Canaletto

We went to Canaletto when we saw they have a happy hour menu at the bar, and enjoyed the food enough to go...

My husband and I were really looking foward to Canaletto. We had looked over the menu online and it looked great. I looked at the reviews and even though they were mixed we still decided it was a good chance to take being in the Venetian where the show we were seeing was at.
We had 6:30 reservations and arrived around 6:15 and the hostess was friendly and had no problem seating us early. After we sat down a man who was the busboy came up to the table and took 2 of the place settings away without uttering a word. He just looked really grumpy! We just laughed.
2 appetizers were ordered. 1 was Capesante gratinate-baked scallop dish and crab cakes. The capesante was good but it tasted only of artichokes. If I did not see the scallop I would not have even known it was there. The crab cakes were like breaded tuna salad. Not good crab cakes. We each ordered a salad. Insalata di bietole which was greens with beets. The dressing was like straight vinegar! Not very good. The Insalata di pare was wondeful with pecans, gorganzola and pomegranate dressing. I ordered the Canneloni Di Pollo. It was really good and looked like italian enchiladas. My husband ordered the Filetto di bue al gorgonzola. Grilled beef tenderloin with grilled polenta and spinach with some sauce. Really skimpy on the sauce and it was basically a filet steak on the spinach and polenta. I thought the polenta tasted like dry baby food! My husband said the steak was very good though.
The service was not very good. Ran out of tea 3 times and the bread was never refilled. Like I said our waiter was friendly but the busboy almost ruined it. It was like he was trying so hard to be unfriendly. He came to our table several times and not ONE word! Even if you don't speak english you can still smile especially when you pay $130! Honestly I have had better food and service at Olive Garden. They just don't care though since it is for tourists who most likely not be back anyway!

Before a 9pm show at the MGM on a Saturday we made 6pm reservations at Canaletto. There really was no need for the reservations, but again it was earlier than usual. We were seated right away, and we decided to sit out on the patio. They did inform us that this was the smoking section, but a lot of non-smokers sat out there. They were right, the smoke was not bad at all. We had very prompt service and a great meal. The atmosphere was great too, there was a wedding going on behind us on the one of the bridges, and when that was over there was a jesters act and opera on the other side of the canal. It made for a very entertaining dinner. And the price was more reasonable then Postino which was across the way. We would go back.