep red and full of flavor. My handsome dining companion was wishing the mozarella wasn't as firm.
There was too long a lull between the appetizer and salad. If you are catching up with an old friend rather than trying to get back to put toddlers to bed or catch a movie, this shouldn't be a concern. Once they arrived, our entrees were quite lovely. The lobster risotto was excellent! The gnocchi was on the softer side, something Alan S. didn't appreciate as much as I did. Unfortunately, we ran out of time for dessert.
There's something about walking into an interior with white modern furniture that immediately screams "2001: A Space Odyssey" to me. I can't help it; it's the first movie my parents took me to see when I was five years old. I get flashbacks of chimps cavorting around a giant obelisk and hear Hal slowly singing the tune "Bicycle Built for Two." While I do like the white furniture, PH5 light fixtures, aquamarine tables and avocado floor, there seems to be a bit of an identity crisis here. Rat Pack lounge music in the background, old black & white subtitled foreign films on the flat screens, and a mix of 1960's/2000's space age surroundings. No doubt incongruous interiors are currently in vogue, as evidenced by Roxy's equally likeable but confusing transgender-Marlboro man interior.
We'll return when we have more time to hang with the mod pod rat pack.
**** Update 3.25.08: We've been here four times now. The second time, a busy night in early August, was not so good, but our meals and service on visits three and four were really great. This restaurant -- on a good day -- will not disappoint. Just be prepared to sometimes wait between your appetizers/salad and entree. FYI, our least favorite dishes have been the sole and snapper.
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when you walk in you notice the nice decor and modern furniture. i like that the furniture, specifically the chairs were different and varied throughout the room. we got seated promptly and handed the menus. the atmosphere was lively and filled with a lot of diversity. but the good stopped there. the waitress took some time to say hello, introduce herself and get our drink order. after that it took even longer for drinks and our to receive our order. the food was well priced for what it seemed like we were getting. but then after arrival the tasted was somewhat bland and not what anyone expected. the best dishes i tried were the calamari (great taste and freshness) and the pizzas (light, large and cheap for their size). i personally had the salmon, which was good, but seemed like it sat on the shelf a little to long. it was lukewarm and outer areas somewhat tough. also the seafood ravioli that i received was cold and tasteless) i was not the only one with some issues with the temperature of the meal. we had little followup with drink orders (even the alcoholic ones) and just overall good service. atmosphere and clientele was nice, decor good, but service was poor. and food above average. 2 stars from me
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Now for my first positive review... there's nothing much I can say about Gianni's other than it is fabulous. This is my new favorite restauarant. Service, atmosphere, I love it all. I have never had better calamari in my entire life. Try it!
Update: Also do not miss the polenta with truffle oil. It might have changed my life.
Caveat: Was not a big fan of the pizza, a little greasy for my taste.
Update Number 2: I was sitting outside last weekend and was assaulted by a homeless man with one eye. when i summoned the waitstaff , they came running to my aid immediately! thanks again!
Update Number 3: I had the Aquitania pizza last night, and it was one of the best pizzas i have had. not greasy, like ive stated previously, thin, and delicious!
LAST UPDATE: THEY ARE CLOSING! im going to hurl myself off a bridge.
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Gianni's (the artist formerly known as Black Pearl) is Now Open...
If you read one of my favorite food blogs, Appetizers with Mike Dunne, you already are well aware that Gianni's on J Street is tossing pizza dough in the air.
Last night, my BFF in Sac and I went out (we were going to stay in and cook, but then decided since it was so nice outside, we would get out of the house). On the way over to pick her up, I noticed Gianni's was all lit up and full of people, and I remembered the Appetizers rundown was positive. That was enough criteria for us to give the place a try.
The first thing I noticed was that they have a nice wine list, a few meritages available on there (one by the glass, I believe). Along with appetizers like pancetta wrapped shrimp, there are about eight styles of pizza to choose from, one being a mushroom variety with black truffle. There is also a seafood and a pesto. We chose the onion pizza to split, and I ordered a side of grilled asparagus. She picked a side of creamy polenta. Even though we chose pizza to dine on, we were still served a plate of bread with a standard olive oil and balsamic dipping concoction. The bread is pretty standard (just ok) which is good because I was able to stay out of it while waiting on the main course. I am not able to do this at Tapa the World or at Aioli because their bread must be laced with something and I am a fool for foccacia.
