Forte Restaurant

This place was Excellent. The mood was good, nice little dark restaurant for a date night. Service was great, and they gave us some bread before the food we ordered and it was made fresh in the kitchen and it was great!!! Me and my wife are here for a little weekend get-​a-​way and happy we went. I would just say MAKE RESERVATIONS, it’s too iffy to just show up and hope to get a seat at least on the weekend.

Food is excellent – by far the best in Jamestown, if not the Jamestown area. A little on the expensive side, but generally you pay for quality in life. The beer and steak special at the bar is always a good pick.

Visited this restaurant on the recommendation of a local and was advised to try the crispy tuna appetizer and the $ 12 steak dinner. (Available only at the bar)
I had my doubts about a «$ 12» steak but I was blown away by the entrée.
The crispy tuna wontons were outstanding and the presentation was superb. The steak and garlic mashed with salad and a roll was perfectly done and had amazing favors. The steak was done just the way I like it and very flavorful.
Our bartender/​server was a consummate professional and it was a pleasure to watch him work his magic.
A very rewarding g dining experience.

Visiting in town over the weekend and staying at a local bed and breakfast and found Forte on Unilocal.Took the others’ recommendations and sat at the bar and my wife and I ordered the $ 12 Steak and Beer special. It’s legit and top notch! I loved the 8oz steak, full of flavor, done as ordered and served on top of hot garlic mashed potatoes. The Caesar salad was on point, as well. They have 4 taps and are all Southern Tier. They had a local sour that I had (peach) and also the seasonal Harvest, Pumking, and Porter. We wrapped up our dinner with the Stout Chocolate Cake… oh my my! Between the two of us, we still took some home.
Overall: awesome staff, great food, elegant/​simple décor, easy parking on the street and we’ll be back the next time we’re in Jamestown.

The food at Forte is always incredible. The pot pie is one of my favorites as well as the dipping oil with locally made Borsari seasoning! I have heard good things about their late night food menu (especially «Duck Wings») but have not had them myself. Be sure to make a reservation if you’re celebrating something special just to make sure you get your seat!

Service: great! Food: eh.
Went last night for mom’s birthday. All night, the server was great, very attentive and polite. They were out of the mussels, which is the main reason mom wanted to go there. Other apps were good. The entrees were sub par. I got the ribeye, which was a bit over cooked, that was supposed to come with a pepper and potato «hash», that had no peppers at all, was just cubed, undercooked and underseasoned potatoes. No veg. I was pretty disappointed, considering how much money we spent there. Mom’s steak was like shoe leather, that the waitress did, in fact, comp for us, which was nice. Again: service was great, but I may not go there again for dinner.

I stopped in for dinner while in town for a business trip. Lucky for me Tuesday’s are half off wine bottles! They have a great selection of wine. I ordered the special which was the seared sea bass. That was very good. I would have given this place 5 stars but the sushi I ordered for an appitizer was not great. The rice was really dry. Might have been a bad batch.

The sushi is incredible! Tuna tataki on wonton is a meal to itself… The coconut shrimp roll could feed two as well… We over ordered. Mixed drinks are reasonable. A good deal for travelers.

Without a doubt this is the best restaurant in Jamestown and the second best in Chautauqua County. (Brick Room in Fredonia is my favorite!) The $ 12 steak special includes a salad and beer and is only served in the bar area. Very supportive of the excellent local Southern Tier Brewing Company beers brewed in nearby Busti. It’s the only real Sushi place that I’m aware of. (Wegmans does not count… but it’s good too.) There is nothing on the menu that I would be afraid to recommend. The place is truly NYC in Jamestown, NY. HEY… better reserve to avoid disappointment and tell them Norm sent you. Great place to be for a late night beer with the young professionals of Jamestown. NO TV!!!

We are from Canada and come to Jamestown almost every month of the year. This restaurant has sooooo much potential but it is so inconsistent. For many years we came and it was so wonderful. One of the servers «Matt» was the best you could ask for in a server. Always there for you. During these times we had a few not so good meals but he somehow made up for that and so did the restaurant. Now Matt has moved on to another job and the girl that took over for him is absolutely not the person you want to serve you. The maître de looked after us at first because she was not available. He was awesome but sorry we can’t remember his name… Was it Rob? Anyway he got us our wine and told us of the specials and brought us bread. Then she took over. At first she was attentive but after getting us our food we never saw her again… I finally hunted her down at the bar so we could pay our bill. I asked her if she fell in a hole but all she could tell me was she was so busy. The maître de was there And apologized. I told him I was tired of hearing apologies from this restaurant. So long story short you might get good food you might not… But worse than that is you might get good service and you might not!

