chianti cafe

only downside for me was that the food and drinks can get a little pricey. the pastas are delicious, the staff is charming, friendly and welcoming, and the warm buns that served before every meal are so soft and delicious. definitely one of the more enjoyable places to visit on whyte.

poor. worst "italian" food i've experienced. all pasta dishes came way overcooked and underflavored. dishes were an oily mess. food was not hot, server had no idea what she was doing. the owner clearly has no clue what's going on. this review is from a saturday lunch.

the best pasta i have had anywhere. i love italian food and pasta, this place by far is the best. they are affordable, the atmosphere is good and i have never had bad service. i prefer this location to the north one because they handmake thief noodles here and the other location doesn't. i have never had a dish i didn't like :)

good dinner. great portion size. service was ok.

a great place for a nice lunch. the 1/2 order of pasta is a great value and just enough. and the 1/2 price bottle of wine offering is wonderful on wed thurs and fri. our waiter was attentive and comfortable with his job and that made for a relaxed, comfortable lunch. we will be back.

nice pasta. very good size portion, had dinner at 7pm, and i was still full by 2 am. dinner for 2 with no drinks, one dessert, gst and tips, total $45. a hell of a deal. i usually tip 20%

overall i think chianti is a good place to go for casual italian dinner. it is not too expensive, big portion and good/ok service. the decor is very fitting for a casual italian restaurant (i didn't po

not a fan. went once with my cousins for dinner on canada day. the food was pretty bland, the lasagna just had no flavor, one of us made the mistake of ordering some curry flavored pasta which he did not even have more than 2 or 3 bites of than left it alone. when we got there we were told they were out of bread, yet people who were eating when we arrived were eating bread, and the ones who arrived after were also eating bread...
i ended up putting a lot of that red pepper flakes onto my food just to give it some taste.

i have to say besides the places good location it has nothing over a olive garden which is sad. one expects a small individual place like this to beat a massive chain any and every time. however i guess there is a reason why large chains are large and everywhere, because they do it right.

not impressed. my wife and i had our wedding reception at chianti’s. there were 30 people in our party and it was not the best experience. though it was in the late afternoon on a saturday (and they weren’t all that busy at the time) we all had the feeling that they were trying to rush us through the dinner; the servers were pressuring us to place our orders even before all of our party had even arrived. and though we did have three different servers for our party, there were times when we had to chase them down. the food itself was fine, but considering we were probably the largest group they would have had all night (and it had all been arranged four months before) we expected better service. what really left a bad taste in our mouths (no pun intended) was, though we did leave a gratuity, as per custom, one of the managers called us at home a couple of days later, on the pretext of asking how everything went, but ultimately to request that we stop in an leave more of a gratuity! making us sound like cheapskates in spite of the fact that our total tab was over $900 for food and drink and they knew from the get go that we were on a tight budget. i was shocked at the audacity of them essentially saying “though you were nice enough to leave a tip, it wasn’t good enough!” as a result, they have lost our business, and i’ve been a loyal chianti’s patron for twenty years now. i certainly would not recommend them for larger groups, that’s for sure

went there today for a quick dinner, and everything was great. the service was great and the food came out very fast and it was hot and delicious. i ordered the penne campesino and the server, taylor, was helpful and happy to accomodate my substitutions. overall a great experience and i will be back very soon.

the food at chianti's always seems "ok". to me, it's never great, or even good. i feel i can always make a better meal myself, so i usually decline an offer to eat here. the few times i have gone, i have found the food to be fairly bland, and the pasta over-cooked. there are also few vegetarian options on their menu. having more vegetable based dishes may attract more people. decreasing the overall size of the menu may help staff to become better trained and better execute the items the kitchen does make.

most pastas under $13... great for the price!. i have been here several times and have never been disappointed. most recently i enjoyed the four cheese ravioli with blue cheese cream sauce... and it was delicious! they don't skimp on the sauce, or the pasta for that matter. and everything is customizable.

service is pretty good. nothing over the top, but my water was always full and i was asked at the right times how my food is. delicious!

great service, would go again. this is a bit overdue but went to chianti's last year to take advantage of their tuesday specials for my birthday. service was great, and they let us stay for half an hour more to play board games.

overall great service and great food. would go again this year.

not so much.... ate there last week and although the restaurant is in a prime location and very pleasant looking i did not care for the food. the minestrone was like a bad home-made soup and there wasn't a bean or a piece of pasta in my entire portion... just basically big chunks of carrot, over done cabbage and the like in a very poor broth. my main course was sloppy, oversauced and very bland and the fact that the pasta was obviously home-made didn't improve the dish or rescue it from its lack of flavor. would not go back.

they make their pasta and their sauces fresh. baked salmon with roasted red pepper sauce is fantastic. i've eaten their weekly for over twenty years.