Papa Tony’s Trattoria

If I could have given 0 stars I would have. This has nothing to do with food. We arrived at 7 and assumed there would be a wait. Hostess said 25 minutes or you can sit at the bar. We had a 3 year old with us so we asked for a booster. The waitress, who was accommodating, brought it out and we started settling in. The owner or manager — I’m not sure — came out and told the waitress (without looking at or talking to us) that we could not have a booster on the barstools. So then we asked if a couple tables could be combined or if we could be seated outside. The waitress went to ask the manager who proceeded to stare at us and then look at the waitress and shake his head. At that point we saw a table of 5 leave and no one but us was waiting for a table. So we asked if we could be seated there — this time directly asking the manager. His exact words, «ok, but our kitchen is backed up so it may take an hour to serve you». In case you couldn’t guess, his tone was not exactly civil when he said this. Never have I had an experience like this. Never will since we won’t ever go back there. If he was the owner, then there isn’t much that can be done. If he is the manager, the owner should seriously reconsider his employment. This was at 7 pm on 4÷15÷16.

Just amazing! I don’t say this lightly. I had the beef tenderloin with mushrooms in a wine sauce, and substituted risotto for the pasta. My wife had the meat lasagna. Everything was spot on. I didn’t come back for so because of the previous experiences under old owners. That was a major mistake on our part. If you skip this place, you don’t know what you are missing. We might be back tomorrow.

We LOVE this place! The family who owns it truly makes the environment lovely! The food is consistently great and the Tiramisu is one of the best we have ever had!
We try varieties of different dishes and each time they are fantastic! From the olives, to the wine, pizza and pasta!
Total package!

Food need more TLC. Tasted better when they first opened. Don’t think I will go back. Staff is very nice though.

I am again disappointed with this measly attempt at a Italian restaurant in Brambleton. The service was terrible. We had to continually ask other wait staff to get our waitress for us because she made no attempted whatsoever to check on us after taking our order. I ordered the fettuccini carbonara which was supposed to come with pancetta. The cooks substituted chopped ham and it ruined the flavor of the dish.

Wow. So, I live in Brambleton and have for the past 6 years and the 2 previous owners — the food was not good. I did not come back. After Papa Tony’s had been opened 6 months I decided to try and I have to admit, I expected little. I ordered Veal Marsala, Shrimp vodka as an appetizer and a pizza to go. It was amazing. All three dishes were delicious. I came back a second time today and ordered the cod entrée and a chocolate soufflé. My compliments to the chef. I love the food and I will be back again and again. My only tiny criticism is that the bread = not great. They need a better bread recipe that is not so bland. Seriously — so happy that we finally have authentic italian in Brambleton! Come to Papa Tony’s, you will love it!

Just a great little place. I love the owner/​manager, she is super nice, super welcoming, and you know what it’s a great little place to feel like home. The food is good, the service is friendly and honestly if you want something more authentic than maybe Italy should be your next stop! For Ashburn, it’s a good place to get your simple pizza and pasta dish.
Grazie mille! Ciao!

Chicken piccata very good. Shrimp over risotto was AMAZING. Kids chicken delicious and fresh sautéed veggies. Don’t sleep on this place. Much better than reviews show. Full disclosure. Grew up on NJ Italian places and really thought service and quality of food shone through.

I would have given 0stars, if i could!
When we entered, on a Saturday night, there were only 2 tables occupied and still the owner refused to give us a couch seating. They were reserved she said! Of Course they weren’t since all were empty for the entire duration of our visit.
My wife then ordered a pasta and just asked the waitress to make it creamy. When the bill arrived, there was a 5 $ addon charge. For a 10 $ dish, its ridiculous to charge 5 $ as an upcharge. The owner refused to lower or remove it even though the waitress didn’t inform there will be an up charge.
I ordered pizza and paid for 3 additional toppings. One of the toppings was wrong and i still told the waitress that its fine, as she would have to waste the entire pizza and redo everything. Now looking back, after the experience, i should have just given it back to the owner.
PLEASE STAY AWAY! I hope Brambleton gets rid of this stale place as on a Saturday night, the place had only 3 tables filled anyways!

Very disappointed with the food, I was really hoping to like it, even bruschetta was not good. We ordered 3 different entrée s and none of them were good. I like the location and I hope this improves.

My wife and I go here often to hit their happy hour prices. We usually sit at the bar so we can get the happy hour menu. We love this place. Service has always been very good, the house wine is great and the food is always tasty. Best secret of Brambleton!!! Chicken piccata is WONDERFUL!!!

