The atmosphere in the restaurant was pleasant, the service was good and the food was tasty. The only two downsides were that the dishes were quite small, considering their price, and that the order came in an unexpected order (main course before appetizers, some drinks before the food and others after). Other than that, the experience was wonderful.
I've only dined at Gocciolina once, so I'm going to give them the benefit of doubt and lean toward the positive side of my experience. The food is a tapas style menu and serving sizes. Appetizers we had were all very good (note serving size) : 3 meatballs, 5 olives, and one good size portion of aged cheese drizzled with balsamic vinegar. The flavors of the main courses were also very good, although again the portions were "small plate" sized rather than a main course : Red snapper in a tomato broth, gnocchi with pork ragu, risotto with crabmeat, and spicy spaghetti with shrimp & octopus sausage and oyster mushrooms. Everything was executed with a high degree of culinary expertise that did not disappoint which is what earned this review 4 stars. We were disappointed that after ordering the fried oysters were were later told they ran out.Our waitperson warned us in advance that they were short one server that night; although as we looked around half the room was empty tables so at that point it should not have made a difference even though it did fill up later. We realize that retaining good staff these days is difficult, so we tried to overlook the missteps, but there were so many. Everything from start to finish took much longer than desired. I'm not going to name them all, but here are a few examples. A cocktail order was not put in, and even when it was 15 minutes later it took 20 more minutes to receive it. One person's main course was served so much earlier than the rest that he finished his dinner before any of the other plates came out. One order was put in incorrectly (ordered 2 risotto's and one gnocchi, served 1 risotto and 2 gnocchi's); they tried to correct it but by the time it came out everyone else had finished dinner and the replacement risotto was undercooked. Another 15 minutes from when the server picked up the payment to the time we received the credit card slips to sign.
I don't have time to post all that went wrong here is short list. 1. Didn't have our reservation tried to seat us outside on a 95 degree day. We pulled up reservation we made weeks prior to prove we had one. 2. Sat in side dining room that was dirty, dangerously dirty floor looked like it had never been washed - décor was awful too - just a side note. 3. Just a party of 2 and when my husbands app was gone for about 10 minutes I asked about mine - was clearly ignored because the brought my husbands dinner out before my app - insane and they did not care at all. 4. I had heard how wonderful this place was and the food is o.k. by Durham Italian standards not great. Definitely not worth it at all.
I’ve been going to this place before the pandemic and before the hipsters found it via News & Observer. Our antipasti were good, not great. An $18 gnocchi entree was a pitiful less than a cup of food. Tonight, the $28 snapper was a shameful, literal four bites fillet - not the whole fish that others have posted. Has the management/chefs changed? I get inflation, but this was absurd. Our waiter was good. Two stars because the food tasted good albeit so little of it that I went home to eat a real meal.
We arrived 10 minutes or so in advance of our reservation only to discover a extremely disorganized dining room and kitchen. No one greeted us until a small bottleneck ,consisting of two other parties, formed at the door. A beleaguered sever finally came rushing over once people were spilling out into the parking lot. The server asked us for our name and confirmed that our reservation was on hand but asked us to wait because our table wasn’t ready. The server then directed his attention to the couple immediately behind us, and told them that their res wouldn’t be available for 15mins. To relieve congestion in the small dining room we opted to wait outside and told the server that he could find us there when our table was ready. Patiently, we waited outside for over 10 minutes and while doing so we noticed two other parties enter the restaurant, but nobody came back out. Eventually we became concerned about our reservation and when we went back inside to check on our table we discovered all the parties that were behind us had been seated. Naturally we were extremely frustrated and disappointed. We felt disrespected by the restaurant for not honoring our reservation and keeping track of our table. This was extremely bad service and indicates poor restaurant management. I cannot dinners enough from avoiding this dumpster fire of an Italian restaurant. Such a shame and embarrassment.
What wonderful attention and the ambiance fully enhanced our dinner. The kids were celebrating Grandma's 92nd birthday and the dinner was perfect. Dinner, drinks, dessert, wonderful dining experience.
