Dinotto

01/11/09

Nice atmosphere and service, but serious lack of flavor

by BernSteve at Citysearch

Dinotto's started out promising - quick and friendly service, clean and romantic atmosphere, and tasty bread with a pesto butter. The good stops there. Our appetizers were average at best - eggplant parm drowned in cheese with minimal sauce and caprese salad (pretty hard to mess up) that was a very small serving for the price. Our entrees were dreadfully bland. The "crispy risotto with shrimp" was basically a rice ball in brick shape form with shrimp in a very dull runny tomato sauce. The spaghetti bolonese with sausage was the absolute worst I have ever eaten. The sausage was burnt and without flavor - ballpark saugsages are way better. The sauce was embarassingly bad - no flavor whatsoever - a raw tomato offers more flavor. Save your money, try somewhere else.

• Pros: atmosphere
• Cons: food

09/09/08

Best Wine and Dine

by verysovery at Citysearch

Ok, I read some of these "poor reviews" and I wonder if they're done by other restaurant employees in the area. I've been to Dinotto's on and off on many occasions, over the course of the past 3 years and I must say that this is a great place, be it winter or summer. The food is excellent. The atmosphere is great, the drinks are wonderful and the servers are friendly. We recently went to celebrate my sister's birthday and we dined al fresco. My sister absolutely loved her birthday dinner. And the owners always make it a point to walk around and say hello to their patrons. I like that kind of attention. If you haven't been to Dinotto's, you have to try it.

• Pros: Everything
• Cons: Tuesdays are a little slow but then again, it's the slowest business day in the City.

09/08/08

AWFUL FOOD AND SERVICE - Sept. 7, 2008

by TracyK28 at Citysearch

I was last at Dinotto in the winter. When walking out of the restaurant then I said to myself "I probably won't be coming back." It was so-so and there are so many choices around that I can avoid the "so-so" places. Last night a friend came into town unexpectedly and she wanted to go to Dinotto. So off we went. The restaurant was not packed, in fact I was surprised to see the staff / owners sitting down at the bar - taking up prime space. In any event, we were immediately welcomeed and seated. The waiter came by and took our drink orders and then disappeared for 10 mins. I did say that the place was not packed ,right? My friend and I were so busy catching up that we really didn't pay attention to it, until she got up to go to the bathroom. AND there he was... sitting at a back table with friends.

So we called the owner, Dino, over and explained our frustration. He was so rude to us. He actually told us that we could take our business down the street if we didn't like it. Can you imagine?

So we ordered one entree and one appetizer and split them both. The food was AWFUL, presentation was pretentious.

What we should have done was gone down to Topo Giogio, picked up a couple of orders of pasta and brought them back to Dino and Dinotto and shown them what real Italian food looks and taste like.

NEVER GOING BACK... EVER. Thanks, Dino.

• Pros: location is the only pro
• Cons: EVERYTHING