Always a favorite and this trip did not disappoint. We weren't sure what time we would finish up…read moreour work on this particular Thursday evening so I waited to check for a table last minute. Thankfully we were able to get it with just a 30 minute wait or so. I had dreamed of arancini all day long only to find it was not on the menu any longer unfortunately! Heartbroken. All of our dishes were still delicious of course but please bring back the arancini! Service was impeccable, lighting and cocktails on point, still on my short list of all-time faves! Can't wait for our next visit!

Fortunato was an experience. From cozy posture friendly chairs to amazing filling and decadently…read morecooked meal, beautiful ambience, open kitchen, muted lighting, conscientious service.. this place is simply amazing. We were a group of eight, who magically became nine and we were accommodated. We let them know ahead that we had a vegetarian in the group, so they made markings to a separate menu card to help us choose. The drinks were well done, Food was so creative and done just right. For dessert we chose the chocolate salami platter, which was awesome. Our top recommendations, eggplant Parmesan, spinach and cheese pasta, roasted olives, brussels sprouts, and the chocolate platter. Give this place a try. Keep up the good work guys.!

I can't find the words to begin to describe my dining experience at this Italian restaurant. It is…read moreone of those very unique restaurants that far exceeds the highest of your expectations. After having been selected as number 4 of Yelp's Top 50 most prolific Elites of 2025, a year when I was also awarded the Yelp Triad Squad Photographer of the Year Award at their Yelpies 2025 Award Ceremony, an event that honored the highest-performing Yelp Elites, and where last year I was awarded the Yelp Triad Squad Yelper of the Year Award, I decided that this year, as an All-Star Yelp Elite, I not only wanted to be the first to discover new restaurants and businesses, and bring them to the attention of the public, but also to uncover those found in hidden paths that for one reason or another have not reached the public in its totality. And Sal's Italian Restaurant in the Bonsack area of Roanoke, Virginia is a perfect example. Located at the Kroger Bonsack Shopping Center, it sits just off US-460/Orange Ave East, in the northeastern part of the Roanoke Valley. Locally-owned and operated by the Scotto family, who originally came from Italy, this unasuming yet award-winning restaurant serves authentic, homemade Italian food in a warm, family-friendly entertainment, offering dine-in, dine-out (in its beautiful outdoor patio), take-out, and catering services. After arriving and parking my pearl white Lexus in their very convenient parking lot, I walked over to the restaurant which had colorful balloons near the entrance with a sidewalk blackboard announcing its Sit Down Buffet (Mon - Fri), all you can eat from a group of items, brought to your table. All for $14.99. I've always dreamed of having a buffet where you wouldn't have to get up, and here they had it. Once inside, they had a small foyer/waiting room, with the walls filled with framed Award Certificates, together with magazine and newspaper articles about the restaurant, its genuine food, and its local family ownership. As I entered through another door to the restaurant itself, one of the sons of the founder of the restaurant (who passed away on July 3rd, nine years ago) gave me a warm greeting, took me to one of the booths, and placed copies of the menu on the table. The background music gave the place a festive ambiance together with the oak hardwood floor and well lit dining room. Soon after, my server Ashley arrived with a friendly smile, to take my order. To drink I ordered an Iced Rootbeer. And to dine, I started out with a Fried Calamari appetizer; followed by a house salad, Italian garlic bread, and as the main entrée their Homemade Meat Lasagna. The fried Calamari was lightly breaded and fried so you could actually taste the fresh Calamari after dipping it in the mild marinara sauce. One of the best I've ever had! The house salad was good but only had one cherry tomato and one slice of cucumber. The tomato based salad dressing was amazing. Their Italian Garlic Bread tasted wonderful. And their Homemade Lasagna was truly one of the best if not the best I've ever had. The pasta was freshly made. The ground beef was perfectly seasoned. The tomato sauce was just the right flavor. And the cheese which covered it helped make it amazingly delicious, like none that I ever had before! My server served all the items at the appropriate time and provided drink refills every time my drink was low. For dessert, the "Grand Finale" of my meal, my server brought a large round tray, with all the desserts so I could visually see them as she described them. I picked the Chocolate Bomba: a vanilla and chocolate premium ice cream ball with a cherry inside and surrounded by a chocolate shell. It was really something extraordinary and sweet. But what was greatest of all was the human touch by this family-owned restaurant. The wife of the late founder of the restaurant as well as her other son and chef made it a point to come to my table to say hi, introduce themselves, and have a short but meaningful conversation. I highly recommend this restaurant where I had an extraordinary dining experience and am already looking forward to returning to taste some other amazing items from their menu.

