Ristorante Fiore

This review is a little over a week old. My sister came into town just for two days and she wanted to go to ... of course "Little Italy" (!!) Why??, because someone did some PR on the Food Network about it, naturally! Personally, I think the area is somewhat over-rated. Their are a couple of great Italian restaurants there, but I think over-all they are OK'ish.

We had a nice time walking around the neighborhood and she soaked up some history/culture. The Horth End is yes, a fun destination spot.  Love the bakeries ... that's worth venturing to the area for if one wants Italian Pastry.

She saw the roof deck at Fiore and insisted on eating there despite me telling her I'd heard negative things from people "In The Biz".

Where should I start, at the end ....Substandard at best.

The space is "dated" in a bad way, like something out of a 1970's bad Italian mob movie and the roof deck was a mad house so we sat downstairs in the main dining room kinda/sorta looking out onto the street.

The salads were the only acceptable thing served at Fiore.

Our entire meal was bland and under seasoned. The tomato sauce was watery like a bad marinara something 3 yr olds' start out with. My sister said her Chicken Parm. was dry and over cooked (she asked for a steak knife) yet her pasta undercooked. I only ate two of the ravioli I ordered (I deided to take the rest home and doctor 'em up). The bread they served seemed like it came from the bottom of the bin it was also very dry more like croutons..  The dessert was "old school" Italian style. I imagined it had been sitting in a deep freezer for a good long whille and recently defrosted. For me to only take a bite outta anything with sugar means, I just can't do it. Waaahh

The server was (bluntly) a mess a total disaster! A ten year old would have known more about Italian food from eating at chukee-cheez than she did. I had to correct misinformation the server told my sister on a couple of the questions asked.

We couldn't bring ourselves to return any of our food because nothing was really wrong with it But (!!) nothing was really right with it either. It was, substandard and for Ristorante Fiore that's what you are going to get.

Second fabulous visit to Fiore. Thumbs up for professional service. Food is delicious and finely crafted with each bite leaving you blissful.

So I had two of my friends come in town for my birthday weekend (technically our since one of them shares a birthday weekend), and one evening we figured we'd just have a relaxing night in the North End. It was a beautiful evening, and I heard Fiore had a sweet roofdeck, so I figured it would be a great place to grab some dinner and drinks.

We were hoping for an 8pm reservation on the roof, so I called late afternoon asking if we could make a reservation. They only had openings for early in the evening or after 9, so when I was like "Oh okay thanks, I think we're good then," planning on looking elsewhere, the hostess piped up and said "You'll be fine if you just come in. You shouldn't have to wait long." So my friends and I showed up around 7:15 and put our name in. The hostess said it would be about 35 or 45 minutes waiting for a table on the roof. We said that was fine and waited, but about after 50 minutes I went up to the hostess table to check in. She said it would be just another 10 or 15 minutes. We went back and waited another 25 minutes or so, and then I went up and said we didn't need a place on the roof, that we would sit anywhere since we were starving at that point. She said she could seat us in 5 minutes at the patio. So we went back to wait another 20-25 minutes. At that point the manager was assisting the hostess and it looked like they were having trouble keeping track of all of the reservations and names. Then a guy just strolls in with his family and asks "How long would the wait be for the 4 of us?" to the manager. The manager says "Oh, I can seat you right now!"

...I have never seen my two pretty quiet, pretty composed friends scream so loud or jump so high in my entire 6 years of friendship with them. He had no idea that we had been willing to sit ANYWHERE and had been waiting over double the maximum time we were expected to wait. Luckily we got seated at an open table on the patio immediately, but I was ready to flip, and I never get like that.

Luckily our waiter was an absolute delight and the food was delicious, but I don't think I'll ever go without having a reservation ever again. Although I never did get to experience that roof deck...