. "Yes Sotto Sotto was always recommended as the place for the TIFF. So on my birthday this April, it became a surprise place to celebrate by my fianc\u00E9e . We went to the ROM and then went straight to the restaurant. \nNo, we did not dress to the 9's because we were at the ROM. But judging from the other patrons, we were okay - leather jackets with chic jeans are the norms. \n\nHe told them it was my birthday too. \n\nIt was a Saturday night at 630 do it was not too busy, \nThe place was not packed but they put us at the back of the restaurant, close to the kitchen, adjacent to a table of apparent regular customer (a pretty woman with her daughter). Hey why did I mention this ? Because I can see the big difference in service and the indifference in their server's behaviour when we asked for the menu. \n\nThe hostess never told the server that it was a birthday celebration, even though she remembered . She said that .\"oh yes I remembered it was a birthday reservation\". \n\nWe ordered sparkling water, appetizers (buffalo cheese with tomato, special seafood platter. There were 3 pieces of somewhat green tomato (not the sun ripe or even hot house ripe favour) and a good size mozzarella cheese. But the tomato was of such poor quality and I wondered how they could charge $15 \n\nThe seafood \"platter\" appetizer was indeed \"see food\" because it was made up of 2 pieces of shrimp (mid size 21-30 per pound ), 3 pieces of calamari . It was a personal size. But at least the server suggested that you needed to order two plates and that it was not for sharing \n\nThe server also recommended Nona made lasagna and I had veal .\nNona's lasagna was about a 5 oz serving (the entire lasagna serving was cut from a bigger platter. It measured 4 inch by 2 inch ) . It sat in a small baking dish. It was tasty , cheesy but it was not enough for a normal serving, \nBut I guess this is what Nona was willing to share, \n\nWe also had to wave down the server to ask for Parmesan cheese because he was too busy with the pretty girls in the corner. \n\nI had veal with egg plant. It was good ..they are a bit cheap on the egg plant, there was two pieces of egg plant . Because my partner was hungry, I gave him one of my veal. \n\nDuring the entire seating, there was two interactions with the server. We decided not to order wine because of the cold reception. \n\nEven though they were informed that it was my birthday, nothing was offered , not even an acknowledgement ...so great service? Really ? \nMay be for rich movie stars or people who look the \"part\" \n\nService - mediocre to indifferent \nFood - over price and so so (for a foodie) \nAtmosphere - basement look, dark corners, no music to help with ambiance \nValue - Poor \n\nYes their sister restaurant Sputini is much better. We celebrated many parties there and their manager is always good ..regardless how we dress. \nSo close down their basement joint !"^^ . . "1"^^ . "4"^^ . . "2014-04-18T00:00:00"^^ . "1"^^ . "0"^^ .