Giovanni's Italian Restaurant

Ashley Spellane

This restaurant claims to be “fine dining” but they are far from it. First, they were practically empty at prime time on a Saturday night- instant red flag. We had to search for an employee to seat us, and were at the table for over 10 minutes before someone came up to us offering to help, claiming they didn’t know who our waiter was. We ordered apps and drinks, drinks were obviously watered down, the waiter blatantly told us he was holding our appetizers under hot lamps until we placed our entree order claiming that the “menus were taking up too much space on the table”, we had to talk to the manager to get our appetizers sent out and get app plates refreshed, and the appetizers weren’t good at all. Muscles and oysters were stuck to the shells and rubbery, the mozzarella was poor quality and so drowned in marinara that it was soggy and difficult to find the cheese, calamari was rubbery as well. Salads took at least 25 minutes to come out after we placed our order and we didn’t even get the salads we ordered. We were charged extra for Cesar salad, but we’re served the house salad. The entrees were bland and weren’t even brought out plated correctly. Lobster tail was rubbery. Main course was served and sides were brought out more than 5 minutes later. The whole service was lazy, unorganized and just far below expectations. I would easily compare this quality to hospital food and have gotten better service at a Waffle House, except Waffle House has ketchup and more than one item on their children’s menu. The service, presentation, timeliness and food were all incredibly underwhelming. By the time the check came we were so desperate to leave we didn’t even argue about the bill, we just payed it and resolved to never come back here again. The service took over 2 hours. This is NOT fine dining, you need to seriously lower your expectations and prepare to be here for 2 hours if you want to eat here.

Will Miller (NEW WINE)

Me and my wife had a Filet mignon & Lobster, the Lobster tail had a unpleasant smell. The filet was fatty. It wasn’t a good quality steak at all so we were very disappointed

M Rainey

Don't be tempted by the 3.7 stars. We had 3 different servers inside of 10 minutes. It was like Larry Curley and Mo nobody knew what they were doing. They also don't know the items on the menu. Our lobster ravioli was described as chunks of lobster with hamburger and sausage ravioli.mixed in a vodka sauce. It was a cheese ravioi with maybe a sliver of are lobster somewhere in there. We got the entree before the salad and the bread after the entree and salad.. It caused me to question whether the pasta is actually home made as they claim I don't know of anywhere I have been where they charged $21 for spaghetti. Nonetheless we did pay $24 for ravioli because it was supposed to have lobster in it. Truth is 2 entries 2 tiny salads and bread was not worth the $24. And to top it all off they charged us $29 for each entree instead of $24 shown in the menu. But it's OK because the server said because of what we've been through she would go ahead and honor the $24 price printed in the menu. In the end she did give us free dessert and and discounted the meal. A good server in a sub-par restaurant. Chef Ramsey where are you?

Luna Davis

Wow! We had an amazing experience. As a native NJ Italian I had high expectations for an Italian place in the middles of NC and it lived up to it. We had fried zucchini with marinara, the warm bread was great and our server Brian even made my partner some garlic bread just for her. I had veal which was perfectly cooked and the chicken Florentine was seasoned with fresh parsley and you could taste the mushrooms in every bite. Dessert was equally good, and probably one of the best tiramisu I have ever had! We essentially had a 4 course meal for less then $150. Will totally be back again!