Hosteria Da Elio

I went to Hosteria Da Elio for the first time with my boyfriend last week for a nice romantic dinner. He had been there a few times and enjoyed his meals each time he went before. My first complaint about this restaurant is our waitress didn't know what was in anything on the menu, or how anything was prepared, which made ordering very confusing. We ordered the shrimp bisque, which was disappointing. The broth was very thin and didn't have much flavor. We also had the sweet potato gnocchi in a cream sauce, which actually was really delicious- the gnocchi was light and fluffy and the sauce was sweet and delicious. For our entrees, we both ordered from the specials menu- I had the veal chop stuffed with prosciutto and cheese, and he had the cannelloni stuffed with veal. My veal chop was very tasty and just what I expected it to be. The cannelloni, however, was not. The veal was so finely ground; it was really unappetizing and made me feel a little queasy.\t\n\t\nAt the very end of our meal, the owner asked us how our dinner was, and my boyfriend expressed his disappointment with the cannelloni, and the owner began to YELL at the two of us. I couldn?t believe it! He screamed that in his 20 years of working in restaurants, nobody has ever once complained about his cannelloni, and we just must not have any taste. We had mentioned our distaste for the cannelloni to the waitress early on during the meal, but she failed to mention anything to a manager or owner. The owner yelled at us that the waitresses know nothing, and we need to speak to a manager or owner if something is wrong with your meal, and that he was sitting near us the whole time- so why didn?t we say anything to him? I asked him how was I to know you were the owner? He hadn?t said a single thing to us the whole meal until then!\t\n\t\nI left the restaurant feeling angry and still a bit queasy and on the verge of tears! I know will not be going back to Hosteria Da Elio. Nobody needs to be treated that way!\t\n

Went here in 2007 and enjoyed it so came back for my birthday Saturday 11/27/2009 and it was awful. Went in and heard the speacials and all sounded great. We ordered some soups, appetizers and entrees. I asked what broth my tortelini soup was in and the waiter said, "it's tortelini...chicken broth..what else does tortelini come in." That ticked me off a little. We ordered the sweet potato gnocchi, penne vodka, and mussels red as an app. Our apps came out before our soup which was weird but ok. As we start eating the extremely bland and cold pastas our soup arrives which annoyed me. Why serve soup while eating family style apps? The past like I said was not hot and it was awful. The vodka sauce dripped off the pasta and it tasted like water, the gnocchi sauce was pretty good but I would've never knew the gnocchie were sweet potato since there was no hint of sweet potato flavor. Our entrees came out and I ordered a Med rare steak which was cooked well done, not a hint of red anywhere near the steak. My cousin ordered the stuffed Veal Chop and let me tell you this. It was over cooked and there was hardly any stuffing. We actually told the waiter we ordered the stuffed Veal when he put it down because you couldn't tell that they put 1 piece of prociutto and a slice of mozz. He told us, "O its a small layer." Also the veal was cooked well done. Not appetizing. The other two meals were salmon and stuffed calamari which I was told were not that good. Our entrees as well were cold. Told someone who worked there about everything rather the owner becuase I heard stories about him. I will never go back and will def spread the word on how awful this plave was.

Hosteria DA Elio is one of our favorites. A tiny, unpretentious restaurant off South Street, the Italian owner believes in genuine Italian dishes. My favorite is the Beef Carpaccio, a paper-thin dinner-plate sized slice of raw beef in a light vinagrette sprinkled with capers and freshly grated sliivers of Parmesan cheese with baby greens on the side. The linguine in white clam sauce is superb, as is any fresh fish of the day. No one can beat their homemade strawberry and chianti sherbet. Prices are moderate. Service is quick and friendly. Best ambience is during warm weather in their charming rear open patio, enclosed by old brick walls. BYOB