We had such a great dining experience here that we came back the next night! The $ 12 steak and beer special offered at the bar is wonderful – an 8 oz steak (cooked perfectly) served with garlic mashed potatoes, Caesar salad and a roll, and comes with a beer of your choice. So yummy!
We also ordered the lamb meatballs as an appetizers, and they were delicious.
The service was great both nights. Servers were attentive, friendly and down-​to-​earth.
Highly recommend and would be here every week if we lived nearby!

Excellent Place. Had the Pork Chop was awesome and the nutella cheesecake was da bomb.

Cozy atmosphere. Amazing rice balls and seaweed salad. Short ribs were too dry and fatty, but not too bad. Great service and food overall.

Quick visit to jamestown and found this little gem of restaurant downtown and enjoyed the spaghetti Bolognese which was delicious. My wife enjoyed the seared tuna. thumbs up for sure

This was a good dining experience — there were a couple of minor flaws but those minor flaws kept it from being a FIVE. Let’s start with what was right: the menu is eclectic; there’s something for everybody. The food is flavorful and the portions are perfect. Whether you want small, medium, or large plates, you will likely be pleased with what you get. The décor at Christmas is interesting without being overly distracting.
I thought the waitress could have done a better job — she was nice enough but wasn’t really clued in to our group of five. She (or the bartender) botched a relatively simple (but not routine) request for a children’s «cocktail,» she disappeared when it was time for us to have our plates cleared and bring the bill, and when she did bring the bill there was another table’s $ 40 bottle of wine on it that had to be removed. Finally, we took my parents out for their anniversary and I mentioned that to the hostess when I made the reservation and there was nothing special provided.
Let me be clear: a restaurant of this caliber in Jamestown is most welcome and they do so much right (as evidenced by all the rave reviews) and we’ll be back. But one thing I’ve always insisted on with restaurants is that they recognize that every fine dining experience ought to be treated by management and staff as a special event. Instead, we more or less felt like we were ignored.

Another memorable meal. Friendly service, knowledgable staff, and delicious food with plenty of vegetarian choices.
What’s not to like?!

Our 2^nd time at Forte. It did not disappoint. We dined there on Saturday, ⁹⁄₂₈. My wife had the sea bass & I had the black bean burger. We both the soup which was wonderful. Wines were very good. Excellent presentation — see the photos. Pricey, but the service. & food lives up to the price.

Here are the basics as I currently see them if you are thinking of giving Forte a try:
1) They get very busy and the bar is long and narrow with tables against the opposite wall, so if you aren’t looking for a crowd… don’t go on the weekends. It is difficult to navigate. If you are looking for a place to socialize, Forte will be busy. Reservations are a good idea.
2) The food is great and Julie is an amazing chef. She infuses many different flavors and does interesting combinations of very unique and palatable flavors. If you are looking for something unique, this is the place to go in Jamestown.
3) They have sushi, yes. But it is basic and the prices are higher then you will find in other larger cities. However, as the owner helped me understand, there is a small market in Jamestown and getting the ingredients fresh is pricey.
4) Wednesday night they have Trivia late night (around 10:00 or later) and it is a good night to have a relaxing dinner without the place being packed if you come a little earlier.

Forte’s amazes me. I live in South Florida, travel throughout South America and I’m used to the best of the best in ceviche. In a city with an ethnic heritage like Jamestown, I would expect great Swedish Meatballs, Korv or any Italian pasta delight, but a great ceviche? No way! But, to my delight and surprise I had one of the finest tasting dishes of ceviche ever. To top that off, I also had one of the finest, most delicious filet mignons ever; most exquisitely prepared. To have a fine meal like this, particularly in an area known for offering little more than subsistence food, came as a shocking surprise.
Where the culinary artistry of most restaurants fade with age, Forte’s continues to improve. Hence I’ve had to up my rating from Four to the coveted Five Star.

Despite the fact that this place has some identify issues (one part bar, one part sushi restaurant, one part upscale pub grub??) I still really liked it.
I got the sausage stuffed chicken which was divine. The sausage and chicken were moist and surrounded by a creamy cheese sauce. YUM. The roasted fingerlings potatoes it came with were great too, very flavorful and cooked perfectly. The side salad was nice and huge.
The service was great, very friendly. Price was a hair under what I expected to pay, bonus. The entire space is really cool, great vibe. The ladies restroom was so cute; it had hairspray, bobbypins, lotion, tampons, etc. for the taking. A nice touch.