Rinaldi’s Italian Bistro & Steak House

My daughter and her brand NEW Husband had their rehearsal dinner here. The food was delicious. Being from out of town we weren’t sure what to expect, well it was WONDERFUL we had about 12 courses all served family style and each course was better than the one before. The service was great. I really can’t say enough about the food, it was great. The wedding was the next day and everyone was still talking about how great everything was…

I ordered a veal saltimboca but was given chicken. When I complained to the waiter I was given another piece of chicken. I tried to explain that veal and chicken look different but it was to no avail. Numerous people at my table ordered the chicken and my meal looked just like theirs. When I got my check I was charged for the veal, which was $ 2 more. Very unhappy.

i had the mozzarella and tomato appetizer and it was so good! huge cheese slices. me likey! as my main meal i had the rigatoni with vodka sauce and that was very good. very filling. i had some of my moms baked ziti and that was good too. everything was perfect. it was for my nephews b-​day dinner and everyone had a great time.

Food was great. Served in a timely manner and hot. Service was great too. Love coming here.

Restaurant was nice looking. Had the Chicken Alfredo and Frances. Food was average and slightly over priced for the quality.

Had a groupon for this restaurant. Called to make a reservation and told the person we had a groupon. I asked if she needed the groupon info and she said no. Later that evening came to the restaurant that only had one other table of diners. The one server proceeded to come to us and then go into a monologue on how she had been working since lunch and how tired she was and some other things she shouldn’t be asking diners. She did not ask to open our wine and did not give us menus. It was a bit bizarre. It took a very long time for her to take our order. I ordered a special appetizer — the squash soup. I was expecting a pureed soup but instead there were stringy pieces of squash in a broth — did not work well for the soup. The entrees were quite salty and my husband’s dish had pasta that was clearly not drained properly and watered down the sauce. The best was at the end of the meal when we presented the groupon. Our waitress looked at us and said she had asked if we had the groupon at the beginning of the meal — SHE DEFINITELY DID NOT ! She did spend time talking to us about how exhausted she was, blah, blah, blah — I told her I had called earlier that day and did mention the groupon (and I am sure it was her that I talked too). She did take the groupon but came back with our bill and had included a 20% gratuity for herself before the discount (this was not mentioned at all on the groupon or during our earlier phone conversation). The service was some of the worst I have ever had. Will not be returning.

tl;dr — Excellent food, pitiful service
Two stars for the quality of the food, but the positive review ends there.
For starters, the only one who seemed to be doing any work was the busboy, who was actually kind enough to notice we hadn’t been brought anything for an entire hour since we’d arrived. He was the third person in that hour we asked for water (without actually receiving anything until then). The place wasn’t even particularly busy.
In addition, our orders had not been taken until shortly after that point. Our food finally arrived around the 90-​minute mark and we were happy to find that it was quite good.
However during the time we ate, two people were seated next to us and were quickly given water, wine, and an appetizer. They seemed to know the waitstaff, who actually spent more time talking to them than doing much of anything else. During the ongoing conversation, one of the waitresses loudly discussed a few topics with them including bestiality and twerking. Lovely.
It took us another half an hour to get the bill, which admittedly was an easier wait because we finally had some food in our bellies.
In conclusion, if you’re either very patient or have some relation to the people who work at the restaurant, you might enjoy your dinner here. If not, stay away until they get their stuff together.
I’d love to see this place improve in the future because as I mentioned, the food was very good (especially the ‘Dominic’ steak entrée), but they’ve got quite a few staffing issues to work on in the mean time.

Some Things Good, Some Things Bad.
We decided to try a new restaurant in the area last Saturday night, and wound up at Rinaldi’s in Kenilworth, a bit off the beaten path off the Boulevard. I would give it an overall 3 out of 5, nothing special.
We made reservations, and when we arrived, our party was the only one in the entire restaurant. In the 2 hours we dined, only one other party arrived for dinner on a Sunday night. I am not sure if that says something about the place or not.
The menu is BIG in this BYOB. Interesting appetizers, and lots of pasta, meat and seafood dishes. We ordered 3 app’s, and 4 meals.
The appetizers we very good. The italian tacos were especially great. Taco meat with all the fixings over homemade potato chips. We thought we would give it a shot, and it turned out to be great. The drunken clams were over cooked, but the sauce was great for dipping the bread into. The mozzarella and tomato was OK at best. Big tomatoes, but they had very little taste, and the mozzarella was nothing special.
For the main course, we had Veal and Chicken Saltimbocca, and two 10 oz. strip steaks. The Saltimbocca’s came over a full pound of pasta. The main part of this dish was great, but it was WAY too much pasta (could have been downsized to at least half, and would have been better). The Saltimbocca was swimming in the pasta and sauce, which took away from the actual dish. One of the steaks was asked to be cooked medium rare, and came out almost raw, and practically inedible. Both dishes were disappointing.
For dessert, we asked our server which choices were made on premises, and she pointed out 2 that were especially recommended. We ordered one of each, looking forward to trying them both. A few minutes later, she came back to let us know they were out of BOTH of the desserts, along with a few of the others. We decided to try 2 others, even though they were not made on premises. They were OK at best. But, WHY would our server offer, and suggest desserts that weren’t available? It put an extra damper on the evening. On top of that, the chef came out, and we asked about the desserts. He was a little apologetic, but charged us for both the desserts, even though we were not pleased with the choices.
It was also a bit expensive, $ 190 for 4 people, especially when we brought our own wine, and they automatically added the 20% tip into the meal when we got the check. We would have tipped 20% anyway, but it bothers me when they tell me how to tip. Actually, I probably would have left a little more.
All in all, nothing special. Just another regular Italian place off the boulevard.
To my followers:
1 If it says «over pasta», get ready to be served with a pound of cooked pasta, which really takes away from the dish. I would honestly stay away from those dishes.
2 Ask to see what they are out of before you decide. It is disappointing when you decide on a dish, and they come back to tell you they are out.
3 Saturday nights, they have live music. I do not know if it is a singer or a band, but it is 50’s, 60’s and 70’s music.
4 Nothing special on the décor inside, so if you can sit outside on a nice day, I would suggest that.

Pretty decent food. My one major complaint was that the sauce for my Mussels Marinara was lukewarm, but it was still tasty. I haven’t seen the normal menu because they had a shortened one for the evening. Our waitress was really nice and the rest of the staff was also friendly. We got some free cookies and eggnog because it was Christmas Eve. Much appreciated. Dessert was excellent; we shared the carrot cake and a cake which tasted like a good humor toasted almond ice cream bar. I’d revisit Bella Napoli.

Food here is excellent — spot on. Owner is hands on and tastes everything that leaves the kitchen and the food reflects it. Food takes a little longer than usual as everything is made fresh — no frozen stuff here. Definitely worth the wait.