This place is no joke. The food was delicious. I'll be honest and say that it did take a bit to get service once we were sat. But one look of discomfort was noticed by the host and he was quick to get us started before the waiter could get over. We loved his awesome hair he said he was thinking of going tiger stripes tomorrow!!! We started with the pizza Lombardino and it is fantastic. Be warned it comes with a ton of greens on top but that flavor combo is crazy good. I got the lamb, goat cheese ravioli. Just yes. All great thing to say just get it!! She order the gnocchi. We have never tried it before and it was good. The sauce was incredible. He ordered the eggplant and it was so delicately put together and once again the flavor pairing was amazing.This place does a great job and I highly recommend you go and check them out. We did not have a chance to sample some of their beverages but we saw a few go by and they looked great.
My wife and I visited Lombardino's for the first time on May 21, 2022. The short version of my review is, "Go there. Go there now! Go there tonight if you can."I cannot think of a single negative thing to say about our experience. The food was maybe the best we've ever had, top to bottom. The service was impeccable.I'll start with the service, which is where many otherwise good restaurants fall short. I use Carl as an example since he was our waiter, but it looked to me as if every member of the waitstaff was doing his or her job the same wonderful way.Carl always seemed to be at our table at exactly the right time, but without seeming at all intrusive. When he brought our drinks to the table and took our appetizer order, he asked if we were also ready to order entees. Although we were, we hesitated because we were hoping for a long, relaxing dinner, and at so many other restaurants have felt rushed by having the entrees arrive before we had finished the appetizers. We didn't say this out loud, but Carl immediately sensed our hesitation and offered his assurance that everything would arrive at the table exactly when we were ready for it, not before and not later.Through what I'm sure was a masterful interaction between Carl, the Chefs, and the rest of the kitchen staff, Lombardino's lived up to his promise. Our calamari appetizer arrived at the table just as we had had time to "settle in", drink a bit of our wine, and switch from workday mode to relax mode. Better yet, when it arrived, the calamari was so fresh out of the fryer that we actually had to let it cool down a bit before we could eat it. It had clearly not been sitting under a food warmer waiting for Carl to pick it up. A few minutes after we had finished the calamari, but not so quickly that we felt rushed, one of the waitstaff picked up our dished. Within moments, Carl was at the table to ask if we wanted more drinks. (Note that he didn't ask if we were ready for our entrees, or even suggest that we should be.)Carl brought our second glasses of wine to the table and gave us a few minutes to talk and enjoy the wine. At the perfect moment, our entrees arrived. Again, they had clearly gone from preparation to plating to our table within seconds. Hot, fresh, and beautiful.I had a chance to see at least part of how Lombardino's pulls this off. At one point I visited the men's room, which requires you to walk down a hallway that passes the kitchen door. Although it seemed that the waitstaff was always on the floor taking care of their customers, I noticed that two or three of them, including Carl, were standing in the hallway, apparently doing nothing. As I was passing I heard someone inside the kitchen yell, "CARL!". Within a second, he had opened the kitchen door, been handed a plate(s), and was on his way to a table with the order. It was finely tuned artists and craftsmen in action.The food. Oh, the food. The calamari was perfectly cooked, hot, crisp, and full of flavor. I normally pass on the dipping sauce that most restaurants serve with calamari, opting for salt only, since the sauce always seems to mask the flavor of the squid. Lombardino's sauce is delicate enough to let the flavor shine through and even enhance/compliment the calamari.My wife ordered the Tagliatelle with Shrimp and I had the Lamb Ragu & Goat Cheese Ravioli. Both were amazing. The pasta was cooked perfectly al dente. The shrimp were a perfect size so that you could get one of them and a twist of tagliatelle into a "polite" mouthful. The sauce on each was ideal. My only regret is that the next time I visit Lombardino's, I'll have to choose between ordering one of these dishes again, or trying one of the many other options that sound just as good.Apparently many other people have the same opinion of Lombardino's. We arrived 5:15PM, just 45 minutes after they opened, and I'm pretty sure we got the only table that was still available.And, frosting on the cake, the entire staff was
Over the years, I've visited Lombardino's a number of times, and their food and service never disappoint. We dined in for my birthday last week, and in addition to the always outstanding, seasonally-appropriate menu, the bar was kind enough to pour me house-made limoncello (and orangecello) for dessert, even though the flight is currently off the menu. I love this place, and will be back!
Tonight we had the worst service we have ever had at a restaurant. We arrived and were seated right away. Then we saw no one for 30 minutes. I asked the hostess to have a server to come to our table and someone arrived to take a drink order and said a server would be there shortly. No one every arrived after 35 minutes. We left and will never go back. Absolutely the worst service ever.
My now husband and I had our first date here this is a very special place for us cause this is where we first meet and talked until they closed and felt bad cause we did realize that they were closed until we looked up and everyone was gone accept the hostess and our waiter. We look forward to always going back for there amazing food.
Loved our meal last week! The service was also great. We are looking forward to returning!
First time that we were there and wanted to celebrate our daughter’s birthday. Lovely restaurant —love the decor. Food was outstanding. Service was perfect. Get there early because an hour in, they were full, and rightly so.
We went to Lombardino's and loved it!! The outside in the dead of winter on a cold January night was not especially inviting. Don't let that stop you!! The atmosphere inside is warm and reminiscent of wonderful old school restaurants.I had pizza with fontina, bacon and an egg in the middle. It was absolutely delicious! My husband had squash stuffed ravioli and really enjoyed it. The tiramasu was unlike any I've eaten before. Heavenly! It set a new standard from which I will judge all tiramasu now. I doubt any will come close. We asked our waiter if people ever order a second serving. He claimed not. I'm surprised. We always share one dessert and really wanted to order another but didn't have room with all the other yummy food we'd already consumed.I've no doubt future visits to Madison will include a stop at Lombardino's. And we'll order two desserts!
Dry aged ribeye was fantastic, mussels were fantastic, tiramisu was good.The drink refill station needs to be more centrally located the water pitchers need to be bigger and carry less ice, because we really didn't get enough water.
My husband and I have been coming to Lombardinos for many years, which is the only reason this review gets 3 stars. We’ve always had a wonderful time with great service. We attempted to dine in on New Years Eve, and we arrived around 5:15pm before they got busy with the dinner rush. We were seated towards the front of the restaurant almost directly in front of the host stand and greeted by our waitress almost immediately. We didn’t order drinks yet since we hadn’t had a chance to look at the menu. Here’s where things went sour. No one came to our table for 40 minutes, so we left without food or drink. I’ve worked in a restaurant, I understand being flustered and forgetting which table is yours. What I don’t understand is the front of house staff allowing this to go on. Both my husband and I made eye contact with the front of house staff multiple times and they knew what was happening. We overheard them murmuring that our waitress hadn’t been around in a long time. They knew what was happening and didn’t rectify it for 40 minutes. This is unacceptable behavior and it is unfortunate but our most recent experience has heavily tainted our feelings towards the restaurant and I don’t know if or when we will be back.