A Taste of Italy

Never got to «Taste». Went there for lunch and with only six other customers already there. The guy in the kitchen told us to take a seat anywhere and the waiter was sitting outside on the porch. Fifteen minutes later we had seen no one but the kitchen guy serving other customers. When we left the waiter was back inside sitting on a bench with his iPhone.

Eaten here a few times. Last time we ate outside with kids. Who knew they had a patio? I didn’t. Great option if the weather cooperates. Had the chicken philly. Was surprisingly good. Kids got normal kid dishes. Have gotten takeout from here before. They screwed up one time on a calzone roll, I had to go back and get what I wanted. It was a communication issue with the person taking the order. They give you a lot of dipping sauce with calzones. We’ll probably try it again. Love to support the locals.
A note to the owners — on my Unilocal,A Taste of Italy only comes up if I search for «Italian». It does not come up when I search «restaurants». You should get the Unilocal ppl to fix that.

Best NY style pizza I’ve found in Richmond. Found service to be excellent. Dont understand why there are bad reviews. Haven’t tried anything other than their pizza.

Can anyone tell me what has happened to this place? We used to go there and would consistently get good service and the food was always really top notch! We used to prefer to go there over other places. We moved away and came back 6 months later returning to our beloved ATOI. The food is off and the customer service has left the building. Please shed some light pleassssee!

Man … where do I even start. Let me preface this by saying that my experience here was the wedding rehearsal dinner for MY wedding. My fiancée had already made arrangements for our 30-​some people to do a family style dinner at 6:30 pm on a Friday night. The lady manager she made arrangements with said they’d love to have us, and would be more than happy to.
Let me set the tone for the day, first. All day running errands and last minute «to dos», setting up and decorating the wedding venue, getting family and friends together, running around, running around, running around. Then? The night should end with a great meal, and we can all go home fat and happy, get some good sleep for my wedding tomorrow. Sounds like a typical day before a wedding, right?
As I mentioned, we arrived at 6:30 for our family style meal that was to begin at 6:30. By 7:00, nobody had any drinks, still. Our entire party was there and sat for 30 minutes, no beverages. One poor waitress was handling our entire ~30 person party. At 7:15, drinks slowly made their way out. Just in case you missed it, that’s 45 minutes to get waters and a few beers. 7:30 = No food. 7:45 = No food. It’s now 8 o’clock, and we’ve been there for an HOUR AND A HALF. And we’ve had WATER. The waitress, at 8:00 brings out bread and butter for the group (maybe 4 bread slices for 6 patrons). We’re starving, so the bread gets demolished. 8:15 = No food. 8:30 = Finally salads make their way out. This is family style, and these portions were apparently supposed to feed ~5−6 people per plate with the amount of plates served vs. the amount of people sat. Salads maybe 3 – 4 people could get a normal size salad from. By 9, our family style meals finally came out.
Let’s recap. It took TWO AND A HALF FUCKING HOURS to get water, bread, and salads. WHAT. Not only that, the penne with meatballs dishes that came out were cold, and like the salads, were enough for 3 – 4 people but were served to 6. We were told (per the original arrangements) that each dish would be brought out twice, (as we had a total of 2 entrees served family style). Well, that didn’t even happen. We never got our second entrée we paid for. We just got the penne, and the chicken piccata. There was no round 2.
Myself, my fiancée, my in laws, and a few of my best men work in the restaurant industry, and would have been more than happy to jump behind the line for you guys if you were that bogged down. But the restaurant wasn’t busy, nobody apologized or even gave us an explanation why our salads took two fucking hours to come out, much less the rest of the food, AND the manager that initially arranged everything was in house tonight and didn’t stop by the table when we had to wait nearly 3 hours for food.
I’m a huge advocate for eating locally, and I can even forgive the slow service. But you have to communicate to your customers. You have to set expectation. You have to have wait staff that are capable and willing to hover to make sure the guests waiting for 3 hours know whats going on, why its going on, and what she’s doing to help the situation. Ball fucking dropped. Hard.

Absolutely the worst customer service I have ever seen in my life! We went there at 6:30 and had to seat ourselves. There was 1 waitress and 1 bar tender in the whole restaurant. They weren’t even that busy only 5 tables but had a party of 40 in the back so those of us in the restaurant were ignored. In the 2 hours that we waited for 2 calzones and a pasta dish we were offered nothing. Had to get up and get our own silverware and ask for water and menus. Well after 2 hours the food wasn’t even that great. Will NEVER go back here again.

