I have eaten at the restaurant Fontanella on two occasions as it happens to be across the street from where I live the first time I went there ,I had the buttermilk chicken and I have to say... it was the best chicken I have ever had in my life!!! I could not get over how good it was. Such a random place to just wander into and have such an amazing taste experience. I highly recommended and the prices are reasonable it's just a lounge type restaurant off the main lobby they are renovating the hotel right now but it is a pleasant ambience the server although she was only one working, a very pleasant an efficient one.
patecake
The breakfast was okay, but the lunches and dinner were so much better. The staff are absolutely outstanding; friendly, fun, entertaining and just lovely.
PookyCake
Ah, Fontanella! I’m not quite sure to make of the name, but a quick Google search sheds light on this mystery. According to the Information Superhighway, “Fontanella” may refer to a “type of drinking fountain,” a town in Italy, or “a cemetery in the City of Naples.” I suspect the folks at the Clarion Hotel were going for the “drinking fountain” definition, but since M and I were here for the annual Horror Convention, I’m going to apply the “cemetery” definition. After all, given the reason for my patronizing this establishment, the name seems quite apt – a convention of horror. Plus, the lounge area looked pretty dead (har har). Of course, I mean “dead” in the sense of tired or old. The lounge area, where we were sitting in between speaking panels, looked to be straight out of the late 1970s or early 1980s – and not in a charming way. In any event, the place was pretty hectic – packed – because of the convention. As such, it took a while to receive our order of sweet chili wings. I won’t ding them for the time it took because they were indeed VERY busy, so we anticipated a bit of a wait. When the wings eventually arrived, though, they were kind of disappointing: Far from being sweet chili, they looked more like your run-of-the-mill salt & pepper wings, albeit with some sweet chili sauce on the side. Taste-wise, they were okay, but inconsistent. Some wings had a nice exterior crunch and juicy inside while others were dry – almost mummified like the dead in a cemetery (okay, am I running that one into the ground? Ha!). The wings were also accompanied by house-cut chips, but they weren’t good at all; rather, they were overcooked (burnt) and yet somehow managed to get soggy. To be fair, I wasn’t expecting high end snack treats given the location, but surely they could do a bit better than this? On the bright side, at least service was friendly, though a bit cluttered due to the mass of people converging on the eatery. FOOD: 2.5/5 SERVICE: 3/5 VALUE: 3/5 RECOMMENDATION: Given that I was only here for wings and a beverage, it’s kind of difficult to judge the overall character of this restaurant; however, given the look of their menu and other comments on this site and those like it, it’s probably fair to say this place is your typical hotel family-style restaurant. In other words, it’s not anything fancy, but probably comes in handy after a long day of travel. PS: If you found this review helpful in any way please consider hitting the "helpful" button!
BishopWm
Choose the buffet for breakfast so that I could start the day with an all you could eat filling mix of eggs, ham , toast, potatoes and coffee for one price. Ate my fill and since I was staying on-site just charged the breakfast back to my room. Only wish the restaurant had been open for more than breakfast as I was looking forward to trying other dishes.