DW and I went in for dinner on a Friday night around 1830. After waiting for a table for half an…read morehour or so we were seated. Clearly they were busy, think it's a popular local dinner spot. We ordered from a comprehensive menu organized by its protein inclusion. Meal was fine, garlic knots were a bit disappointing. Our plan is to go back on a calmer night.

Located in the Mountain View Plaza, off Lee Highway in Troutville, Virginia, this family-owned…read moregenuine Italian restaurant, is well-known for its New York style pizza and its homemade doughs and sauces, as well as its real mozzarella cheese. The restaurant doesn't have a full bar, but they do serve beer and wine. My friend and I who love Italian food decided to go try it out today. As soon as we entered the door we were warmly welcomed and greeted by a friendly young lady who to us to our booth and handed us the menus. The dining room was very clean and decorated with cute yet elegant Italian artworks on the walls. The menu was very extensive and contained popular items such as homemade lasagna, pizza, Philly cheese steak subs, and unique Italian dinners. . Our server, another very welcoming young lady with a big smile came by and took our order. Although most of the customers there were sharing a pizza, and they looked so delicious, we both decided to have the Stromboli with the works. Believe it or not, I think this was the first time that I had ever had Stromboli at an Italian restaurant. To drink we both had Cokes. When the food arrived, the Strombolis looked so fresh and delicious on the outside, and in the inside it contained fresh quality ingredients such as Mozzarella, Green Peppers, Onions, Pepperoni, Sausage & Mushrooms. I was very impressed with its homemade dough and real Mozzarella cheese. The Peperoni, Sausage, and all the other ingredients were also quality products. Our server came to check on us at the appropriate times and provided us with some refills for our drinks. They had some good Italian desserts on the menu as well, but we already had planned to have dessert at another place. Everything was so good, that even though we hadn't finish eating yet, I already was looking forward to try one of their pizzas or unique Italian dinners. I also found the prices to be very reasonable for the quality of their food. I highly recommend this place to all those who love Italian cuisine, and I heard they are currently in the process of expanding.

Everything was fantastic, meatballs appetizer was good, salad was fresh with the dressing made in…read morehouse. Chicken Alfredo with sautéed mushrooms and the chicken vodka penne were both fantastic. Huge portions and the the service was great too! Highly recommend this one!

Food was excellent!!! Staff were very friendly and helpful!!!!…read moreWhat was exceptional was our waitress Tiffany, she treated my family like royalty!!! My mother is partial disabled and Tiffany made my mother feel very comfortable... I really appreciate the whole staff's effort to make my family experience amazing!!!

Dustin was amazing! He knows how to handle a large group with ease! Everything came out perfectly…read moreand quickly! Great energy too!

The restaurant was easy to find and there was plenty of parking and it looked really nice. I had…read moregreat expectations. The young lady who served me was very friendly. But the spaghetti was overcooked almost to the point of being inedible. And the meat sauce just didn't have much flavor. In fact, it tasted a little bit sour. I gave up after a few bites. The salad, though, was very good.

Located in a beautifully designed building, with a majestic stone accent entrance and both cement…read moretall stairs and side ramp leading to two impressive large black doors with glass and ornamental iron rod details, on Riverview Drive, in Salem, Virginia, Lydia's Italian Kitchen's was named after the owner's young daughter. The interior design of this exquisite Italian restaurant is very simple and contemporary with stone accents in the host station and bar. The furniture is also light wood contemporary with light wood and black chairs. And the decor is some paintings on the walls and some framed photographs. As soon as my friend and I entered the restaurant, the host, a young lady with a big smile welcomed us and took us to one of the tables in the main dining room and gave us copies of the menu. The room had large windows all around which let the light in, as well as plain builtin ceiling lights. It also had some contemporary ceiling fans. While we were reviewing the menus, our server, Hannah, arrived and gave us a warm welcome and took our order. We both had glasses of Iced water to drink, and Chicken Parmigiana as our main entrée. This included a house salad with poppyseed dressing and a basket of garlic bread. The salad ingredients were very fresh and the homemade salad dressing was amazing. The garlic bread was soft and very tasty. And the Chicken Parmigiana was cooked to perfection with a marinara sauce and melted mozzarella cheese that were delicious, as well as the accompanied spaghetti and sauce. Our server came by at the appropriate times to check on us and fill our glasses with Iced water. For dessert my friend had the Salted Caramel Cheesecake and I had the Tiramisu. Both were made in house and amazingly delicious. I highly recommend this Italian restaurant. The ambiance was very elegant and comfortable at the same time, the food was amazing, and the service was excellent.