Our pizza did take a seemingly long time to arrive, but I admit I was just impatient because I was staying out of the bread and I was hungry. I am estimating it was about 25-30 minutes. I ordered a side of marinara sauce in which to dip my pizza, as well as the asparagus. I often do this because there is never enough sauce to suit my needs anywhere I go, so I order the side ahead of time and then I am always sure to be saucy/happy. :)
In my opinion, the pizza crust was good. It was not heavy or greasy. It is hand-tossed thickness...thin with thicker and puffed edges. There were a few different kinds of onion atop the pizza we chose, even some scallion on the slices. The polenta was good, but I was satisfied in only tasting it. I did not feel the urge to spoon out a whole serving. The asparagus was delicious. The stalks were thick, and they carried the wonderful taste of grilled summer vegetables. Cooked perfectly and brushed with a bit of olive oil. One pizza and two sides is plenty of food, and the bill only came to about $35 (pre-tip), even with two glasses of wine. If one does not like pizza (or is not in the mood for pizza), there are many other options on the menu, such as salad and pasta. They have a full bar and several beers on tap, just as did the Black Pearl.
Our service was excellent, as our server was friendly, attentive, and knowledgeable. Even one of the bussers could be described as very accomodating/helpful.
In summary, I can say I already miss the Black Pearl, as it was one of my favorite restaurants in Sac. It had great hours, good food (seafood!), and a patio. However, as Gianni's Trattoria, the artist formerly known as Black Pearl is still a welcome dining option in midtown.
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Nice place to dine in the heart of midtown. Also, That Asian Bartender was cool.
I have been to Gianni's three times. The menu at Gianni's is suprisingly different. So I was eager to imbibe. I enjoyed the new and fresh look versus the dark Black Pearl. Now the bad news. We went back just to ensure ourselves that we wouldn't be back again. The service...my god the service is awful. We and 3 tables around us sat for over 1/2 and hour waiting for a drink; which could only be obtained by complaint. Then we sat some more and some more for our appetizers. We left and won't be back. This has happened on all 3 occasions. For the type of restaurant they are selling themselves as they need to train their staff not to ignore the customers and train their kitchen to get the food out on time.
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Wow, this restaurant was great! We went on second saturday around 8pm and although we had to wait a few minutes to get sat, it was well worth it. We were able to sit outside and since it was second saturday we had the sacramento philharmonic orchestra (well, 5 of them) just outside the patio playing some beautiful music!
I am vegetarian so I ordered the mushroom pizza, and Val ordered the snapper with lobster...both were very very tasty. Before eating those we split an arugula salad, which was very tasty. It was all good, and the pizza is very very different from my review on cafe milazzo. For a plain "purist" pizza I would still recommend cafe milazzo, however if you want a jazzy pizza this is the place to go!
With dinner we had the samantha star pinot noir, which was very good and went well with both the fish and pizza.
If you are going there with another person, expect to pay at least $60 for dinner, and that is for one glass of wine each.
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was down in this neck of the woods to see a show at Harlow's (saw Perry Farrell, It was awesome).
Wanted some dinner before the show. Tried Centro. What a freakin joke that place is. So we left.
Walked into Gianni's. At first glance, the decor scared the living shit out of me. Looked like a cross between the jetson's and a scary 70's disco club. But we went on in and had a seat. Our server was very nice. Ordered us some drinks, explained the menu. I told her we were looking for a light meal. She gave some very good recommendation's on some appetizers. I had the Mussels appetizer and enjoyed it very much. The wife had a salad that she said was great. There pizzas looked very interesting and I want to try. There is a seafood pizza that sounds amazing. one strange thing did happen. another server came over during our meal and apologized for no bread. he said it was in the oven baking and he would bring it out when it was done. I got all excited about some fresh baked bread. When it came out 3 minutes later, it was cold. oh, well. They have Stella Artois on tap. Love that beer. This is a cool place, they just need to change the decor.
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This is the first time I ever posted a review but I felt so ripped off I had to. Here is my experience.