Seamus Bowkett
Good service and good food
Tanya McLauchlan
This has to be the strangest experience I've ever had at a restaurant. First of all, it's nothing like I imagined from the name. The best way I can think of to describe it is like an "upscale" cafeteria. We weren't sure if we were supposed to seat ourselves or wait to be seated, but someone soon came to show us to our table. Shortly thereafter, the waiter came to take our order. He didn't ask us what we wanted to drink. I asked for a water and a Shirley Temple, but my husband is more reserved and since they didn't ask him, he didn't get a drink. They did bring us both a water.Looking around, we noticed that a few people at various tables were eating Subway sandwiches, which seemed odd. And some were eating out of takeout containers. Some had their own water bottles. I've never been to an establishment that allowed that before. Very odd.We ordered bruschetta to start. It came quickly, but there was way more bruschetta than bread (I'm used to it being the other way around), and the bread comes only partially sliced but you don't get a knife to cut it. You have to make do with your butter knife, which doesn't work very well. For scooping the bruschetta out of the bowl, it's a good thing they brought me a spoon with my utensils, I guess. My husband did not get a spoon. The bruschetta was tasty; it's a shame there wasn't more bread with it.For my dinner, I ordered prawn linguini, which was pretty good. Although I asked for more cheese, and the guy didn't bring it until I asked him to wrap up the rest of my meal to take home. He *said* he would put it in with my leftovers, but I haven't checked yet. I guess we'll find out tomorrow.My husband ordered some sort of chicken Thai noodle bowl. He wasn't too impressed. He said it was like they dumped a spice packet on top. Then he found there was nothing underneath, but when he mixed it up, all the sauce ended up in a puddle on the bottom. Anyway, he said it was over-spiced somehow, in spite of all that.One thing I should mention is that our food came out incredibly fast. It was kind of crazy how fast it came out. They never did come to refill our water, or take our bruschetta dish away, or ask us how anything was.Upon leaving, everyone was going up to the counter to pay, so we did, too. They hadn't brought our bill yet. We noticed that there was a self-serve soup and sandwich station, so maybe that's where those Subway sandwiches came from. I don't know. They also had quite a few glasses of water pre-poured and ready to go, so I don't know why we couldn't get a refill. They weren't THAT busy.It was just strange. The whole thing was very strange and sort of surreal. I don't know what kind of establishment they are supposed to be, and I don't think they do, either.
Flowerdrumsong
As a hotel-restaurant in the North, one would think that they would try to revitalize the restaurant and have something for patrons to look forward to - but we were disappointed. We went here because we were scouting a 'different' place for possible brunch for Moms' Day and we were hoping to go here again but (1) there is no wheelchair access and (2) the food, while not-so-bad is totally uninspired. We were thinking that since they re-branded their restaurant to be called "Fontanella" - that we might be able to find something European/Italian on the menu. The service was very attentive (well, there are barely anyone in the restaurant for brunch) and while that is appreciated, the overall experience was a total letdown. Why can't the hotel invest in at least a good piped-in music? While we don't have anything against local radio, to have that blaring made us feel like we're in some sort of a cafeteria - not a hotel restaurant. The food price is akin to eating downtown - but not for the taste. Boo! I hope you take this critique seriously. The area needs a good place for food - you can be taking advantage of this!
I have eaten at the restaurant Fontanella on two occasions as it happens to be across the street from where I live the first time I went there ,I had the buttermilk chicken and I have to say... it was the best chicken I have ever had in my life!!! I could not get over how good it was. Such a random place to just wander into and have such an amazing taste experience. I highly recommended and the prices are reasonable it's just a lounge type restaurant off the main lobby they are renovating the hotel right now but it is a pleasant ambience the server although she was only one working, a very pleasant an efficient one.
The breakfast was okay, but the lunches and dinner were so much better. The staff are absolutely outstanding; friendly, fun, entertaining and just lovely.
Ah, Fontanella! I’m not quite sure to make of the name, but a quick Google search sheds light on this mystery. According to the Information Superhighway, “Fontanella” may refer to a “type of drinking fountain,” a town in Italy, or “a cemetery in the City of Naples.” I suspect the folks at the Clarion Hotel were going for the “drinking fountain” definition, but since M and I were here for the annual Horror Convention, I’m going to apply the “cemetery” definition. After all, given the reason for my patronizing this establishment, the name seems quite apt – a convention of horror. Plus, the lounge area looked pretty dead (har har). Of course, I mean “dead” in the sense of tired or old. The lounge area, where we were sitting in between speaking panels, looked to be straight out of the late 1970s or early 1980s – and not in a charming way. In any event, the place was pretty hectic – packed – because of the convention. As such, it took a while to receive our order of sweet chili wings. I won’t ding them for the time it took because they were indeed VERY busy, so we anticipated a bit of a wait. When the wings eventually arrived, though, they were kind of disappointing: Far from being sweet chili, they looked more like your run-of-the-mill salt & pepper wings, albeit with some sweet chili sauce on the side. Taste-wise, they were okay, but inconsistent. Some wings had a nice exterior crunch and juicy inside while others were dry – almost mummified like the dead in a cemetery (okay, am I running that one into the ground? Ha!). The wings were also accompanied by house-cut chips, but they weren’t good at all; rather, they were overcooked (burnt) and yet somehow managed to get soggy. To be fair, I wasn’t expecting high end snack treats given the location, but surely they could do a bit better than this? On the bright side, at least service was friendly, though a bit cluttered due to the mass of people converging on the eatery. FOOD: 2.5/5 SERVICE: 3/5 VALUE: 3/5 RECOMMENDATION: Given that I was only here for wings and a beverage, it’s kind of difficult to judge the overall character of this restaurant; however, given the look of their menu and other comments on this site and those like it, it’s probably fair to say this place is your typical hotel family-style restaurant. In other words, it’s not anything fancy, but probably comes in handy after a long day of travel. PS: If you found this review helpful in any way please consider hitting the "helpful" button!
