Romano’s Restaurant

Went to Romano’s for a friends birthday dinner on a Friday night. I had such high expectations for this restaurant as I read such great reviews. Our server (who i’m not sure of her name) came by our table and asked if we needed more time as not everyone from our party arrived. Once a majority of a party was there we decided to order a it was getting late and we knew the kitchen was going to close soon. She proceeded to give each person a number it would be easy for her to know who ordered what. After everyone had ordered I proceeded to go to the bar to order a drink for my friends birthday. I asked the bar tender if they have Hennessy and she showed me a bottle with the word Hennessy so I ordered one Hennessy and coke and a Disaronno and coke for myself. I asked her is i should pay for my drink at the bar and she told me no she will just put it on my tab.
Flash forward to getting our food, 3 servers came to bring out all our orders as we were a fairly large group (about 12 people). Our original server was there with her list and instructing the other two servers as to who each dish belonged to. Somehow there was a mix up between two of the dishes and by the time the realized that they made a mistake, we all started to eat. She asked our friend if it was okay for her to keep the order that was a mistake and at that point we just accepted it because the kitchen was about to close and we didn’t feel like waiting for a new dish.
I ordered a Salmon Salad along with a shrimps on the side. Our server quickly realized that my shrimps where not with my order and let the server who brought my food know. after waiting about 15 min I finally got my shrimp (which my the way i didn’t eat because they tasted like they were just thrown on a grill, over cooked, and burnt). The only part of my huge salmon salad that I ate was the Salmon which i have to say was great. The lettuce in my salad tasted disgusting and I just couldn’t eat it.
At this point I did not complain because so many other people were unhappy with their food and I just didn’t want to bother complaining as well.
Now fast forward to my bill. Our server bring them to each of us a we asked for separate bills. I open mine a see a bill for $ 65.00! Ill recap, I ordered a salad– $ 18.00, added shrimp– $ 8.00, Disaronno and coke-​$ 7.00 and a Henny and coke plus tax and tip. I look over the bill and see that the Henny and coke is $ 25.00! I immediately call over my server and asked if there was a mistake with the drink price. They then inform me that i ordered a premium bottle of Hennessy. I quickly told her no I just wanted a regular Hennessy and coke nothing premium or special about it. She then tells me that the only Hennessy they have is the XO version and that it’s a $ 300.00 bottle. I was honestly speechless. She comes back to the table and proceeds to tell me that the bar tender showed me the bottle. I agreed that she did but I asked for a regular Hennessy and coke not a premium one so as a bar tender it is her duty to let me know as a customer that it would cost me a bit more for this type of Hennessy. I am not the «expert» as a bar tender she should have informed me because at the end of the day that is NOT what i asked for.
After all that I just decided i’m going to pay for it because that was what my friend wanted for her birthday. Everyone at our table were not impressed at this point given all our issues with our orders. They were trying to explain why it is crazy that I just was not informed of this prior to me even getting the drink. As I sit there and wait to pay I over hear another server making snide comments like: «oh well she did order a $ 300 bottle of Hennessy so what did she expect?» or «we don’t tell our customers that its a more expensive bottle because thats ‘disrespectful’ to let them know that its and expensive bottle» and «She showed you the bottle so you should have know».
At first I let her go on and on and on but I kindly turned to her and told her that no i didn’t know that it was a $ 300 bottle and if i had i wouldn’t have ordered it as my friend didn’t even care for it! She continued so talk and talk and talk and I just simply had to ignore her because at this point I was getting heated.
At the end of the day if she had no solution to the problem she needed to keep her mouth shut because she wasn’t improving the situation she was simply making it worse.
I had no apology for the confusion but was made feel bad because I ordered a drink and this establishment chose to give me what they FELT I wanted. SO at the end of the day I paid $ 65.00 for a Mixed drink and a piece of Salmon.
I never, ever, EVER, write review but I had to do it because I had such high expectations for this restaurant and man oh man was I disappointed.
Food– Not great
Experience/​Customer Service– Horrible (really need to work on this because even if your food isn’t that great, the way you treat your customers can truly make up for that)
Entertainment– The one grea

My fiancé and I have both been to Romanos before and had many great experiences. Unfortunately last night we had a very different experience for a friends birthday.
Our food took quite a long time to come out, however we were a large group so this could be understandable. When my food finally came out I put one cut into my chicken and pulled out a long dark hair. I quietly alerted the waitress and all she did was say «ok» and take it away.
About 20 minutes later the same woman came back with another plate of food set it on the table and said here you go.
By this time everyone else had finished there food and I had eaten a bit of my fiances so I told her it was fine I didn’t need it to which she replied I don’t see the problem, we made you a new one.
At this time I asked to speak to a manger, another waitress came over and I explained the situation and mentioned that I was extremely surprised no one had even apologized for the situation. She did finally apologize and said they would be removing it from the bill. Overall this situation in my opinion was very poorly handled and o would have expected much better customer service from this restaurant.

