Paterno’s at the Park

Best porterhouse anywhere close to Charleston!!! Great atmosphere and service. Waitstaff are very well trained and make you feel welcome. Just an all-​around great experience. Thank you Paterno’s !

Good ‘modern day Italian”
Really enjoyed the fact they didn’t coat everything with Marinara sauce like they do in typical Italian chains.

This is hands down the best Italian food in Charleston WV. Everything I’ve tried has been amazing from the soups to the amazing seafood options. Its WAY better then Fazio’s with quite possibly the best service staff in the Valley. I’ll quickly become a regular here.

Very good meal! We had 7 in our party for my parents anniversary. My daughter loved the shrimp scampi and even shared some with her brother. Portions were good for all but my husband and son. There needs to be a waiters code for go heavy, he’s a grown man. Flavor was good for his chicken Alfredo, he just needed a little more. Presentation of the eggplant and the pork chop was artistic. I don’t eat meat but the pork chop presentation was impressive! The phone was dying, wish I had gotten a picture. My mother in law said it was seasoned and cooked perfectly. I had the pasta Nikki or shrimp Nikki? Glad to have leftovers.

To be fair I give a restaurant two trips before deciding never again. Could not go two rounds here. The sauces were flat and the meat tasted old. My stomach could not take a second trip here. Charleston still needs a great Itailan restaurant… will settle for good!

Pretty darn good Italian restaurant. I enjoy the heck out of Paterno’s. It’s not the most authentic Mediterranean experience but it’s one of the better ones in town. A decent bar backs up the food — clearly better than the drink service at Charleston’s other major Italian eateries. Nice atmosphere as well, provided there no ball game going on.
Nice place. Skip the Garden of Olives and come here instead.

Their food is good albeit salty. Lasagne tastes like Stouffer’s lasagna you get from the frozen food isle at the grocery store. Service is very good though. Ambience is nice. It is hard to find because there are no signs on the outside of the building.

We have been there 3 times. The 1^st time was good, I had the lasagna. I liked it well enough to order it again the 2^nd time & it was just not the same.
Everything is overpriced & everything is separate.
The 3^rd time, I just thought of trying it again since it had been awhile & it was our wedding anniversary. The stuffed shells were nothing special & my husband got a caprese hamburger. His hamburger was cooked the way he asked but couldn’t eat it because it was so salty. (That’s saying something if he couldn’t eat it). They did bring him a new one which was better. Our wine was very good & the service is always good. I just think it’s too pricy for what you get & the fact that one could make better at home. Even the oil for bread dipping had only a flavor of garlic. It hardly seems authentic.

Awesome food and the service and atmosphere is really good as well! I’ll go again and I recommend Paterno’s at the Park to anyone who likes Italian food.

I think this restaurant stays on the bland side of Italian. It’s rather pricey and loud.

Wow the food was awesome, had the salmon and mom had the basil chicken both were AMAZING!!! Beer was super cold and service was amazing. I recommend reservations as we did have to sit at the bar for lack there of. Regardless of you are looking for an amazing dinner this is it!!!

I’ve eaten at Paternos several times. The food is reasonably good but not earth shattering. Crispy polenta cake with meatball appetizer was interesting. Beer selection was pretty good. The dinner entres that I’ve had there have just been average. Service was above average.

Always a good meal! I travel to the area frequently and love the food here. The specials are always fantastic… double chop over mushroom risotto and grilled leeks! Fantastic! The staff is very accommodating and wonderful.

I went here last night for the first time and was pleasantly surprised — especially with some of the reviews. We went around 6:00ish and were only the 2^nd table in there, though several more came a little later. I ordered the Wedding Soup — which was OK, but not the best I have ever had. The beet and goat cheese salad was wonderful with pistachios, the right amount of vinaigrette and proper proportions re cheese, beets and greens. For an entrée, I got one of the Fall Specials: Grilled Double Bone Pork Chop– Apple brined 14oz pork chop, gorgonzola risotto, roasted local squash, red wine agro dolce and fried leeks. It. Was. Awesome! Though the pork was slightly more done than I usually like, it had a wonderful char on it, was juicy, flavorful and well seasoned. The risotto was a little salty, but it is gorgonzola and I would rather have a little salty, than under seasoned any day. The roasted squash was too mushy and I didn’t really care for it. Overall very nice presentations as well — perhaps nicer than I expected. I was also pleasantly surprised that they had Peroni on draft, which I enjoyed.
I tasted some dishes my friends had as well: My friend had the wild mushroom gnocchi and it was really fabulous, but very rich. My other friend had the meatballs and marinara and it was OK — not as flavorful as I had hoped, but not bad.
Overall: Good sized portions, proper timing on the courses, attentive waiter (which I always like) good food.

