We were looking for good Italian food in the area last night, as we are visiting LeClaire Iowa from out of town and found Gilanella's across the river in Rapids City. When we walked into the mostly empty restaurant, except for 3 guys sitting at the bar, it was kind of an uneasy gut feeling I had, but decided to persist neverless. My party of 6 sat at a large table and the very friendly hostess/waitress/cook/barkeep brought us menus and took our drink order. As we sat there perusing our menus and waiting for drinks, the 3 dudes at the bar were talking about nothing in general with dropping F-bombs and about every vulgar sexual situation, more loud cursing, (at this point, the waitress who wore many cloaks) joined in and sounded more like a sailor at sea than she did a sweet, friendly waitress. At this point 2 of the loud cussing patrons at the bar left and it became tolerable.
THE FOOD:
I ordered the spaghetti with a couple of meatballs added, and she assured me they were home made. I also ordered a dinner salad with blue cheese dressing. The salad she prepared was very fresh and crispy and there was no issue with that. However, when the main course arrived that was a different story. The meatballs were simply balled up hamburger with no flavor, and the marinara was nothing more than a jar of dollar store spaghetti sauce that tasted like it had equal cups of sugar and salt instilled in its making. The others in my party commented on the pizza's (I agree with the review about Jack's pizza being microwaved tasting better). They stated the dough was not home made dough, but was probably more like chef boyardee pizza dough mix, however, could have also been a dollar store purchase, and was very salty as well. The Margarita pizza was more of a cheese pizza with a few tomato's tossed here and there and a basil leaf chopped into miniscule pieces . On a good note, the garlic cheese bread and plain garlic bread were pretty good. The styrofoam plates and plastic dinner ware were a nice touch to the meal as well.
I can honestly say it won't be happening again. The lack of cars in the lot, empty tables, and 3 or 4 patrons at the bar, tells me this isn't really an eating joint, but a place for locals to hang and drink, then have the bar tender toss together some "drunk food" . Yes, I tipped her, as she was very nice and cordial to us, but waiting 45 minutes for our food, and all of the other lack of a sensible dining experience, will prevent another visit to this restaurant. read more