Excellent restaurant. Classic Italian done really well.
A typical Woodbridge joint, but sort of in the mid to upper category, somewhere in between. High value restaurant, quality food with large portions at the same time. You can definitely find better Italian if you look, but at this price point, it’s a feel good restaurant with excellent service and good value. You know you won’t go wrong — the type of place you can be a regular at.
The pasta’s are all done really well and their Secondi’s are excellent. Ask for the specials because they usually have great ones and an impressive list of specials usually as well (typically 2 fishes, and 2 meats)
Some things that stand out are: their veal parmigiana, the ossobuco, the beet and arugula salad, the spaducci with rapini.
They tend to get quite busy on the weekends, so definitely make a reservation and request the dining room (otherwise you’ll end up in the bar area). They recently renovated so both are quite nice in any event.
They have a promo going on for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for family style dining ($ 99 for 4). I haven’t done that yet, but that’s a truly a great deal.

Went here a couple was great but have since stopped going. Last visit the food was amazing but oh my God I think McDonald’s has better service. The waitress didn’t seem to think our table was as important as the rest of the resturant because everyone seemed to be getting their food but ours. It took her about 15 to get the dessert menu and at least half an hour to get out bill. I am not exaggerating when I said half an hour. So the only reason that they are getting a 3 star review is because the food is good the service is on the opposite end of the spectrum.

Got catering for a birthday from this restaurant and the food was delicious. Portions were also healthy, and everyone enjoyed their meal. Would definitely recommend it.

Classic Italian Food.
The locals love this place and so do I.
Any time your in need for some pasta, pizza, or even some fresh salads you should check out Romano’s.
My favourite is the rapini with baked beans.
And the beet salad.

The outside of this place does not do the inside justice! Service and food is amazing :) I had the capreze salad and Gnocchi and for desert we shared a massive slice of Tiramisu. Everything was awesome taste, portion and quality wise. Our service provided by Leyla was top notch. Totally recommend this place.

A large group of friends and I placed reservations at Romano’s for their New Year’s Eve fixed price menu. The appetizers were decent with lots of variety. We received Italian bread, fried calamari (which were rather bland), garden salad with balsamic vinegar, and antipasto stagione. For the entrée, we received pasta that was a little undercooked as it was still really chewy and dry in the inside. For the main course, we had an option of veal steak, chicken parmigiana, and grilled salmon. I selected the grilled salmon and I am extremely disappointed. The grilled salmon was very bland as there was no seasoning or sauce whatsoever. It was dry and lightly grilled but I find it to be comparable to lightly fried salmon as the outside was crispy. On the side was sweet mash potato and steamed vegetables that were overcooked. For desert, we had a choice of Apple crumble cheesecake and chocolate pecan cheesecake. It was good despite the texture that slightly indicated it came out of the freezer about 30 minutes ago.
For the whole dinner, it costed me $ 65 plus 18% tip and tax. All together I paid a little less than $ 100 just for myself! I wouldn’t have mind the price if the food quality was amazing as it is at fancier restaurant than the average restaurants I go to. But for average customer service and below average tasting food, it was not worth it. The only thing I liked from this experience was the one waitress that was very attentive and pleasant while the other waitresses did not bother with us as it was obvious we were fairly young (18 years old to be exact) and did not take us seriously. Oh and the bread of course!
Definitely will not be coming back.

Food is delicious. I would recommend the gnocchi or penne a la vodka. Staff are friendly. The restaurant has a classic old school Italian feel… Very large, banquet hall style room and furniture.
Prices are very reasonable, and the portions are huge!

I was there this Saturday and I love italian food. This place was horrible. I hated my pasta, husbands steak was full of fat and he hardly had any meat by the time he removed all the fat. The service was ok but way better italian food other places. Never returning back!!!