First time at Olive Garden and was about what you would expect from an Olive Garden. Food was solid…read moretasting, not like anything especially of the ordinary but is solid pasta. Service was really good, server was consistently checking up on us and we got many refills, nice restaurant on the inside too overall I would recommend as long as you set your expectations at Olive garden level

stopped for 2 bowls of minestrone . I am disappointed at what I received. Bland broth, minimal…read morevegstables other than HuGE slices of zucchini, more chunks of Tomato than anything else two flat green beans, three kidney beans, and three pieces of pasta. I paid $19 plus tip for what I had hoped would be my dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow I won't be going back!

This was not a good experience. We had thought work would provide lunch today, but it had been…read morechanged. So we tried to call a pizza place we had been to several times before. Every time we called the number a machine answered.

The weather around here has been unpredictable lately. Today as I was driving to dine at a…read morerelatively new restaurant the clouds in the sky began to turn gray and a strong wind began to blow. So I decided to turn around and dine at home from a restaurant in DoorDash. I picked Leonore Restaurant, a Venezuelan imigrant-owned restaurant founded in 2012 by Miguel Liendo in Roanoke, and that now is located on Apperson Drive in Salem, Virginia. It was created to bring people together through food, and features a unique fusion of Italian and Venezuelan cuisine. I've had the privilege of dining at the restaurant when it was located on Campbell Ave in the heart of downtown Roanoke, and of ordering delivery via DoorDash several times before. Today, I ordered one of Venezuelan most popular dishes as well as one of my favorites: The Pabellon Criollo. It is a traditional Venezuelan dish made of shredded beef, black beans, white rice, avocado, a fried egg, and ripe, sweet plantains. I invite you to view my photographs accompanying this review to get a better sense of the high-quality and variety of the food this special dish contains. This time when I made my order on the DoorDash app it allowed me to have my order delivered via their expedited service for free, while normally it's an extra charge. The DoorDasher Elliott delivered the order on time and brought it inside a special DoorDash bag made to keep your food hot. He opened the bag at my door and handed a simple black plastic bag with my order to me. The food arrived well packaged and organized in a strong, Hefty plastic container with a see-through cover, inside a shining black plastic bag. The flavor of all the items contain in this dish amazingly stood out. The avocado was nice and ripe, thus bringing out its flavor best. Same with the ripe plantains, which when fried brought out their sweetness. The savory shredded beef was a great combination with the simple white rice and the egg to top it off. I enjoyed every bit of everything this dish contained, and highly recommend this restaurant for its masterpiece cuisine, and am looking forward to dine at its Salem location next time to also enjoy its friendly environment and satisfying customer service.

Really great pizza and super friendly service! Love the drive thru - it's so convenient!read more

Quite honestly was disappointed by this order. Was told that this was one of the better local…read moredelivery places in the area... Yet the order was put together haphazardly, items were not described accurately on the menu, nor by the person taking the order, and food quality was mediocre. If someone is ordering a to go order over $25 like they INSIST -, it's downright stingy and mean spirited to not provide any napkins or silverware whatsoever. I understand Restaurants like to claim that they are struggling, but that's hardly a reason to be mean spirited and allow someone to spend over $30 in food and not put a single napkin into their delivery order. Let alone utensils with which to eat the food. That's just either lazy, stingy, greedy, or unthoughtful. The pita and hummus is hardly pita, whatever that giant baked dough mess was that got shoved into the bag, unsanitary without any proper protection - was bland, and fat to doughy and heavy to be proper pita bread. They don't have lemon for the seafood or shrimp, and the cocktail sauce is in little ketchup packets made mostly of chemical ingredients, no real food content and not healthy. And again with the stinginess, they provided two little tiny ketchup packets for 10 shrimp. So not enough even for the shrimp that you've ordered. It basically allowed me to dip for shrimp. Was told that "everything is made fresh" but I think that they're deceiving themselves that this is wholesome, edible food. The cannoli was soggy and inedible. We threw out half of it. The bread mess was bland and again, not proper pita bread, shrimp was fine but with no lemon or cocktail sauce, just bland fried shrimp. Nothing special. On top of that they had a seven dollar delivery fee despite the fact that they are five minutes away from where we were??!? In NY and Boston delivery upcharges are three dollars or five dollars, so seven dollars in Roanoke Virginia just feels again, unnecessary and greedy. So for approximately $25 worth of food, if you're also paying the driver, you're spending a $12 + upcharge for mediocre food with no utensils or napkins or proper condiments. Definitely do not recommend. Thank you.