I went to Gianni's for lunch formally the Black Pearl. I sat down and the waiter took my order 20 minutes later he brought my salad, 40 minutes later he brought my Lasagna. The Lasagna was just warm enough to eat. I actually had to ask the waiter to bring me my food. He said he was waiting for me to finish my salad. I had finished my salad 15 minutes prior, Oh yea I had to ask for my salad also. I waited so long that I kept asking him for bread and he even forgot that 3 times ( he was not busy, just looking around and cleaning glasses. I asked to speak to the manager and he said that no manager was there I saw a guy in nice shirt walking around like owned place and he was seating the people who came in. Not sure if he just didn't want to do his job or didn't care. I also noticed the glasses were dusty and dirty, and a few spiders on and under the table.
You can't just open a restaurant with beach like decor and sell pasta and think you are going to make a killing. Try training your staff and firing who ever told you to let armatures cook the food. I will go back for a drink at night maybe or maybe NOT
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Tried to go in for some nourishment around it's opening day, but they apparently were booked, though there were lots of empty tables. Oh well. Tried again Sunday, and were seated immediately.
Our server was gregarious and pretty knowledgable about the menu. The husb and I were in with a pal, and really were looking for an enjoyable meal, on the less pricy side of things. He steered us to the delicious ultra-creamy polenta with homemade sausage and mushrooms, as well as to the yummy little mussels. We also got the antipasto platter and arugula salad. Everything was wonderful, and it was fun just sharing a bunch of stuff while we guzzled a bottle of cheap red.
The table tops are a beautiful robin's egg blue, but I'm not exactly enamored with the decor overall. The ladie's room was weird too---why have two sinks with only one john? Dunno.
I'll be back though, I want to try that pizza. And the entrees look good too.
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Wow. This place is great. Very cool atmosphere, excellent service and equally excellent food.
Our appetizer was Polenta, hot Italian sausage, mushrooms, gorgonzola, chives and truffle oil. I want to tell everyone to try the Polenta- it's amazing. My entree was Cannelloni stuff with chicken, veal, parmesan, ricotta in a tomato sauce...I enjoyed it thoroughly. My wife had a salad and veggie pizza.
The modern/trendy decor and lighting make for an interesting atmosphere- most notably the alien metal sculptures. Other reviewers are right- nothing about the decor says Italian (or any other type of food for that matter). But who says you need to have red & white checkered table cloths for great Italian food?
I look forward to our next visit to try something else.
People thought this was:
Useful (1)
A great, bizarrely futuristic Italian restaurant. Definitely not as expensive as it looks so don't be afraid to try it! My boyfriend and I ate here with another couple and had a great experience -- they offer to split salads between couples and a very accomidating to ridiculous request (like my request to have mushrooms on one-fourth of our pizza, hah). All four of us had the capresse salad to start and it was good but it had this weird Italian dressing that tasted...spicy?! I don't know what it was but something in it made my throat seize for a moment! We had plenty of time to chat and relax until our main entrees came out. The pizza my boyfriend and I split was greasy but delicious and my little sea of mushrooms was delightful. I tried some of the pumpkin gnocchi that my friend ordered and it was really good, the pumpkin flavor was very subtle and tasty. My only regret is that we didn't have room for dessert, 'cause they all sounded amazing!
People thought this was:
Cool (1)
we went to gianni's on second saturday during that block party thing, which was probably not the best choice, as our service was kind of weird. being told there was an hour wait and then that we could sit outside, and then sitting at a table near the bar in a place that was practically ignored by the wait staff. after saying something to the host, we were given very attentive service and felt bad that we only bought one pizza to share. anyways, we had the mushroom pizza, which had 4 or 5 different types of mushrooms along with cheese and just olive oil brushed dough. it was not too greasy and delicious if you like mushrooms. the crust was kind of sweet which was surprising but delicious. much better quality pizza than like round table or pizza guys and it was enough to fill the both of us up without being too full. you can also call in and order pizzas for pick up. we will probably go back on a less busy/crazy/hectic night and hopefully the service will be a little more normal. the people at the table outside our window had a bunch of delicious looking food, and i am anxious to go back and try some other stuff, particularly the meatballs!
People thought this was:
Useful (3)
Cool (1)
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