| rev:text
| - Two & a half stars.
Gio Rana's is one of those restaurants that if you ever ventured into during daylight hours you'd run screaming from the place. It is a night time only dining adventure for this spot. Daylight hides a lot of dingy walls and even grubbier ceilings that are badly in need of washing, painting and just general updating. This is a Restaurant Makeover waiting to happen.
I'm probably one of the few Yelpers (besides Neil...great minds think alike!) that give Gio's the "meh" factor. While it is a great spot in that we needed something to accommodate our large group to bid adieu to our beloved Deanna, my sister FARC and charcuterian loving kindred spirit, but that is pretty much about where it ended for me.
Being situated along the perimeter of the kitchen was geographically a nightmare for those who sat with their back to the rushing waitstaff. Getting whacked in the back, nudged in the noggin and stepped on doesn't make for a fun dining experience. But hey, they gotta pack 'em while they can because the resto business is a tough go these days. WTF is up with those greasy, filthy menu covers? People we are in the middle of germ-o-phobia days what with H1N1 going on. Just holding on to that menu made me want to get out my sanitizer and give it a washing over.
Anyway, Dea and I opted to share as we usually do. We ordered up the Crespelle, some Rigatoni (app sizes) to start and then would follow it with a beef rib shank and some shredded brussel sprout salad. Ok...everyone's talking about the fab-u-less-ness of the staff. We got no apps. While everyone else was chowing down on their openers we got nothing. It all showed up at once when the mains got served. The Crespelle was cold and sort of slimy. The Rigatoni was steaming hot and for me was actually the best of what was served. The beef rib/shank was ok. Braising its a chef's easy way out. It's no fail but I found the meat to be stringy and especially fatty. There wasn't much flavour factor going on there either. I did feel the love for the Brussel Sprout salad though, crispy, no dressing glommed on. What about the bread on the tables? This restaurant has a ton of amazing bakeries around (Brick Street being one of them) and they serve up bread that reminds me of the subs used at Mr. Sub. So sad.
The best thing I tasted all night was Danielle's sweet potato mash. She was sitting next to me and her and Abby were making orgasmic moans so I caved and gave it a taste. I should have just ordered up a plate of those and been done with it.
Would I go back? Nah. I'd be willing to spend a few more bucks and head east and hit up Tomi-Kro's instead. A much wiser choice for spending my hard earned bucks and unlikely that I'll get tackled by waitstaff. At least handling the menus doesn't want to have me running for the washroom to scrub my digits.
In the end though, we came to celebrate a legend Yelper, Deanna. Lucky girl has now moved on to Yelping in one of the best food cities in the world....NYC. Hey Dea....I'm waiting for Boba. :)
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)