The food was fine but not worth the price and the service was flat out bad.
Came here with a party of 8, all locals except me and my sister who insisted we come here to try the cheese wheel pasta despite our family on the island trying to dissuade her. One party member was running late and we told the waitress that we were waiting for her to order food but ordered a pitcher of sangria in the meantime. The sangria was great. We later ordered another pitcher as it was popular and worth the price of $55 since we got about 5 glasses put of it. Despite telling the waitress we were waiting for someone she came over several times asking if we were ready and she was obviously getting increasingly impatient.
When we were ready to order the waitress did not tell us the specials or anything. I asked specifically since I had been here once before and knew they had specials. We saw people with some kind of prosciutto appetizer and thought it was maybe a special but she didn’t mention it. I ordered the bruschetta ruccola thinking that this was that appetizer that I was seeing. When she brought out the ruccola I was disappointed to find it was not that delicious app I was seeing. The waitress gave me attitude when I was confused about this and said “that’s the burrata” but there was no burrata on the menu! The bruschetta rucolla was good, we still ate it, but i was definitely disappointed.
For dinner a few people did the cheese wheel pasta with a side of meatballs, I did the bolognese and two people split a chicken alfredo pasta. The cheese wheel pasta was pretty good, I think for the price they could have had a bit more a show with them tossing the pasta, there was barely any flames or anything. But taste-wise, I thought it was very good. One person said it was “too salty”, and it was fairly salty from the cheese but me and the others liked that. The meatball was okay, it was one very large meatball. Personally I would skip it. My bolognese was pretty good. The Parmesan crisp on top really added a lot to the flavor but overall the dish was fairly average. The carbonara was creamy and the chicken in it was ok, but like my bolognese it was just average. For these prices I expect at least above average, if not great. I should also note that everything took forever! We ordered around 7:20 and we did not get out of there until past 9.
The restaurant itself is very nice, we were sat outside which could be very warm unless you are seated near one of the fans. I was comfortable and the surroundings were nice. The bus-people were very nice and attentive bringing us fresh water and ice often. When we got our bill however the waitress gave us a hard time, messing up some items on the bill, including a locals discount, and disputing it.
Overall, despite the waitress dampening our moods, Gianni’s is fine. Is it the best Italian on the island? No. Is it the worst? Far from it. Is it worth the price? Definitely not, but I won’t judge people for being in lured in by the flaming cheese wheel.