I love this restaurant so much! We come here for celebrations or anytime we feel like a fancier meal. The ingredients are locally sourced and the chef prepares everything fresh, never had a dish I didn't like. The menu rotates so there's always a new surprise.
Ah, Gocciolina. Being a Durham native that grew up right down Guess Road, I've had a lot of interest in visiting with all of the hype surrounding a must-see Italian restaurant on Guess Road. Really, on Guess Road?? That, along with the fact that you need to plan well in advance with a reservation, built a lot of suspense before we were finally able to visit. I tried to keep that in mind during my experience, so that my super high expectations didn't ruin my potential experience of solid but not stellar food.We visited Gocciolina for our anniversary as a special treat. I booked my reservation in advance and they were able to accommodate us about 20 minutes early. They weren't wildly busy, but it's a small restaurant which understandably makes it difficult to get a seat if they have even a steady crowd coming in. We were sat at a high top, which seemed to be the only indoor option for a party of two other than the bar. Not a big deal, but I do prefer a normal table.We're huge foodies, probably because we just love to eat, so we ordered a lot. First and foremost, don't come here expecting a ton of basic / classic Italian foods. I believe the menu is updated regularly and the dishes are creative. Not creative in the sense that it's really 'out there', hipster BS, but just not regular old spaghetti and meat balls or fettuccini alfredo. To start, we ordered the nduja, salami, meatballs, and spicy chickpeas. I don't have a baseline for nduja, so I think it would be unfair for me to review it. You could tell the salami was a good quality meat, but man oh man was it the fattiest salami I've ever had. That, coupled with the fact that it was kind of bland, made it unenjoyable. The chickpeas were great, spiced well, and the meatballs packed a lot of flavor. I'd order those two again. For my entre, I got the spicy seafood spaghetti and my partner got the gnocchi with gluten-free pasta. We also got a side salad, brussels sprouts, and roasted potatoes. The salad was fine, nothing special, but the balsamic on it was very tasty. The brussels sprouts were good, although just barely cooked enough. If they'd been cooked any less, I wouldn't have liked them, but I'd order them again. The potatoes seemed less roasted and more boiled with a quick broil afterward, but maybe I'm wrong about that. I wasn't a fan and I love potatoes. They just tasted like sink water and were super bland. We found ourselves having to salt almost everything except for the chickpeas, meatballs, and spaghetti. But they were tasty when we did salt them. The sea food spaghetti was really good and I'd get it again for sure. The sauce had a great depth of flavor. I asked for extra spicy and they accommodated. My partner enjoyed her gluten-free dish, the noodles were kind of like flat rice noodles you'd find at a Thai place, but they were really good as well.Overall, the experience was solid. Did it meet the hype and is it one of the best Italian places I'd ever been to? No...but I'd definitely visit it again and recommend it to others as a good restaurant to visit. It's creative, tasty, and fun. Beyond that, the prices were wildly reasonable. What would you expect all of that to be? $100? $150? Nope, $78 excluding tip. The only thing we really could openly complain about was the service. Our server knew her stuff and was nice, but there were periods of time where we looked around for her after sitting for way too long. The food came out quickly, but at the end of our meal, my partner wanted a desert, which is rare, and we ended up skipping this because it took so long just for our server to come back to our table. To be fair, it seemed like she was covering every table inside solo, but it was toward the end of the night and parties had left already. Other than that, I'd definitely check this place out and we'll be back!
Food and drinks: 12/10Service: 6/10The food and drink are absolutely great. Some of the best food in the Triangle honestly. You can definitely go wild just on appetizers alone. Fair prices on everything! But there were VERY extended periods between when our server checked in with us in between each 'event' from putting in orders to even getting our card back after paying the bill. 5-10 minutes on average. Would be nice if you offered fresh cracked pepper or grated Parmesan on the entrées but when the helper gave us our food there was no follow up for a long timePlace would be perfect with a second server honestly
Always very good. Really nice folks. One of my favorite places to go out to dinner at. Please do give it a try. Northern Durham, just off Carver on Guess. Very near Hillandale Road. Enjoy! ;)