Gianni's Ristorante Italiano

It was day 10 on my families Aruba stay. All children love Italian. Second night Sole Mare, great food, a little overpriced, but that is Aruba.

One of my daughters suggested Gianni's and we proceded with a 7:45 pm reservation. The event started off perfectly, while busy, we were seated on time. The restaurant has a terrific location to the Palm high rises. Great decor inside and out. Very nice menu with a reasonable wine list. All is well until the service.

Initially took 15 minutes to have a server say hi, and it wasn't even our server. It was an asst. waitress that took a drink order, then brought bread and butter. Our server finally arrived, at which time he was unaware of the visit by his associate (now 25 minutes from when we arrived). Immediately ordered some rigatoni for my 6 yr old grandson, and told the server we needed 5 minutes to get our order together.

The server arrived 15 minutes with a plate of rigatoni that needed more sauce. We requested a side of marinara double time to my grandson could eat his meal. Ten minutes later, I flagged the waiter who said it would be right out. In addition we had placed our appetizer order (shrimp cocktails, various salads, etc.) Five minutes later we flaged down a busboy who said it would be right out. In the meantime my grandson was eating the dry pasta. I finally went up to the kitchen and complained which resulted in another busboy bringing his sauce.

Twenty minutes later, we complained that new tables surrounding us had already been served with their salads and appetizers. The server appoligized and blamed it on the backup in the kitchen. Well, the other tables didn't suffer from the "kitchen congestion".

The end of it all was our entrees being served an hour and twenty minutes after being placed. We had alreadyt spokent to the manager regarding the appetizers, and had the oppurtunity to meet the owner.

The owner apoligized and said there was confusion with the server. I asked her how she would have felt at a fine dining establishment an hour and twenty minute wait for your dinner. She shrugged her shoulders and apologized, with no offer of adjusting the check.

Our check was over $500 and then the surprise of a mandatory 18% service charge which includes the tip. This 18% is also placed on a bottle of wine. Very dissapointed in the event.

I travel over 3 months of the year with an estimated entertainment budget of approximately $250,000. That is alot of dinners. I read on the website about the dicey service and shrugged it off. Let the buyere beware. I can only surmise that the owner's lack of rectiying this sad event is attributed to the feeling that we are tourists with infrequent oppurtunities to impact her business.

Let the buyer beware, great food, nice atmosphere, but the service is worse than hit or miss!

Gianni's was our top meal experience in a week long stay in Aruba. We arrived at 6:30 with no reservations and were seated immediately. My wife, 7 year old son and I loved everything about Gianni's. Everything was great. My wife ordered lasagna (which is not currently on the menu but they will make for you special order) and she claimed it was the best lasagna she ever had! I started with a great bowl of pasta fagiloi and had an entree of gnocchi with spicy arabbiata sauce which was fantastic. My son ordered spaghetti and meat balls----the child size portion was big enough for two adults! Great experience, great atmosphere----highly recommended!

What a Nice Surprise!! I honeslty am always a bit skeptical about eating Italian when I go to any island, as my family is Italian and I am from Northern, NJ - which has the largest selection of Italian Restaurants is the country. We were very pleased with the nice atmosphere, both indoors and outdoors, nice size portions, excellent selection on menu and extremely affordable pricing. Definitely a nice change of pace from all the steaks, chops and seafood restaurants on the island.

This will have to be my top choice for this trip this year. Ambiance plus!! Staff if friendly and very attentive. I would say though I don't think it's the right place for little kids at night. The food is excellent as well as the presentation. I chose the Veal which is how I rate any Italian restaurant I go to. If they can make good Veal then chances are they do everything well. The best Veal on the island is still Chalet Swiss. This comes in a close second for flavor but it was a little too thin for my liking. The other members in my party raved about their dishes one of which was the Lobster Thremadore. If you can make it to desert they have a great selection.

Similar to Sole Mare. food was good as was the service. we split the bruchetta. husband had veal with pasta and I had a pasta/mushroom dish. 3 drinks and dessert was a chocolate covered salami with almonds, peanuts and a chocolate sauce. very interesting although I never detected the salami in the dessert. $100 with tip

My husband was looking for pasta for dinner. We walked down the block to Gianni's. No reservations. We were seated within five minutes. We found the staff to be friendly, efficient and attentive. Lots to choose from on the menu. Not your typical "tourist Italian restaurant". Food was excellent. It was a little pricey but I would definitely go back.

Wow..this was a nice surprise. This was a very good Italian restauarnt. My pasta was properly al dente and my husband's polenta was nicely cooked (not at all runny) One of the best tiramisu I've had

very fast paced service our waiter wasnot friendly the food was very good the drinks were ok i would go bak just bc of the food being italian i kno good italian food n this place has it

Two words: Tourist trap.

Food was good but not the service. The only time we interacted with the waiter was when we ordered our meal. He got lost several times, even had trouble trying to pay the bill.