Restaurant Review: Giovanni's in Encinitas
Last night, I passed a charming-looking Italian place on Highway 101, and decided the honey and I should try it out. Nice quiet dinner on checkered tablecloths in a little hole in the wall Italian place. Sounds romantic, no?
The thing about trying out a lot of restaurants is, sometimes you find a great hole in the wall, and sometimes you find a total flop. Giovanni's was more the latter.
The decor and ambience, once inside, were bad. "Italian" posters (like Michaelangelo stuff) in tacky plastic frames with windex streaks all over them, overly dim lighting, smooth jazz crackling on the radio, and lots of dust. Half of the chairs were missing part of the back. Each table we went to had some sort of problem -- one was right next to this dusty floor fan, one had a fire extinguisher where your head would normally go if you were seated at the table, and the last one was right next to the bathroom. We took the last one. Everything was a little bit sticky. And cheap.
I can forgive bad decor for good food and service. Many of my favorite restaurants are Vietnamese, which pretty much guarantees bad, tacky decor. In fact, I'd probably be suspicious of a Vietnamese restaurant tastefully decorated. I love a hole in the wall, even if it's a little sketchy.
But... the food and service did not make up for the lack of sanitation and lighting. It was a tiny place, but the service took for...ever. The food came and it was mediocre at best. I had a vegetarian Calzone; the honey had a salmon salad. It's hard to go totally wrong with a calzone.. it was big enough, maybe too much cheese and not enough flavor. The salmon in the salad was overcooked, and the salad was drowning in oil. Eh.
Here's the review on Yelp, which explains why I don't find Yelp all that reliable.
The final word
(1-5 rating: 1=BAD, 2=mediocre at best, 3=ok, 4=wow, pretty good!, 5=one of my all-time favorites)
Food (Taste, Quality): 2
Value: 2
Service: 1.5
Ambience: 1
Memorable Experience: 1
Price: $8-16 per entree
Menu recommendations: none
Notes: Try any of the other places within a short drive before you go here.
Would I make a point to go again, paying full price?: NO
Comments
Thanks for taking one for the team. I will make sure that we don't go there. I used to frequent Tratorria Trulli right off the 101 (near the lumberyard), which was consistently pretty good, but I haven't been there in a couple of years.
I mean, Ichiban in Hillcrest gets a lot of good reviews and a 3.5 star rating, I think that place is hella nasty.
I've seen some reviews on Yelp from people who just want to "be first", they've never even been to that particular location but wrote the review anyway based on their experience at other locations in the chain.
I'm sorry you had a bad meal. Good thing Gordon Ramsey is out there curing restaurants of their mediocrity.