Gulino’s Buona Pasta Restaurant

I have reviewed this place before, but feel the need to change it.
Okay, the food remains really good for such an inexpensive restaurant, but the service today was so bad that if today was the first time I frequented this place, I would never go back. The staff tried as much as they could but they were very short handed, as there was a party going on and only 3 workers. One waiter was not only taking and serving orders, but also tending bar. Very, very tacky. To the owner of this place, I say this, if you are trying to save money by not having a large staff, cheap is expensive! There should have been staff there just tending to the party and a waiter should not be doing double duty. My mother had to wait about 30 minutes for a drink that was made wrong! That is just unprofessional and as far as I am concerned unacceptable. If you want a nice Italian restaurant which is inexpensive and fully staffed with really good food go to bella vita 11 on richmond ave.
What I found to be really poor business is that with the slow service and the cocktails made incorrectly, I would expect something taken off the bill at the very least the bar bill which wasn’t that much since the table ordered only 2 drinks, but they couldn’t even do this right. I really will hesitate going back next time. There are plenty of Italian restaurants on Staten Italy!

The best time to go to this small, cozy little restaurant is during the week, Monday to Thursday. That’s because they have dinner specials («Complete Dinner»). For only $ 14.95-$ 16.95 (depending on your entrée), there’s a whole meal with a bunch of courses and a glass of soda or wine. There’s a big bowl of salad for the table, soup or appetizer, entrée, dessert and coffee or tea. My mom and I used to really enjoy the many courses since it is definitely a good deal, however, as of late, I don’t seem to enjoy it as much as I used to.
The salad with the oil and vinegar dressing is sometimes too heavy on the vinegar. Plus, it’s basically just iceberg lettuce, onions, tomatoes and chickpeas. Eating iceberg lettuce doesn’t really tickle my tastebuds.
The part of the meal I really enjoy is the appetizer as I always choose the eggplant rollatini. My parents usually get the zuppa di mussels in white sauce, which can be good if there’s no sand in them (although I love dipping the crusty bread into the sauce!). The other choices include: soup of the day (I had homemade beef barley soup once and it was delish!), hot buffalo wings, baked stuffed shells, stuffed mushroom, and mozzarella sticks.
My entrée in the past used to always be pasta ricardo (shrimp, garlic, sun dried tomatoes, fresh basil, sherry wine sauce). However, it can sometimes be off (not enough sauce, not enough taste) but when the sauce is flavorful, it can be extremely tasty. However, since my mom makes a pasta very similar to that one, I changed my regular order to tortellini davinci (shrimp, shallots, mushroom, garlic, red sauce, heavy cream in a pink sauce). This is definitely a change in taste and it’s great to eat leftover too!
There used to be more of a selection for dessert (tortoni and spumoni) but now it’s just ice cream, jello, rainbow sherbert or rice pudding. A scoop of vanilla ice cream with my cup of decaf coffee ends the night.
Many of the waiters I remember have gone and because of the beginning and end of the menu (I do really miss those tortonis!), Buona Pasta isn’t as great a restaurant as it used to be. Maybe a great deal of it has to do with not seeing my favorite waiters! Would I still choose this restaurant over a Chinese restaurant? Most definitely!