Giovanni's Restaurant

Giovanni's stands out as an authentic Italian treasure, its cozy atmosphere is an invitation to immerse yourself in the warmth of Italian culture. From the first step, the soft lights and ambient music create a perfect atmosphere for a unique dining experience.

What really sets this restaurant apart is its exceptional customer service. The staff, always smiling and friendly, elevates the experience to another level. They are eager to offer recommendations and share details about each dish, adding a personal touch to the evening.

Moving on to the main star, the food, it does not disappoint. Every bite is an explosion of authenticity, from the perfectly al dente pasta to the sauces that tell stories of tradition. The freshness of the ingredients is reflected in the excellence of each dish.

Recommending is more than suggesting a place to eat; is sharing a memorable experience. This restaurant captures the essence of Italian cuisine and presents it in a way that invites you to return again and again. If you are looking not only for good food, but also a connection to the richness of Italian culture, this is the place. Each visit is a reminder that true happiness is sometimes found in a perfectly prepared pasta dish.

A great place for Italian food! I've been here twice and their food didn't disappoint us! The only the was the waiter kept rushing us on NYE, I'm not sure if it's because they needed our table but we felt like we couldn't fully sit and enjoy our food because the waiter kept hovering over us. The food on NYE was very good and on their regular days I love their seafood pasta!
In the pictures are some dishes from the course menu on NYE.

I Had the pleasure of having my birthday dinner here it was fantastic! The food was perfect and the service we received was top notch. I cant wait to come back

Classy place with Italian cuisine. Nice for occasions like anniversaries and birthdays. Romantic place and dimmed lights create a nice environment. Moderately expensive. Street parking is difficult to find on weekends.

Came here to celebrate my boyfriend’s birthday, we are not from the city so we decide to choose based off what looked great from the pictures and with good reviews. Overall our experience was ok but could have been better. To start off the outside of the restaurant doesn’t look like the pictures. When I called in the day prior to make reservations I was asked if it was a special occasion and I did mention it was my boyfriends birthday so that should have already been known once we got there, assuming the person who made the reservation would have that noted for our table.
We ordered and got our food which was really good. At one point I had gotten up to the washroom and told a server to let our server know it was my boyfriends birthday just in case for whatever reason they didn’t remember or pay attention to what was initially mentioned. When the time came to have dessert (which is when they bring out a sparkler to celebrate the occasion), we ordered our desserts but there was no sparkler on my boyfriend’s plate. He was disappointed as many others there were also celebrating their own occasions so he was excited to have that for him as well. Somehow even though I mentioned it not once but twice, that was still forgotten. I did end up letting our server know after he brought our desserts what the occasion was, he apologized and ended up bringing a donut with a sparkler for him which was nice of him but it was still a disappointment having the go through that.
Overall the food was really good and service was nice but definitely could have been a better experience to rate them 5 stars.

I would give 5/5 for their excellent services and quality of food. We visited here for my birthday and enjoyed the personable service and exquisite quality of food.

Close to authentic italian restaurant, great service.you enter it to a different world from outside.clear menu, gut choices of antpasti ns pastas.

I liked the setting and service. My wife enjoyed the exquisite polpo salad, my clams pasta was not up to my expectations. There was a table nearby that made our lunch uncomfortable. If you do not mind noisy neighbors and want to enjoy italian food in the famous little italy, it is the place to be

Very nice restaurant, the ambience and customer service was simply amazing. The owner or manger not sure was very friendly and greeted us upon arrival. Food was great and delicious. The waiters were very polite and friendly with my kids. I’ll visit here again with my family. Thank you Giovanni

By far the best restaurant in Ottawa from the host reception to the service to the food and drink. Outstanding wine cellar.

I wish I could give this place 0 stars. DONT LET THIS RESTAURANT FOOL YOU WITH THEIR 4.5 STAR RATINGS LIKE I WAS ‍️
I went for my birthday thinking it was going to be such a vibe! First off space is way to small I feel bad for the friends that I invited our ears were practically bleeding. I couldn’t even have a conversation with any of them the whole time we were there, was very uncomfortable. $20 Salads are pathetic! Could make a better one at home lol. Took an hour for our food to come. I really thought once they served the mains I would have a change of heart but NOPE. Got a plate of lamp asked for medium well done but once I cut through it was bleeding… not something you expect after paying more than $65 for a plate at a almost 5 star restaurant. I didn’t want to mention anything at first but my friend felt so bad for me that she asked a girl that was working on the front if I could get a refund for the meal since it was so terrible and when I mean terrible even the vegetables on the side (except for the cooked carrot that some how tasted really good probably soaked in butter). I did receive a refund but don’t let me get started about my friends dishes.
-Cannelloni which looked frozen
-Alfredo pasta looked like just pasta and some sauce at the bottom…
-I don’t even know what my third friend ordered just looked Like something deep Fried from a food truck.
I’m not sure if they got another chef or if covid affected how they usually make their food but it’s just not good and not worth the money. Servers were fine and quite nice but it was almost like they even knew how bad the food was.
Will Definitely never be going back.
The good reviews you see on here are from old people with no taste buds. Thank me later.
Sorry Giovanni
Truth hurts.

