gianmarco's

quaint. nice little italian place in homewood. i had the special which was veal. it was cooked fine, i just didn't care for it. the sides were very good the fried rissoto app was interesting. the tortellini was tasty.

the french 75 was not as good as the one at highlands. it is make very differently and certainly has its merits. i just prefer the one at highlands.

overall, it was a pretty good meal. i need to go back to try something else on the menu. no reason not to go back. service was good, though i did not think as good as highlands or veranda.

appalling, unbelievable rudeness...and this from the owner!!!. i was so looking forward to a very special dinner with my husband to celebrate our 29th anniversary, so i decided to make reservations at gianmarco's for our first time visit. my husband i eat out quite frequently, at all the fine dining establishments that birmingham is noted for, but we hadn't tried gianmarco's, and the food we heard was great.

when i called to make the reservations, for the 30th, our anniversary, someone from the staff took my name and contact number and made reservations for 7pm.
on monday, 30th, i asked by husband to call to see if we could possibly add 2 more to our party. no answer. they were in fact closed. our friends and i were scrambling around the last minute to find a place to eat to celebrate our special day.
when i called the next day to find out what happened, and why i wasn't contacted when someone realized a mistake as made and they were not opened (memorial day), i was told there was "no way anyone would make a reservation on that day, because i am always at the lake on memorial day". i was told "i" must have made a mistake, and called some other restaurant, because it was impossible that anyone on his staff could have made this error. "by the way, he said...did you end up at another place? did you have a good time? so what's the big deat? "people make reservations all the time, and don't show up", he shouted at his defense. i asked in disbelief, because i couldn't believe someone in a service industry could be so appallingly combatant, but i was indeed speaking to "the owner", gianmarco.

instead of "battling out" with a potential customer, wouldn't it have been better business to graciously apologize, for the mix up, and invite us back to try the great food and service?

what a poor decision to argue with a potential customer.
who does that? the staff at gianmarcos should all go back to customer service 101, you can't have a restaurant without customers.

bad news. my wife and i went to gianmarco's last night for our anniversary. found the place very cramped and waitress very pushy. we are in our late twenties and of a younger crowd than what seemed the norm, however still would have been nice to be treated with respect. my wife was having trouble choosing a meal and asked our waitress for some suggestions. the waittress kept pushing my wife to get veal after she just said that she doesn't like veal. then our waitress proceeded to go into an expalination of how veal is really beef and is not butchered in the same process as it once was. my wife still said "i don't like veal, sorry it is just a personal thing", and she continued to push the veal, it was rather offensive, and my wife choose the hanger steak, after our waitress explained where the steak came from while not being prompted by anyone at our table, and still continued to talk about veal in the explaination. the polenta fries were very bland, however the risotto appetizer was good. i went basic and ordered the lasgana at the recommendation of a friend. it was okay however at about the 5th bite i bit into a piece of bone in the meat. i told our waitress and she then expalined that she watched the kitchen staff grind the beef, and there was no way that a bone could have been in it. i then tried to hand her the plate to send back to which she blantly ignored. i never said "i'm not paying for the lasgana" but it would have been nice to have it taken off our bill. i understand that no restaurant is perfect and mistakes happen but still no excuse for being treated like this, really put a damper on our anniversary. sad day.

love it love it love it!!!!!. this has become our familys favorite italian restaurant. the service is amazing, the atmosphere is amazing and the food is absolutely the best italian food we've ever had..especially in the birmingham area. we've celebrated b'days, anniversarys and will soon celebrate our sons first communion here. we've never had a bad dish or bad service. if you want authenic italian food in a great atomsphere and wonderful service..this is your place. just remember to make a reservation!!!

bad very bad. stay away.

consistently great. this is a restaurant that has it all. a very lively (but small) bar. romantic setting with a very active scene. there is a chef's table at the front (which i recommend) where you can watch the kitchen at work. the food is very reasonable priced and the wine list is diverse. the good thing about this place is you can go casual or very upscale and have a great meal either way. the wine list is reasonably priced, and they also offer a $20 corkage fee if you decide to bring in your own wine. this is my favorite restaurant in birmingham.

favorite place. my husband and i go to gian's anytime we can. the food is excellent and the staff are so friendly and helpful. the portions are large enough that we do split for the whole meal - bottle of wine, appetizer, entree, and dessert. hint - try to get there before 5:30 and sit at the bar for your meal. the patrons and staff make it quite a cozy and enjoyable experience. it's like having dinner with family.

out of the ordinary, quaint itallian restaurant on steroids. without a doubt some of the best wine and food pairings in the city! call ahead for seatings as the dining room is packed by 6:30. while the bar offers a more casual experience, it is a popular hidden after-work destination and is usually full by 5:30! this little restaurant is by far the best in the city!


