chianti cafe

i love this place. my hubby and i have been going here for 15 years..consistently get great food at a very reasonable price and great service. we have never been disappointed...cheap pasta on monday and tuesdays is a bonus as well.

relaxed atmosphere, good food. i can't count the number of times i've said to my better half "let's go to chianti" over the last 25 years.

always a relaxing evening with very consistent food, and excellent desserts.
i appreciate the fact that they make their own pasta and sauces, and never whine when i feel like having plain pasta saute`d with garlic, olive oil, and basil.
here, it's like eating at home- unpretentious but without the dishes to wash.

i'm glad we live nearby.

had dinner there about 2 weeks ago. ordered the lasagna. noodles were way to thick for my liking. staff was a bit slow as it wasn't very busy in our section but the girl kept disappearing for some reason. the patio is the hot spot here. the prices are very reasonable for the portion size. too bad i can't say it tingled my taste buds. i had eaten there before and would have to say this place's reputation as a toungue dancer is more of a myth then reality. sorry got to pull a ramsey on this on and tell it how it is. still in search of a good italian rest to regularly check out. anyone ...anyone ?

meal: raviolli alla napoletana with garlic bread and a bellini to drink. the service here was exceptionally good, but the food was mediocre at best. the bellini was the worst i've had in the city, flavourless, watered down and with huge chunks of ice. the pasta was an inconsistent temperature across the plate and quite bland. the garlic bread was one of their free dinner rolls, buttered and slightly toasted... there are definately better places in the city. 4/10

we won't be back. the place looks promising, but the food is mediocre at best. nothing memorable at all. sorry to be so blunt, you have to try harder.

tuesday is the day to go. on tuesday you can order pasta for $7 pretty good, and good food.
2.5/5

although it's cheap and that part is nice it's also not all that good. i have been to this place a number of times and there are so much better options nearby that if i have a say i wont go back. the decore is dated, feels like nobody cares that much, and it's just not all it perhaps one was. the service was passable but the food was/is bland and really lacks flavour. anyone can drown some pasta in a cream sauce or a basictomato sauce, and i can do that easily enough at home only my sauce at home doesn't need tons of salt and pepper added at the table to make the food have taste. remember, it's cheap and you get what you pay for.

usually pretty good!. me and my boyfriend use to be regulars on tuesdays.

the el diablo is an amazing dish! the french onion soup is the best in the city i can safely say.

the service has been going downhill. the servers i have seen over the past few years i feel like are not as chipper as they use to be honestly.

especially when i brought my grandma in a wheel chair their it was a nightmare. people kept bumping into here (waiters), and the whole facility is very anti wheelchair, which sucked getting into the building and taking her to the bathroom.

if you like fresh pasta, come here for sure.

its the best in the summer time and sitting on the balcony. =)

delightful pasta for me, and awesome desserts. my sister and i headed over to chianti's last night for dinner. i had been there once before and had a good experience (fettuchini alfredo) but my sister is the pickiest of the picky,...and i wanted to see if i could impress her tastes with my choice of restaurant.
we were seated right away at the dinner rush, and it was a full house. the ambience was classic itallian restaurant, which i enjoy alot. after hearing some rave reviews about the ceasar salad i tried that to start and it was fantastic, and a great value. i ordered the the supremo fettuchini pasta dish which has scallops, smoked salmon and a curry cream sauce. my sister ordered the mare e monte linguini pasta which has scallops, mushrooms, peas and a garlic cream sauce. my plate was just how i liked it with plenty of sauce over my fresh pasta noodles and a generous amount of scallops and salmon. my sister (having specific tastes) had the waitress take the scallops back to be cooked longer (my sister likes caramalized scallops and its a different cooking process) my sister complained about the chicken that she has added to her pasta being too dry, and there not being enough sauce on her pasta. we ordered dessert afterwards to share a tiramasu, and a bailys irish cream cheese cake. it was very good. the best dessert i have had in a long time. my sister loved it. for both our meals, drinks, and the desserts in came in under $50. i recommend a meal here to anyone, even if they are picky they will leave this restaurant satisfied.

love it my whole life!!. maybe it is the vaulted ceilings or the smell of the food cooking but i just love chianti's. back when i was a young lass of 17(back in 1989), i discovered this gem on whyte. so much to love! insalata mista is fabulous and fresh, love the ravioli. love to attempt to speak the italian names of the dishes. desserts to die for (and yes, i am now more fluffy or jolly than i was at 17). my personal favourite is no longer on the menu but i can still order it, it is zabagliaone (sp?) which is warm frothy egg whites and red wine, kind of like a soft carmel pudding. i have never had a bad meal here. great for a date night, now if only my husband of 15 years could take a hint...

best value-for-money italian in edmonton.. chianti's is, for my money, by far the best value choice in edmonton for italian food. at prices comparable to the olive garden and the old spaghetti factory, whereas the chains rely on pre-made pasta with factory sauces, chianti's makes the real deal; home-made noodles for all the pastas, home-made sauces, and some of the most delicious flavors to be had in edmonton.

service is good, and the sun room dining room is a pleasure to kill an afternoon eating, drinking, and enjoying the art deco interior.

particularly recommended dishes:

fettucini supremo, with the smoked salmon and curry sauce. magnificent.

ravioli ala gorgonzola: try. this. incredibly delicious gorgonzola sauce over big, cheese-filled ravioli. spend the extra 3$ and get a spicy sausage cut up and added to it; the contrast between the spiciness of the sausage and the savory intensity of the gorgonzola will make your day. :)

this is one of my family's favorite places! great service and you can get a seat almost immediatly! awesome food and great service!!! love the homemade pasta! 5/5

i really want to like it. but...... i used to go to chianti's every week until i moved from edmonton 12 years ago. loved it. i moved back last year and since i've been back i try it every few months. not impressed. each time it just ends up being a really trial and the food just isn't worth the hassle.

for example, tonight i went back after trying it about 4 months ago, swearing off ever going again and then tonight decided to give it another chance. getting seated wasn't a problem but once we got sat down is when the trouble began. there were only 2 of us. it took about 5 minutes to get someone to talk to us a first time. it took about another 10 minutes to get a simple diet coke and coffee from the time we ordered it.

we sat on the deck, and i had no idea the tim horton's is now a biker magnet, so the entire meal was accompanied by biker scum revving their mufferless engines in the back lane by the deck and choking us with fumes because they all sat there waiting to get onto 105 street. once i got my diet coke it was flat and skunky. my friend ordered an iced coffee (should be black coffee with ice right? but they charged him for a cappuccino.) the only plus was the buns were warm but essentially tasteless.

once we got our dishes one of the meals was actually wrong but at that point we'd been there so long and the whole place was so awful we decided that we would just shut up and eat it so we could get out. we ate as fast as we could because the whole experience was so bad.

my fettucinne was big and gummy and the tomato sauce was essentially bland and salt free.

when i asked for the bill it was another 5 minutes for her to bring it, and at least another 5 minutes to get change when i asked her not to go away until i settled the bill using cash.

we were never offered refills for our coke or coffee. once we got the meal everyone disappeared. it was truly awful in every respect.

we got in at 7:45. we just had one drink each, and a main course, no appetizer or dessert and we didn't get out until after 9. wtf???i thought i was going to burst a blood vessel. even for a monday that late it was a disaster.

great casual place to hang out. food is above average. recommend!

this is my favorite restaurant! i believe they make their pasta fresh...not that boxed stuff. their alfredo sauce is the real thing. the service is super fast and the food is so good you'll want to lick your plate clean. tuesdays are cheaper (i think about $4 off).