I have a mixed feelings about this restaurant.the service is good and waiters are all courteous and friendly. The only issue with my recent visit was the linguine that ordered (my favorite Italian pasta), of which the clam was so salty that I almost order them take back and redo it! Then I thought it's pandemic; nobody's life is easy. I ended up drank almost a whole bottle S. Pellegrino's

We had our 18th wedding anniversary dinner date there. The ambience & staff were very polite & wished us for future happiness. Food was amazing, starters were delish & I was even served desert with fire cracker to depict celebration. Only thing that stood out for mews that based on covid guidelines, tables were set very closely from each other & back table guests literally bumped into my chair few times due to being so close. Over all will visit Giovanni again at our special days. Chef deserves a raise.

I must say I enjoyed every bite of food and the service was amazing, big portions as and very very flavorful.

Number 1 in Ottawa
Best choice for a first date
Been there 20 times and ever ever disappointed (and I'm very difficult to please)
Mind blowing dishes made so professionally that will guarantee a big smile on your face.
Won't forget to thank Fernando for the Fabulous service
(wish that I could've taken better pictures today)

We had never tried Giovanni's Restaurant so we decided to try this Restaurant, It was not worth the price we payed for our food, 2 of us decided to order the lasagna and it was tasteless and not worth the price and when we got the bill at the end of our dinner we found a $8.charge for Water and when I asked that server why we were being charged for water he said because of covid they could not serve tap water so we payed the bill and then after we all payed the server told me in a sarcastic way that the next time I had dinner there he would pay for the water. I will never eat at this place again and I will let people know how we were treated at Giovanni's Restaurant.

Excellent experience and fenomenal food. We went with our 3 kids and the food presentation and taste was so good they were eager to try. Our waiter was awesome, I wish I remember his name he deserve 5 stars!

Excellent service, great choices, definitely a bit more expensive but servings are a decent size and as far as taste and overall experience, this is the classic case of you get what you pay for.

For the expensive dishes, they didn't mentioned the price. I ordered pasta for one person which cost me $150 and fish even not enough for one person cost me $65. Taste was just ok. In the starting ambience was amazing but while having dinner when u actually needed them, nobody was available at the floor. Disappointed by the rating which made me visit the resturant.

Love this restaurant, the outdoor 2 story patio is just awesome.
Was there at reopening in july.
Now I would usually give them 5 stars easy. This time unfortunately I must give them a 4 star, service was excellent, all the staff, from the valet at parking to the waiter, hostess and owner are always polite, kind and do all to please their clientele.
Why 1 star less, well they changed the menu, and usually when we arrive, we always get warm bread, butter and small appetizers. This just didn't happen this time around. Had to wait till we ordered our food and had to ask for the bread and no appetizers were served other than the ones we ordered off the menu.
I know these are small details.but it always in these small details that make you appreciate fully a restaurant or just find it ordinary.
And I know you can order specialties that are not on the menu but it is now a very light version of the old menu and miss that menu!

Received a complementary dinner as a gift. It was a stable dinner menu consisting of bread Caesar salad and lasagna. The complementary dinner also included free delivery. I received the dinner right on time that was mentioned. The bread was fresh The Caesar salad was good but the lasagna was not! It was completely burnt on top, had 15 layers of lasagna noodles and no sauce barely and also very little cheese. If I would have been paying for this meal I would have returned it. For such a high rated restaurant I could not believe the The meal I got. Was extremely disappointed and will not be frequenting this restaurant. I was expecting a good lasagna not lasagna noodles! We ended up throwing 3/4 of it out!

Yesterday my daughter Juwana booked us a family dinner to celebrate my birthday at Giovanni. It was my first visit and probably the last. My daughter called in to let the restaurant know that we would be coming 15 minutes late due to some traffic as a courtesy to the restaurant reservation and when we arrived, everything was rushed through. Our server (he has a foreign European accent) was very rude to us and we are not sure why (perhaps because we asked that our food to not have any wine or maybe because we wore a hijab?) We were really nice to him but he seemed to not care about giving us a good experience. We asked if he could take a picture of us because it's my birthday and he dismissed us and told us to take pictures later and order now. Even when he was taking our order he was rushing through (remember this is the first time we're here so we didn't know the menu and the lights were very dim to read). While we were getting the orders, they put bread and butter. No olive oil and balsamic until we had to ask. We asked for NO alcohol content but the balsamic was smelling of alcohol. We were put on two different tables since the "Ontario law says we can only have 4 per table" but we didn't get olive oil and balsamic till we had to ask for the other table as well. They also had lemon pieces on my kids' table but didn't offer my husband and I any when we sat on a separate table and when I asked for some lemon slices, they wanted to take some from my kid's table and put it on mine! Also, water is usually complementary since we asked for regular water but when the bill came my daughter was surprised that the water bill alone was $30! They didn't even tell us that they'd be serving water as extra due to COVID.

