This restaurant experience is really when the customer has to ask herself what kind of tribulations she's willing to bear for the sake of good food. To this point, the restaurant's short-comings were not to blame on any one individual...but that's exactly whom they had running the front of house (about 25 patrons)--just one server ! When my dining companion and I walked into the full restaurant, we were told there would be a 10 minute wait. It being a warm night for February, we decided that we would have no issue waiting. However, other hopeful patrons walked up and into the restaurant and when they chose to wait within and not outside, I felt that they might get seated first, even though they arrived after we did. My friend and I moved inside and us+the other patrons were all very much in the way. I think that some tables on the street devoted to waiting customers and perhaps another team member (host/hostess) responsible for organizing reservations and waiting customers might be a good idea to help this issue. When we were finally seated (squeezed into a booth a little too close to the tables around us--my friend had to actually move the entire table just to get to her seat) the restaurant did not have the wine we ordered, which wouldn't have been a big deal if there had been a large wine selection but they only really had 4-5 options for 75cl bottles of red. We had to wait for a long time (~15min) to even get menus and then the same amount of time for the wine. However, the food came relatively quickly and honestly, I'll probably return to this restaurant for the food because it was *that* good ! This is real authentic italian food ! They have several fresh pasta options (tagliatelle, gnocchi, cappelletti, pappardelle, etc) with amazing sauces (pesto, gorgonzola, salmon, fresh vegetables). I was thrilled with my generous portion of fresh gnocchi in gorgonzolla and walnut sauce and my friend loved her pappardelle al salmone ! We looked around and the other patrons seemed to be equally as happy with their pizza, eggplant gratin, and pastas (we saw pasta with steamed clams and jumbo shrimp the next table over). Next we both got generous helpings of tiramisu--the lady fingers weren't quite soaked enough in the espresso so they were a little dry but the mascarpone whipped cream was just heavenly ! We each ended up paying about 31 euros each for wine, pasta, and dessert and for the quality of the food, we found La Gondala to be fairly priced. We just wish the front of house had been a bit more organized with a proper place to wait, faster service, and a more spacious table setup. However, like I said, I'm definitely coming back for the AMAZING gnocchi !
Foreign travelers beware: they only accept french credit cards/cash. No American or English etc credit cards will work ! read more