I must admit that I never heard about this place even though I have lived in Vaughan for over 20 years! The location is off the beaten path but it is definitely a hidden gem! The rustic décor and ambiance enhance the Classic Italian cuisine. All the pasta dishes we tried were amazing… home made gnocchi and fettucini sooo good… and the thin crust pizza was good too. Kids will love the spaghetti and meatballs! Loved the food so much that we decided to book our son’s communion party here. It’s definitely worth the trip to Romano’s!

The $ 10 pizza and pasta deal during the week is a terrific idea. Unfortunately the pizza was good, not great. One pasta dish was overcooked, not edible. Waitress was super efficient, even took it off the bill. Wouldn’t return. Disappointed.

We went to a private engagement party at this restaurant and the food was so good we went back for our anniversary. The gnocchi pasta was delicious. We had small lamb skewers for an appetizer along with the pan seared rapini. We really enjoyed our meal and it was priced right.

Dinner for 4 with their special menu (Tues, Weds, Thurs only) sets you back $ 69, not including tax and tip.
You get an antipasto platter, a choice of pasta (the fettuccini fresca was to die for… goat cheese, mushrooms and a light tomato sauce), entrée (we had a delicious osso buco) and your choice of garden or Caesar salad (one complaint — the Caesar was 1 part lettuce, 1part dressing and awfully soggy).
Service was excellent and overall a very good meal!

Amazing dinner from start to finish!!! You can do no wrong with any item on the menu. In fact, the 4 of us ordered 3 appetizers and 3 mains. Wow!!! The fried calamari, lamb sticks and polenta fries were super yummy. The penne alla vodka, sonoma salad and grilled tiger shrimp were freakin’ awesome.
Very friendly and knowledgable service. Ask for advice if you’re not sure what to order. We did and we were unconditionally pleased.
Very nice décor too!!! A1 experience all the way…

Great Food! But they hate Groupon!
FOOD
so my friend had this groupon and asked if I wanted to join.
The bread wasn’t to my liking. It was really dry and crumbly. I heard however the Italians like it this way. Is that true?
The waitress didn’t give us the oil and vinegar and we had to ask for it.
We had the Mussels Marinara — $ 10.00. P.E.I. mussels, steamed in a white wine, and garlic spicy tomato marinara sauce. It was delicious. The tomatoe sauce was perfect and mussel helping was generous for 2 two people.
We then had the Calabrese Pizza– $ 13.00 with Tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, red peppers, hot salami and black olives. I honestly couldn’t believe how great the pizza tasted. The combination of toppings were complemented each other and it was just a burst of happiness in my mouth.
We also shared the Spaghetti Calabrese — $ 15.00 which was spaghetti in a light tomato basil sauce with sliced italian sausage. This was equally as good and I was just in heaven.
The total came to $ 38 before taxes.
ENVIRONMENT
Driving up to the place seemed so odd. The restaurant looked so out of place as it looked like it was in the middle of all these manufacturer stores and it was in the middle of no where.
Walking inside however, it seemed like we were walking into a new world. It was dimly lit and there were different sections of the restaurant.
The washrooms even had little couches inside each stall (I have no idea why). It was probably to imitate an upper class feel.
WAIT STAFF
Now here is where the restaurant lost its 1 star. When we first got in, they were going to seat us next to the door when the restaurant had tons of other space. I understand that most people we sitting in that area but please don’t put us right next to the entrance. That’s just rude. We asked to sit next to the section where most people were sitting. They accomodated us (well they should because there were other people sitting there too).
The waitress was really helpful in deciding what we should order. We really enjoyed our meal. She even complimented me saying I had a nice spirit. At that point, I was good to give her a massive tip. HA.
Then when our bill came and we gave her the groupon, she looked at us in disbelief in the sense of «how could you use this here?». I was stunned. She took the groupon coupon and left without a word or eye contact with us. She gave us the bill without even looking at us and told us we had to pay the taxes and gruitity from out of pocket because we didn’t make the $ 45 groupon amount.
I was in complete shock. She was so great to us before and all of a sudden she became so cold. I understand we were using a groupon but I really enjoyed the place so much that I would have gladly gone back w/​o a groupon. And isn’t that the purpose of groupon? to introduce new customers to the restaurant? I honestly would have never found this place because it’s in the middle of no where and hidden between all these manufcaturing and retail stores. And I was going to give her a nice tip too so I’m not sure why she had this preconceived notion that well… I’m not exactly sure what she was thinking.
We still gave her a decent tip because our meal was great but I left with a sour taste.