Now for the food, we were disappointed. We saw the food in their social media and it looks high end with good plating and the reviews were good too so we had high expectations. Everyone said Giovanni was the best restaurant in Preston but we don't understand why. The dish my husband and I were good but the presentation was zero. Doesn't look like it's coming from a fine dining restaurant. Mine needed some extra seasoning and olive oil to taste better. My two adult sons ordered chicken and they said it tasted like fish. Presentation for their dish was horrible. And my daughter ordered squid pasta which after 4 rounds of pepper and salt seasoning was ok. Some of her calamaris were bad and too chewy but octopus (her plate) and mussels (from my plate) were very good. It was the first time eating mussels and they were delicious no sea taste.

The owner was nice he came to ask about our food and we were trying to be nice and said it was good. We didn't really want to mess up our night with being negative so we just let go but remembering how our server was treating my daughter very rudely made me upset. I don't think we deserved such low class treatment! Also I don't think the quality and presentation of the food that we experienced yesterday matches what is promoted on Instagram and advertising. We also didn't appreciate that we had to split tables instead of all 5 of us being close together for dinner. I get the COVID law but it was annoying to have us being split and not being able to socialize as one proper happy family. EVOO down the street has better service and food.

Excellent! Que dire du serveur Stefano et son service impeccable et tellement gentil. Les pâtes vongole, le poisson, l'entrée de pieuvre tout était frais et délicieux. Nous allons retourner bientôt c'est certain.

Delicious take out order. We ordered the Parmigiana Di Melanzane, Spaghetti Alla Carbonara and a Canoli. Everything was very well prepared and so tasty. I would definitely recommend.

We came in from Montreal not really knowing what to expect from this restaurant and everything was fantastic. From our arrival to the second we left everyone treated us so nicely. Service was excellent from all the staff especially with our waiter Jarred. The food was delicious, very authentic Italian. We sat during the first service and they needed our table for the second service, Jarred kindly found us 2 seats at the bar where we could go finish our cocktails and we met Victoria & Stephanie (the bartenders) who kept us there til the end cause we we’re having a blast. Very satisfied & will definitely be returning. Thank you guys for a great evening.

First and probably last time going to this restaurant. Excellent food however bad service. I appreciate the gesture of taking my coat but when I left I noticed there was a grease stain on it so now I have to get that dry cleaned and my jacket is expensive. Have also only worn it a hand full of times.now let’s dive in more to the service. Everything was very fast and rarely announced when bread was being set on the table etc. When I said water was just fine I was questioned as to why I’m not ordering something else for a beverage from the wine/cocktail menu. I was really taken aback by this question as it is none of their business (I cannot drink alcohol for medical reasons). The question made me feel uncomfortable as it did my friend. When we were both finished our meals my friends was completely gone and mine was half left. When plates were taken away the person did not ask if I wanted mine thrown out or taken to go which was very odd. They just assumed I wanted mine thrown out. Very disappointed about that seeing as the food was amazing and I was paying for it to be thrown out? When dessert was chosen we got questioned initially why we didn’t choose something else and again my friend and I felt uncomfortable.didn’t seem like light humour it just felt like we were being judged. And to top it all off again we both finished our dessert.my friends was completely gone and mine was half there. I mentioned to my friend I hope he asks this time if I want to take it to go as I’m paying for it.and of course the person tries to speed away with both plates and my friend says hey sorry can we actually get that half of one taken to go because AGAIN the person did not ask me. The persons facial expression was a shoot of ‘really? ’ And replied sure. That made me feel even more uncomfortable dining there and my friend looked back and said is asking for food to go not okay here? AGAIN felt like I was being judged. Because every other restaurant always asks us if we want our food to go if it’s not finished. Oh also not to mention this is supposed to be somewhat of a “dressy casual” type of dining ambiance especially on the weekend and the person sitting across from us was wearing a muscle shirt, how would they allow someone to dine with that attire? No class and odd service.

Incredible service and insanely delicious food. What more can you ask for? Their customer service is out of this world, they go above and beyond to give you a great experience.

I just had the pleasure of having my birthday dinner to night at Giovanni's with my dearest friends Heather and Dave. Fabulous service, food and vino. Fabulous! Not to be missed if you are living or visiting Ottawa's Little Italy.