Extremely Good, the portions are right and worth the price. I think had the eggplant parmasion and it was cooked perfectly. I’m not a real fan of restaurant marinara sauce but theirs was thick and tasty. No bitterness to it a all. The service was good and personal. Will go again soon.

We were looking for a casual Italian meal on a Friday night. Entered the restaurant around 845pm and it took about 10 minutes to get seated. The place was almost empty and there were 4 servers huddled around the cash register, presumably trying to get off for the night. We were seated in a booth which had very uncomfortable seats. Out server, Katie, was very polite and did a decent job. We never got silverware, which I stole off from another table. Food was decent, nothing to rave over, but we were both satisfied with our pasta dishes. Worst part… my fiancé wore shorts and there were multiple mosquitos biting his ankles throughout dinner. Long story short, get it to go!

Enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Taste of Italy this weekend. Delicious food and excellent service made our night perfect. Chicken Romano made with spinach and mozzarella was light and tasty. It was simply perfect. Chicken Marsala was the best I’ve had. The pastas are amazing. This family run restaurant does it right and makes everyone feel at home. We can’t wait to return!

Most items made in the restaurant. We have been there 4 times and the food is outstandingly fresh and delicious. The red sauce is perfect and they have wonderful homemade fresh baked bread. So far we have had sphagetti, lasagna, veal and chicken parm, salmon in a rose sauce with ravioli and more
. We have also tried desserts such as cannoli. We loved the cannoli. No complaints here and the food is amazing.

Our favorite local Italian restaurant. We are originally from New Jersey and food reminds us so much of home. Everything is fresh & homemade — steak tolls & pizza to die for. Love sitting at the bar and chatting with the owner, Jo who is from Brooklyn. If you have not been here, you are definitely missing out on a hidden gem,

Very nice family. Very nice restaurant. I don’t particularly care for the food.

Was in town for the weekend for a soccer tournament and gave this place a try. Food was really good but service and organization was pretty poor. It looked like they were severely understaffed. Our group of 6 entered the front door and after standing around for a few minutes just went and sat ourselves. Even though there was a girl working behind the bar that didn’t even acknowledge we entered the place. A smile and a «someone will be right with you» goes a long way instead of pretending we weren’t there!
Great food, poor organization!

Ate here on a Wednesday night. Staff was delightful and food was really tasty. The only disappointments were the lukewarm fried broccoli and mushroom served on the side of my main dish and the gsrlic bread which was underwhelming. Kiddo loved his pepperoni roll and the chicken franchaise (sp?) was very good. My advice is to skip appetizers and stick with a main course and spilt a dessert. The tiramisu was very good and a hit with the whole table.

Authentic Italian cuisine. Been a customer here for years and never been disappointed. Great service, friendly. Keep wanting to try their pizza because of all the good reviews, but I find myself tempted on a pasta dish every, single time. Love trying new things here. Minestrone is excellent. Large portions and did I mention the nice wine list? Go go go hungry!!!

About 930 on a Friday night, after leaving a nearby gymnastics meet, I had to take my daughter somewhere for dinner. The first 2 choices we identified looked too «bar» like from the outside, so we opted for A Taste of Italy which looked more like a family restaurant (although they do have a bar).
Our meal was simple — a sandwich and salad. It was OK, but nothing to write home to mom about. The server was very nice, but service was a bit slow at first, and then she forgot our drinks entirely. But she was nice, and she was apologetic, and she is a human, so it happens.

Great go-​to for takeout pies; service is quick and pies are consistent. Ask for yours «Jersey Style» — Light on the cheese, well done in the oven.

Great Italian food! Best marinara! The food is very flavorful and seasoned properly. Recommend the spaghetti and stuffed shells yum! Also ordered garlic bread with cheese and that was very good. Second time here I got the carbonara and it is delicious! Service is good as well.

Have you tried their pizzas??? Oh god. Best little hidden Italian gem in the Brandermill area. And the pricing isn’t terrible either! Family owned, clean, delicious, pretty fast, and beautiful place. They moved a few years ago and I actually don’t go as often, but they did what needed to be done. Get their pizza!

I cannot begin to say, how much I love this restaurant. I’ve been eating here since high school and I still love it (I won’t say how many years later). This is the only restaurant so far that I have found Mozzarella Fritta, mozzarella stuffed with prosciutto in a lemon caper sauce. Oh. Em. Gee. fantastic
As a lover of cream sauces, I will gladly push aside Alfredo for their lemon caper sauce. Like the chicken piccata which comes with a battered broccoli and stuffed mushroom. Can I tell you? I’m in heaven here. They have to be one of my absolutely favorite restaurants in Chesterfield