gino's italian ristorante

do not book a large party here!!. we met with a staff member ( i believe she's the manager) of gino's a couple of months before our daughter's wedding and she assured us that the restaurant staff would be able to accommodate our wedding guests (70 people) between the hours of 4:00 & 6:00pm. our guests began arriving about 3:45 and everyone began placing their orders with the waiters about 4:15. our food started being served about an hour after we all ordered...putting us behind schedule to be out by 6:00pm (prime dinner hour). about 6:45, the owner came out to our guests and was visibly upset, ordered our dj to stop playing the tasteful music they allowed and made our guests uncomfortable to say the least. gino's unprofessional and rude behavior was witnessed by all 70 of us. i'm sure no one wants to give a restaurant like this business in the future. food was mediocre at best. dry pasta, tough chicken, bland pizza. was it worth the $2000 we paid not to mention all the alcohol our guests purchased on their own? i think not!

sorry we don't want your business. i did a search online to find an italian restaurant close to my job site. i found gino's italian restaurant and reviewed there menu. i then called the restaurant and asked if they could make me a few dozen pizzas and have them available around 11:00 am tomorrow. i was told this would be ok. i then proceeded to review the menu and write down my order. i called back and placed the order with the same person i talked to previously. the order was for 27 pizzas. i was asked if it would be ok to have them ready at 11:30am, i agreed. she then checked with the kitchen and was told they can only cook three at a time and they could not accept my order. sorry, have a nice day. i am thinking what kind of staff treats there customers like this.

the atmosphere was great. i loved the gentle jazz music in the background. the service was great; my glass was always full. this was a bit fancier of a place than i normally find myself in, and i was a little under dressed. but it was a great experience overall. i also loved the decor.

best italian food in greater boise. we relocated to meridian from bend, or in june 2013 and really have enjoyed getting to know the greater boise areas (especially, eagle, meridian, boise, nampa). when we happened upon gino's italian restaurant for lunch one day it was a terrific gastronomic find. the service is outstanding, the servers are very friendly and conversant, and even the owner stopped by a couple of times and chatted. we were made welcome without question.
tonight we're celebrating my wife's birthday a day early so we may include our daughter and two granddaughters as her husband is away on business. dine at gino's and you will not be disappointed... none the least.

over priced plate of garbage. went to gino's for the first and last time this week. our party of 6 was seated near the entrance on un-level bar style tables that nearly tipped over with the slightest amount of pressure on the corner. the shrimp and bacon appetizer was horridly over cooked and rubbery. one of our diners had raviolis with white sauce that was scorched to the point the entire table could smell it. another diner had eggplant rollatini which was worse than the ravioli. the ragu' (if you want to call it that) tasted like it was made from burnt rotten tomatoes and the eggplant was inundated with cheese of an unknown origin. extremely disappointed and will never return - caution all to avoid!!

gino's delivers great italian food, with an extensive menu and great service. i just don't go here often lately though, because they moved from their awesome boise downtown location a few years ago to boring urban-sprawl meridian. if you are in boise and want italian, hit asiago's or luciano's for awesome italian at a better price. if however, you're in meridian and want good italian food that is a bit spendy for the area, hit gino's. the lobster ravioli is well worth the higher price. reserve a table if it's a weekend night though; gino's is popular and you likely will have a long wait if you just show up on a friday or saturday night.
one more thing: do not piss gino off. when at his downtown boise location with my family one night, we witnessed an epic awkward restaurant experience: gino himself kicked the people at the table next to us out of his restaurant. i don't exactly know what they did, but wow, we watched him humiliate those people and kick them out before their food showed up. he may have had a good reason for doing so, but it was one of the most awkward restaurant experiences i've ever had.

went to gino's tonight was so excited, was bringing to my sister and best friend to gino's, and bragging about their alfredo sauce, best i have ever had. the sad part was my sister's chicken alfredo comes , she is eating thinking these black things are pepper , what it was well we do not know but we know they were bugs. we watched three of them move around her dish. owner comes by asks us how we are enjoying dinner my sister shows him the bugs, he only seen one but we had dug around and seen three to four more. he tells my sister fruit flys sorry he will get her another dish my sister declines ,to me they looked like wevels of some kind. i stop eating as well as my friend. i can say i never seen anything in mine neither did my friend but well not taking any chances. i felt so bad and had to find something for my sister to eat once we got home. they did comp us for my sister's meal but all three of our meals were ruined. will not be back due to the experience was awful. sadden by this, as i enjoyed the alfredo sauce, but i threw mine away as unsure what may be in it.

worth the drive out west. most people will remember how great gino's was when it was in downtown boise. the move to meridian has just made it even better. the food is great and the staff wonderful with gino himself making regular rounds through the dinning room. we went recently for my wife's birthday and enjoyed ourself immensely.

very disappointed, been there twice now and the results where the same, pizza was like a wet wash cloth, chicken was under cooked, won't go back!