-----09 feb, 2011-----

out of the ordinary, quaint itallian resaurant on steroids. without a doubt some of the best wine and food pairings in the city! call ahead for seatings as the dining room is packed by 6:30. while the bar offers a more casual experience, it is a popular hidden after-work destination and is usually full by 5:30! this little restaurant is by far the best in the city!

neighborhood italian gourmet. tue night - packed - friendly - great food. some of the food was very heavy but good - there was just too much. this place was fun - elbow to elbow but friendly - i think they are so busy because the price is right - nice $20 bottle of wine and meals in the teens.

classic italian food, in an intimate setting. this is what i experienced at gianmarco's, when i had two special friends visit birmingham. they wanted to try a local italian restaurant, not a chain restaurant, and this was one of the first places that i t

best dining experiance ever!. lets start by saying my wife is a server so no matter where we go to eat we get the worst service i almost cringe when ever we go to somewhere nice because i know its gonna be a scean so tonight was our 18 anniversary an we have been told to try gianmarcos so we made reservations for 700 but we were starving at about 530 so we went in a hour an a half early an were seated no proublem i would not recomend this but it was a monday well we were greated by a well groomed man named kelly we had looked over the menu an had already picked out two appitizers an our entres when kelly started to tell us about their specials to begin i dont get out much so im not use to the fancy new ways they cook things or what a lot of things ment kelly took his time an explained things to me in a way i could understand an also dident make me feel like a social recluse either so after writing down what i wanted for my wife an i then she changed it to what she wanted for us then kelly told us about the specials we changed 3 times i know we are a nightmare but our server was pacient kind an helpful so i ended up with some appalachacola oysters baked with some yummy cheese an bacon an crust my discription gives this dish no justice an my wife got some mozzarella basil tomato an balsamic vinager reduction masterpiece that was as amazing as my oysters then we had two differant salads that again were amazing i could go on but i want to get to my entre it was a ny strip that was the size of long island it was cooked in butter in a airtight bag an boiled to perfection then pan seared with the best brussel spouts an potatos i have ever eaten im no food critic so im not going to try to tell you what was in them or how they were cooked im just saying if you waste another day of your life with not eating at this restruant you will be the one missing out my wife had the manicotti an it was heaenly to say the least by now we are both wishing we hadent eaten as much as we had but we couldent resist we had to try the dessert menu we had the cannollies an the bread pudding both of them were like we never had before the bread pudding was light an airy not heavy an sticky like new orleans style an the cannollies well lets just say forget about it! there were 3 of hem on the plate an they were amazing please make sure you ask for kelly he an his wife are expecting a child an im sure he could use the money but besides that he was soooo nice we will be back .i took the time to ask for a manager i got to talk to marco let me tell you not what you would expect i thought he would be some stuffy uptight guy wow was i wrong he was so cool i was telling him about our great dinning experiance an he was like did you enjoy the food ?true itilian to the bone come on eat !!!! when it came time for the bill it dident matter what it cost the experiace was a once in a lifetime for me the best food an the best service an to think i wanted to go to ruth chris oh it would have been good but it would not have been gianmarcos!dont take it from me try it for yourself! to all my new friends at gianmarcos im still stuffed ! i cant believe i ate the whole thing!

awesome eats. i enjoy this authentic fare every chance i can. would highly recommend it.

we like it. we don't get there often, and we never have reservations, so we sit at the bar (our preference anyway) and it's fun, it's neighborhood (although not ours) and it's good. contrary to comments about the staff, our service has always been friendly and welcoming. we ask the bartender to pick a few things for us and go with it.

thumbs up!. i reserved my table at gianmarco's a week in advance because i had heard that the place is always packed. in retrospect i'm glad that i called ahead because even on a tuesday night, the dining room was completely full. we started out with the cheese torta which arrived in a strata-like in appearance (pretty!) i had never had a cheese torta before and was delightfully surprised by the creamy blend of flavors. i would love to order this to go as an appetizer for family/holiday functions in the future. a must try! i followed this with the equally sinful tortellini alla panna con gorganzola. although i have no idea what authentic italian tortellini tastes like (never been to italy...), this is by far the best tortellini i've ever had in birmingham. i rounded everything out with a glass of chardonnay and it made for one happy tummy. my dinner date ordered the sausage and peppers and was very satisfied. our server was quiet, but very on top of things. for an appetizer, two glasses of wine, and two entrees, we made out under $70 which is not bad for "fine dining". the atmosphere was a bit cramped for my liking, but i think that's actually a positive draw for many. i will definitely be dining here again!

cool place for some classic italian food.