Vaticano Italian Restaurant Fort Erie

Your parking lot looks like a dump/ scrap yard. Clean it up!

Visited there June 17/26 with 5 of us ,The food was very good, portion sizes were good, the only problem we have was she asked if we wanted water we said yes, she brought a total of 3 bottles of water over for 5 of us and when we got the bill, were completely shocked that there was a $36 charge for 3 bottles of water, I was appalled, didn’t even tell us they charged for the water, who charges for water. Had to also ask like 3 times for our bill, reservation was for 6pm got done by 8:10pm and we were the only ones in the restaurant. Sent an email to the restaurant, disclosing how dissatisfied we were with the water charge, still have not heard back from the owner.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 4

Service: 2

Terrible experience at this restaurant
The patio needs some serious cleaning for a fine dining restaurant
Then we waited 1/12 hours for our food
N one came around to say sorry it’s taking so long
The food was terrible
The seafood medley smelled like the Lake Erie fish it was awful we left very unhappy and yet out 150$
So terrible

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 2

Service: 2

I dont know where to begin. We came with a party of 9 for a wedding celebration, and it took us 2 hours to receive the most medicore, nearly inedible food ever. The server Francesca was lovely and kind, and it's not her fault but theres no need to have customers waiting that long for food. Especiallywhen there was NO ONE ELSE in the entirety of the restaraunt. There were so many bugs and flys and we were seated indoors. Not worth the price or visit

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 1

Service: 3

Had an incredible meal here tonight! Our server, Rosa, was so friendly and attentive and gave great recommendations. The food was so fresh and authentic, I definitely recommend the carbonara and the homemade bread! The restaurant has a rustic charm and the patio on the river is perfect for a summer night. They even grow their own veggies and herbs right on the patio. Will be back for sure!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Amazing! Food was super high quality! Very delicious and felt very authentic. Will go back again and plan on bringing family when they come down to visit!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Great atmosphere with a magnificent selection of what Italian cuisine has to offer. A welcome change from what Canada has to offer culinarily. plus a great conversation with the owner and chef, who had quite a few stories to tell.

Beautiful real fresh made Italian food. The restagrant is charming, and the owner and chef is famous. For real. If you haven't eaten here youvare missing out.

This place looked decent online so I reserved for a small group of us on a Friday night. When we arrived, there were 2 other tables of guests in the whole place. The server and place were very nice, however, the “authentic Italian food” was anything but. The pasta was so overcooked it was falling apart on my fork, the pizza my friends had was hard as a rock and… IT TOOK ALMOST 2 HOURS! By the time we saw him starting to form the pasta (as he watched the soccer game) the restaurant was empty…. We have no idea what took so long. If you’re visiting Fort Erie area, use your time wisely, by eating elsewhere.

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 1

Service: 1

I have a feeling this place may not be around much longer if things continue the way they are. We have had good food here in the past, which makes this experience even more disappointing because we know what this restaurant is capable of.

Our server, Francesca, was the only server working that entire night. After talking with her, it sounds like this has become a regular occurrence rather than a one time issue. She worked incredibly hard, stayed positive, and did everything she could to keep customers happy despite being put in an impossible situation. None of the issues we experienced were her fault.

The restaurant appeared to be operating with only two employees total, one server and one cook. For a restaurant of this size, that simply is not enough staff to provide a reasonable dining experience. Our food took nearly two hours to arrive, and it was obvious the employees were overwhelmed and doing the best they could with the resources they had.

To make matters worse, both toilets in the restaurant were broken during our visit. Between the staffing shortages and maintenance issues, it gave the impression that ownership is either unwilling or unable to invest the money necessary to properly operate the business.

The owner needs to hire more staff and address these problems before they drive away loyal customers. It was genuinely sad to watch Francesca work so hard trying to keep everyone satisfied while carrying the entire front of house by herself. She deserves credit for keeping things together as well as she did under those circumstances.

Owner, you need to hire more staff. Watching Francesca run the entire dining room by herself while also trying to manage frustrated customers was tough to see. She was friendly, professional, and worked extremely hard all night. Unfortunately, there is only so much one person can do when they are set up to fail from the start.