i didn't know what to expect at gino's, but having lived in meridian for 4 years and driven by it almost daily, we decided to try it out.  first off - the hostess needs to try a little harder at making people feel welcome.  it was 5:30 on a friday night and (gasp) we had no reservations.  didn't know it was necessary, having never been there before.  we were told by the first person at the desk - very nice woman-  that she may be able to accommodate us (family of 4) and she was going to check and see if her 6:45 would be available for us right then and there.  while she's checking, another person comes up to the desk and asks if we have reservations.  we said no, where she tells us "we highly recommend having reservations, we are really busy and may not have space...." and proceeds to stare at a table map.  my husband says to me, well, should we leave?  i thought we should wait for the first woman to come back, so we told 2nd hostess someone is checking for us to see if they can accommodate us.  she comes back and says we have an hour and 5 min and will that be enough time?  ???   with 2 kids, being served and done in an hour and 5 min sounds great, so we took it knowing 1) we should be so grateful they allowed us to eat there that night without reservations 2) we better eat fast.  an hour and 5 minutes!  that table is reserved.  if we didn't have hungry children, we would have walked out.  

i wasn't sure what to make of this place.  some tables had flowers (but not ours) and a few others did not.  maybe the flowers are only for the special folks who made reservations?  one table had a "tablecloth" made out of cloth napkins.  the rest of the tables were what you'd expect at a quick serve, and mismatched chairs.  naturally, feeling like this is a casual restaurant (no tablecloths, casual furniture) i was shocked to see the menu and pricing.  but the real kicker was no kid's menu.  $13 for a child's spaghetti and one meatball?  seriously?  if kids are welcome at this restaurant, they could have fooled me.  the menu had a lot of options, but nothing that seemed appropriately priced for the type of place i felt i was at (casual).  i went with the cheapest option i saw that wasn't an appetizer - raviolis.  $13 for about 12 raviolis covered in melted mozzarella.  it's a real treat eating what i presume was frozen raviolis for about $1 a piece.  bread in a basket was served, but never refilled even though the 4 of us were clearly hungry.  thankfully, i brought pancakes for our toddler, or we would have been out of luck.  the raviolis came with no side items to share with him like we do at typical chain restaurants.  not even a few pieces of steamed broccoli.  nothing.  no salad (although the option to "add one" was offered).  my husband ordered the flat iron steak special (for $25!) and while it was supposed to be served med rare, the middle was cold.  at least for the $25, he got a side item.  a slice of grilled cauliflower topped with pine nuts and something else.  cauliflower slice.  $25.  no bread refills.  we didn't order any drinks or dessert, or food for the 4th member of our family, and the bill was $50.  yikes!  the only bright side of the entire experience was the server and the speed at which he got us out of that table.  we were in and out in 45 min, flat!  out the door, folks!  had my husband wanted his steak warm, too bad.  we had an hour and 5 min, remember?  the table we were occupying was reserved.

we won't be back.  we weren't welcome from the get go, and they are too busy serving people who clearly ...aren't us.  they seem to be striving for a fine dining experience with a target customer base that doesn't include families, but i feel they missed the ball on that one.  they were busy on this friday night, but i can't imagine it's due to the food, pricing, or even atmosphere.  gino's is really one of the few restaurants over here on the east side of meridian but ten mile is growing fast.  competition will be here soon enough.  we'll stick with the chains that offer more value for less money and food for all 4 of us.  

*** on a side note, our amazing table was so close to the party next to us, we could hear their entire conversation about their health issues.  while i'm staring at my melted mozzarella raviolis, i was subject to the old lady's stories 1 foot away from me about her shingles, boils, biopsies, it spreading to her eye, a friend who broke a hip, etc.  nothing says delish quite like a plate of raviolis with shingles on the side.  not the restaurant's fault that my neighbors regaled me with such stories, but consider the table proximity when deciding to pay upwards of $20/plate or more for a "fine dining" experience.

gino, our first time in, thank you... birthday for a friend.. staff is outstanding and professional. setting is beautiful and the meal was without question grand. tim, our waiter, was a gentleman and an asset to your house. we will be back.. steve and valerie

as always, we had a great meal at gino's.  we had a great little corner table and one of the best waitresses we have had in a long time.  we always have good service at gino's but jennifer was so personable and she just stood out.  this is such an awesome restaurant.  i love the way gino is almost always there and greets his customers at some point during their meal.

sadly gino's has exceptional food and a horrible unprofessional staff. we've dinned in the restaurant 4 times and did take out once. the waiters (every time we dinned in) made us feel like we were a bother to them and rushed us in every way (and messed up our orders). then when we did a to go order i felt like i was ordering from an 8 year old with no concept of professionalism, spewing her obvious stress and chaos through the phone.
gino- a word of advice from someone who really wants to eat at your establishment more- either train your staff with better customer service and professionalism or get a new staff.

we love gino's! the food and service is always amazing. every course, from wine to dessert, never leaves us disappointed. we went here tonight to celebrate my husbands birthday with a party of 7 and a child and we were treated wonderfully. had wonderful food and they made for an unforgettable birthday.
i recommend you always make a reservation.
i also recommend the stuffed mushrooms, house salad, specials, veal parm and tiramisu!

i was bummed, we went gino's for my birthday after it was highly recommended. the service was horrible, the prices were ridiculous for the few and greasy ravioli that left me still hungry. our waiter was absent for most of our visit. another waiter acknowledged this and attempted to fill this gap, but he had his own patrons to care for. the pasta my grandson recieved was uncooked way beyond "al dente", flavorless, and had absolutely zero nutritional value for him. it was just a bowl of undercooked pasta with some cheese on it and we paid 7.50 for it! not to mention the 2.50 for a lemonade! (they do not offer a kids menu) i'm sorry, but there are many restaurants that offer healthy options for children and value children as customers. i don't see us returning to this establishment or recommending it to anyone. which is unfortunate, because my daughter lives close by and it seemed like a great place we could meet for dinner often.