I live in Brambleton and never had a desire to go here, but my friend and I walked there last night because it was a nice night and we thought we would give it a try.
It was not even very crowded yet compared to the other restaurants in the Town Center, but the hostess was already frazzled and promptly informed us that they had only two servers, so couldn’t seat us at any of the very available tables for at least 15 – 20 min after we asked for one of the empty tables outside. Then, for some reason, she said she could seat or outside, but she had to clean off the table. While we were waiting, another party behind us was seated by someone else???
We decided to walk to the outside table, expecting to see the table be cleared of the dirty glasses, check, and dishes from the previous patrons. It was another five minutes before the hostess herself came. She was very frazzled and it took her three trips for a table of two to clear it, for whatever reason. She didn’t bring any utensils or menus. We waited for 20 min and no waiter came, in spite of the fact we made eye contact with a waitress who was helping all the tables around us but never stopped when we tried to get her attention. I had to finally go inside and get the menus myself. By this time, two parties who came after us already had their drinks and appetizers and bread.
About five minutes later after the waitress saw I got the menus myself, she came and asked us if we had been helped. Really? Just help us already instead of playing dumb! She took our drink order and someone else brought our drinks. I’m glad I asked for a water along with my drink because we never saw her again for a refill or anything else. The manager finally came out and took our order and apologized profusely. He was very nice and we eventually got our food. He was really busy and stopped by once more during our meal and my friend was able to get one refill. By the time I needed one, I had given up trying to find anyone.
The food was good, but the whole thing took two hours! The service ruined the whole experience. Three parties we noticed who came after us (with more people) were finished and gone by the time we were done.
The saving grace was that the manager (David) was amazingly gracious, and without prompting, comped our entire meal. Too bad service was so slow (nonexistent except for the manager, who could only do so much) we didn’t feel like ordering dessert or anything else. If it weren’t for that, I would say to avoid this place and that there are better places to enjoy your time and spend your money that serves great food. But since the food was good and the manager was aware of the issues and was proactive in handling them, I would consider giving this place another chance sometime in the future. That’s the only reason I gave it any stars at all — thanks to David! I just couldn’t give it more because it wasn’t a very good first experience.
If it had great service and great food, it would be a no-​brainer favorite spot since I can walk to it! Hopefully, I can give it a better review in the future! Stay tuned!

Still exploring our new neighborhood eats, the hubs and I decided to try this place out. Sat at the bar and ordered a veggie pizza, pasta e fagioli soup and lasagna to share… nice service from the bartender… the pizza was pretty good, just a bit lacking in something, salt, garlic maybe? The soup was just ok, the beans were still a bit hard, and the soup broth was more one note, but the lasagna was the highlight! Yummy, and flavorful… will be back to try other dishes… prices are ok for the area.

Despite the bad reviews in the past, you really should try this place out now. They have a new chef and the food is excellent. When they have it on the special menu, you should try to the tomato bisque. Holy crap that stuff is heavenly. Otherwise, just about everything else on the menu is tasty and made fresh. We come here about once a week and the service is always good.

Good food, drinks and service. A great selection of beverages and mixed drinks along with a nice selection of food. Something for everyone.

This place deserves another shot.
We gave it a try despite the mixed reviews and were really impressed. We’ve been back several times now trying to figure out why it gets such low ratings. From talking to the servers and reading the reviews what we’ve put together is it had a bit of a rough time in the past, but they have changed up the staff and menu, and I think landed on a winner.
The tomato soup they have been running on special for a few weeks is awesome, lots of tomato and cream flavor, with just a little hint of heat. That needs to be a full time dish. Staples like chicken and eggplant parmesan, lasagna or even good old spaghetti are all quite tasty. The prices are reasonable and the service is good. I will say we have not tried their pizza at all, so I can’t comment on it. I would rate every dish we had above average except one, the carbonara was a bit lacking in favor, the prosciutto they use in it just doesn’t have enough flavor to stand up to the heavy sauce.
Overall I think this place got a bad rap from its bad past, but we just discovered it and think they made the changes to have a real winner. I would suggest its worth giving them another shot!

This is a fantastic date night spot! Love the ambiance and the food is delicious. Bread is on par with oil. I ordered salmon with risotto and loved it. My other half got the chicken picattta and it was great too! Downside was that service was extremely slow. It took 5minutes before a server even approached our table. Other then that it’s great. Will definitely be back!

We really like this place! It’s perfect for a quiet dinner — if you like a busy bustling restaurant this place probably isn’t for you. The brick oven pizzas are awesome — we love the meat lovers one. I have also had the eggplant Parmesan and that was pretty tasty and a huge portion.
Go in with an open mind and open schedule and you will probably really enjoy yourself!

They would not seat us 30 minutes before closing.
The posted hours on the door stated they were open until 10pm. We walked in at 9:30 to find the restaurant empty except for the staff. The hostess dismissively stated that the dining room was closed and probably the kitchen too. How can the dining room be closed before the kitchen? It is unlikely that we will ever be back to actually try the food.

Deserves 1.5 stars, not a 2.
I came with the fiancé to Papa Tony’s which is in the space formerly occupied by La Cucina. I ordered the eggplant parmesan and it was awful. The service took forever on a not-​busy night, and it came out warm. Actually, warm is being generous… more like lukewarm. It was so heavily breaded and fried the coating on the eggplant was soggy with all the grease. The fiancé got spaghetti with marinara sauce. His also came out warm, not hot. That eggplant ended up putting a hurting so bad on my stomach after we left from the oil/​grease which was just sooo heavy.
I want to give Papa Tonys another try as I like to give a restaurant at least a couple tries before abandoning it altogether… but remembering my painful stomach, I just haven’t been able to come back.
This place better improve quick otherwise it won’t last half as long as its predecessor in this space.