I had the homemade RigaToni pasta with Bolognese sauce and the pear, candied pecans, arugula salad and it was fantastic. Rose, our server was outstanding.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 5

This was the WORST restaurant experience of my life. And the server made many jokes about leaving a Google review, so here you go Vaticano.
We booked this restaurant for the patio and the food. We get there, and the patio has a dirty mop across a couple chairs, a gas canister and a leaf blower on another table. The patio looked dirty and uncared for. Every other restaurant surrounding Vaticano had a beautiful patio open and serving people. The bugs ended up being too bad to sit in on the patio at this particular restaurant, so they moved us inside.

Everything in this restaurant took forever. It took forever to get our waters. It took forever to put an order in for appetizers. It took forever to put an order in for dinner because the server waited until the appetizers came out to take our dinner order. Then it just took FOREVER to get the actual dinners. The server warned us that it could take a little bit longer because everything is homemade. But we spent 3 hours in that restaurant. 90% of which was just waiting, and looking for the server! I make homemade meals 6 other days of the week, and never does it take me that long to get dinner on the table. We were a relatively large group of nine, but the rest of the restaurant wasn't even busy. They had maybe four tables with a few people at them. The server constantly seemed frazzled. We constantly had to ask and remind her about things. At the end of the night, there's a 20% gratuity added to our bill because of us being a group more than five. But we literally just experienced the worst service of our lives. So what was the 20 % for?!???!
I can say with certainty that we will NEVER be back to this place. What a disappointing experience from start to finish.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 3

Service: 1

Really hate to be writing this review, always heard great things about Vaticano and my wife & I didn't really believe the negative reviews, we knew it was pricy but were excited to visit for a special occasion. We booked a reservation for 6:30 using their website for a table for two on the patio, when we got there they didn't seem able to find it and told us there was no room left on the patio & wanted to seat us inside, when pressed they gave us a table on the patio off to the side that they seem to not usually use for us which we appreciated.
For it's fancy reputation we were quite surprised at the state of the patio, they had tomato planters where the bottoms had rotted out & spilled onto the stones, they had patio lights where most of the bulbs had fallen out & were scattered around the floor and the floor itself had alot of weeds growing up. The lady who served us was very pleasant and our drinks came quickly, but our food ended up taking an hour & a half to arrive from when we were seated. It seemed to be because a wedding party arrived after us and they prioritized getting the group's food out first as several other tables were waiting about as long as we were or longer. Our food only came when I went inside to inquire about how much longer it was going to be because at that point we were ready to just grab our bill & go somewhere else. The food atleast tasted quite good, we had the eggplant parm and gnocchi, presentation was nice though portions were on the smaller side so I'd recommend having an appetizer with your meal.

I can see why it had a great reputation & many celebrity patrons in the past but it feels like it's no longer living up to it. Hopefully they make an effort to address these issues because it would be nice to have a fine dining Italian restaurant in Fort Erie but based on our experience we will be going elsewhere.

Tldr
The good: Kind staff and good food
The bad: Poor reservation system, 1.5 hour wait for food, patio in dissrepair, smaller portions

I really want this place to be good - and the first couple of times we went here last summer we enjoyed it. The back patio has a nice view and the first time we were there they had music. I suggest to the owner to add more staff. They need 2 more waiters, a bus person, and another chef and line cook. Tonight we waited 2 hours for our entrees and 30 min approx for our appetizer. The one waitress is very sweet but she’s really the only qualified person working here and can’t be in 5 places at once. The owner / chef needs to hire more people. The long wait times are unacceptable. I ordered eggplant with chicken, eggplant was ok, chicken on it tasted a few days old. I liked the bread ok but it had a funny taste. The meatballs are nice but not what you’d expect from an Italian restaurant. Typically a meatball has a layered flavor of pork, beef, breadcrumbs and cheese. These taste just like beef and not nuanced. It’s too bad we really want to live this place and Fort Erie is desperate for good restaurants. Tonight we feel sick after eating here. My wife us a great cook and amazing at Italian. I guess we will be eating at home from now on.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 3

Service: 2

We love the spot and used to go there; the food was amazing. Last winter, we went and nothing went well—food arrived after two hours. Tonight, my husband and I went there thinking it was summer, so they would serve us better. The waitress is lovely and very kind, and she served us the appetiser, but the food arrived with a long delay, and after eating, both of us got sick! I believe the ingredients are no longer fresh.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 1

Service: 4