I dined at Paterno’s, for the first time, about a month ago. I had the stuffed peppers and lasagna. I remember thinking that the stuffed peppers were not as flavorful as I would have liked, but overall they were relatively decent performers. While I ate most of my lasagna (I was pretty hungry), I was also a bit dissapointed in it. It was a far cry from the «italian-​flavored» deliciousness that I look forward to in lasagna. It was under-​sauced and had way too much ricotta cheese. Flavor wise it was pretty one dimensional. All that being said, I was willing to give Paterno’s another try. I went again last night for dinner and I think I’m done. I ordered Eggplant Parmesan. When it arrived, I was convinced I had received the wrong dish because it certainly did not look like any EP Parmesan I have ever seen (it looked more like a lasagna). Well to sum up my eggplant experience: imagine the same bland lasagna I described above and replace the noodles with thinly sliced (unbreaded) eggplant and the ricotta with a whole bunch of ground meat. I was initially confused as I mistook the meat for breading that had fallen off my eggplant, only to realize a few bites in that it was not breading at all. Most disturbing is that I consider eggplant parmesan to be a vegetarian dish. While, as the waitress pointed out, the menu did state «meat sauce» in the description, this was far from a meat sauce. It was an eggplant casserole stuffed with an oddly textured meat combo (which I later found out was veal, lamb and pork). Thankful that I had good company in my dining-​mates, the experience was at least somewhat salvaged. I did not finish my eggplant and based on my experience with the lasagna (and the look of the food of my co-​diners), I passed on the waitress’ offer to bring me something else. While, I try to support Charleston’s «non chain» options, Paterno’s has officially become a «no go» in my book.

Just outstanding. Wa there on 5÷24÷13. Restaurant and restrooms was clean. Staff was friendly. Food was great. I recommend the stuffed peppers.

The food was extremely good. We went at lunch and found the service to be very good, but also very slow. They do not seem to have enough servers working and lunch there during the work week will have to remain a rare treat.

I had lunch at Paternos today, and I must say I went in with high expectations, but left highly disappointed. After reading the article in the Gazette (prior to their grand-​opening) and other reviews (most of which are found on urbanspoon) I thought the food would be really good. However, I wasn’t the least bit impressed with any part of our meal. The red sauce had no flavor. The Italian wedding soup was okay, but not something I would order in the future. (Out of the two bowels ordered at the table, one bowel had 2 meatballs and the other bowel had zero.) The Italian sausage had no flavor, and the house salad was so-​so.
The food is lacking taste, and for the price you can find better elsewhere… And Yes, even in Charleston… lol

The food was excellent… but the service needs some help! We went for lunch on a week-​day, there was a pretty good crowd and they were pretty busy but only had 4 servers working… so we didn’t receive good service at all.

My wife and I had a great diner at Paterno’s. They have a nice selection of wines at a variety of prices. We enjoyed a great Spanish red at a very reasonable price. We started with the Meatball appetizer on crispy polenta topped with red sauce and shaved parmesan. Each element was so good on its own that together they were outstanding! Our entrees came promptly and were great. I had the pork marsala with garlic mashed potatoes and my wife had stuffed shells with a side of wilted spinach. Both entrees were very good but the red sauce at Paterno’s is exceptional.
They offer a nice variety of deserts including tiramisu, panna cotta, and gilato. We tried the chocolate hazelnut gelato and I have to admit I was surprised by its quality.
Like everything leading up to this, it to was wonderful. Turns out they get it from local ice cream shop Ellen’s who makes all of their ice cream in house (if you haven’t been to Ellen’s stop reading this now and go treat yourself to some of the best ice cream you will find ANYWHERE). This was a great meal from beginning to end and I cant wait to go back.
The only reason I didn’t give Paterno’s 5 stars was the atmosphere. The open kitchen layout is very nice but I felt the overall feel of the room was lacking. It was very busy when we went so the room had a nice buzz to it but it didn’t have the warm feeling I would have preferred. To me the room is over lit and feels a bit more like a store and less like a restaurant but that’s just personal preference. Though we did not have our children with us on our first visit to Paterno’s, I would not hesitate to bring them along on our next visit. I think our family has found our favorite Charleston Italian eatery.