Choose the buffet for breakfast so that I could start the day with an all you could eat filling mix of eggs, ham , toast, potatoes and coffee for one price. Ate my fill and since I was staying on-site just charged the breakfast back to my room. Only wish the restaurant had been open for more than breakfast as I was looking forward to trying other dishes.
Good service and good food
This has to be the strangest experience I've ever had at a restaurant. First of all, it's nothing like I imagined from the name. The best way I can think of to describe it is like an "upscale" cafeteria. We weren't sure if we were supposed to seat ourselves or wait to be seated, but someone soon came to show us to our table. Shortly thereafter, the waiter came to take our order. He didn't ask us what we wanted to drink. I asked for a water and a Shirley Temple, but my husband is more reserved and since they didn't ask him, he didn't get a drink. They did bring us both a water.Looking around, we noticed that a few people at various tables were eating Subway sandwiches, which seemed odd. And some were eating out of takeout containers. Some had their own water bottles. I've never been to an establishment that allowed that before. Very odd.We ordered bruschetta to start. It came quickly, but there was way more bruschetta than bread (I'm used to it being the other way around), and the bread comes only partially sliced but you don't get a knife to cut it. You have to make do with your butter knife, which doesn't work very well. For scooping the bruschetta out of the bowl, it's a good thing they brought me a spoon with my utensils, I guess. My husband did not get a spoon. The bruschetta was tasty; it's a shame there wasn't more bread with it.For my dinner, I ordered prawn linguini, which was pretty good. Although I asked for more cheese, and the guy didn't bring it until I asked him to wrap up the rest of my meal to take home. He *said* he would put it in with my leftovers, but I haven't checked yet. I guess we'll find out tomorrow.My husband ordered some sort of chicken Thai noodle bowl. He wasn't too impressed. He said it was like they dumped a spice packet on top. Then he found there was nothing underneath, but when he mixed it up, all the sauce ended up in a puddle on the bottom. Anyway, he said it was over-spiced somehow, in spite of all that.One thing I should mention is that our food came out incredibly fast. It was kind of crazy how fast it came out. They never did come to refill our water, or take our bruschetta dish away, or ask us how anything was.Upon leaving, everyone was going up to the counter to pay, so we did, too. They hadn't brought our bill yet. We noticed that there was a self-serve soup and sandwich station, so maybe that's where those Subway sandwiches came from. I don't know. They also had quite a few glasses of water pre-poured and ready to go, so I don't know why we couldn't get a refill. They weren't THAT busy.It was just strange. The whole thing was very strange and sort of surreal. I don't know what kind of establishment they are supposed to be, and I don't think they do, either.
As a hotel-restaurant in the North, one would think that they would try to revitalize the restaurant and have something for patrons to look forward to - but we were disappointed. We went here because we were scouting a 'different' place for possible brunch for Moms' Day and we were hoping to go here again but (1) there is no wheelchair access and (2) the food, while not-so-bad is totally uninspired. We were thinking that since they re-branded their restaurant to be called "Fontanella" - that we might be able to find something European/Italian on the menu. The service was very attentive (well, there are barely anyone in the restaurant for brunch) and while that is appreciated, the overall experience was a total letdown. Why can't the hotel invest in at least a good piped-in music? While we don't have anything against local radio, to have that blaring made us feel like we're in some sort of a cafeteria - not a hotel restaurant. The food price is akin to eating downtown - but not for the taste. Boo! I hope you take this critique seriously. The area needs a good place for food - you can be taking advantage of this!
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