Restaurant Roberto

No complaints here!
Went for dinner with a large group and everybody was happy with their food. The bread baskets have baguette + flatbread with herbs and each table has olive oil and Roberto’s balsamic reduction for you to dip and snack on while you wait.
The wine list had many options, with the lowest (non-​house) wine at $ 25. I had a few cocktails (martini, manhattan, negroni) and they were all pretty decent.
The braised meats were a hit at the table. I had the braised pork (cochonnet québecois) which came in a broth with vegetables. Also at the table were Osso Bucco and braised rabbit. Consensus was that they were all quite good.
I found it odd that the lasagne (also with braised meat) had no cheese or ricotta anywhere on the actual plate, but the servers came by to add parmesan to your liking. I got to try my friend’s lasagna and despite the lack of cheese, it was surprisingly good. He was quite happy with his plate. Note all the pasta is made in house.
The dessert list was also quite vast and what we got was good.
It’s a little confusing to find the actual restaurant as it’s upstairs from the gelato bar and deli but that’s a non-​issue really.
I’d say this is a good place for groups if you’re looking for some home style italian. Not fine dining, but above average for sure. Service was very nice. I’d definitely return.

Service was fast and efficient, with good humour too. Food was great. I especially liked the risotto. It was melting in my mouth. Not too noisy and great for a romantic dinner. I will definitely come back.

Hidden upstairs restaurant. This place sits atop a gelato counter and Mediterranean market of the same name. Would have walked right by were it not for Unilocal.Large dinning room with a full bar. Can feel a bit vast if not full.
Bread and oil are served on the table to start which was a nice touch. All pastas are made fresh and that’s what most at the table took. The manicotti were delicious but the spaghetti, sitting around 14 $, was dressed with a very bland red sauce. The noodles were nice and toothy but not enough to carry the dish.
Overall this is a nice midrange dinning option with ample space for large parties, but the dishes can be inconsistent. The staff seemed preoccupied dressing tables for the upcoming dinner rush and weren’t particularly attentive, but we didn’t have any issues. As long as you don’t expect a fine dinning experience and are just looking for some Italian comfort food you’ll be satisfied.

Très bon, des prix raisonnables, bonne ambiance et un très bon service.
Le filet mignon était bon, même si un peu cher. La pizza est bonne et fraiche. C’est un bon restaurant de quartier.

Grand choix, pâtes fraiches, très bon! Leur balsamique est délicieuse! Seul hic, les chaises pas très confortables!

Le menu est varié. Il y a des plats travaillés comme l’osso-bucco, le foie de veau, les rognons, etc…
J’ai pris la table d’hôte avec la salade au balsamique. Simple et bon. Ensuite, j’ai pris les lasagnes à la viande effilochée à l’huile d’olive et parmesan. Très bon mais j’aurais aimé goûter un peu plus le parmesan. Le dessert: un gâteau au fromage (très bien) mais j’ai préféré le dessert de ma femme (une tarte au pomme avec de la crème glacée semifredo et une sauce au caramel, genre de tarte tatin un peu)
Le tiramisu de mon ami par contre n’en était pas un. Il le dresse à la fin en mettant les biscuits à la cuillère d’un côté un peu dur et de l’autre le mélange mascarpone qui est plutôt liquide. Il vaudrait mieux faire le tiramisu sous sa forme traditionnelle (préparé ensemble avec les biscuits et le mélange et reposé au frigo pendant 6h au moins)

I am a repeat orderer type of guy. I find something amazing and I just reorder it every time I’m there. When I don’t order my usual and instead, deviate!, I am usually full of regret.
This place place makes a mean chicken parm. Juicy chicken cutlet, smothered in sauce and cheese, taking up half your plate… that’s good times. It’s served with a very uniquely shaped spaghetti that is absolutely essential to this dish. So essential that if they changed shape of pasta I would probably protest.
The dish is like your Nonna’s Sunday night dinner except its available every day. I recommend.

J’ai une amie qui habite juste à côté et elle me parle de Roberto depuis des années, mais je n’étais jamais venu essayer leur légendaire glacé avant cet été! Alors voilà, c’est chose faite et ça vaut le détour!
Il y a un grand comptoir réfrigéré au rez-​de chaussée avec une variété impressionnante de parfums de glaces italiennes et sorbets. La salle attenante est principalement pour les amateurs de glaces alors que vous pouvez prendre un repas complet à l’étage. Un comptoir traiteur pour apporter complète le légendaire endroit.
À visiter!

Roberto est une institution dans le quartier et je comprends pourquoi: bien que je n’ai pas essayé le restaurant ni le coin traiteur, j’ai plutôt succombé à une succulente gelato faite dans la plus pure tradition italienne.
J’ai choisi la petite coupe avec trois saveurs: café, pistache et noix de coco. Mon coup de coeur va définitivement à la noix de coco! Les deux autres ont quand même une mention honorable, car elles étaient aussi bien bonnes.
Il y a des saveurs originales telles que la zuppa inglesa (crème anglaise) et un beau choix de sorbets.
Une vraie gâterie d’été en plein samedi soir!

Ah, c’est ça que ça goute de la crème glacée? Tout le reste est une conspiration pour nous tenir loin de cet endroit: Une référence.

Big group on Christmas Eve ate here. It was ok. I have had better and I have had worse. The Caesar Salad was good. The fish looked good. The red sauces didn’t look so hot. The pasta is fresh and tastes pretty good. Some of the classic recipes they changed up, so I subtracted a star for that. I also didn’t like the sarcastic humor of the waiter. The wine was awful and was suggested by the server. I also subtracted a star because the waiter argued with a lady at our table because he brought her order over and it was wrong. He blamed her and said, «Well you SHOULD have said…» I have never seen a waiter act like that before. I was embarrassed for him. Lame. If given the choice, I wouldn’t find many reasons to return to this restaurant. It would be easier to find better on all fronts: service, food quality, ambiance, etc.

Roberto’s
Call me crazy, but when you don’t get what you order, at all, get something cold, get a cold shoulder from the staff and get a confrontation with the wanna-​be wise guy owner (grandson of the founder, who is more interested in having his picture on the labels of product that they sell in the restaurant and lower level gillateria and charcuterie), I would warn anyone off from this wildly overpriced, poor excuse for an Italian restaurant.
The evening started our simply enough, with my friend and frequent patron if this restaurant recommending it for a gathering of our party of eight. It was my fiancée’s birthday and we figured that a more upscale establishment with finer food selections and a more creative menu was in order.
The service at first was slow, but the place was busy and we had a great group of people around the table (near the bathroom I might add, which I hadn’t noticed until the attitude of the owner, with his slicked back hair and «in your face style» made it abundantly clear that he didn’t care a bit about his clients, only about his appearance and cash in his pocket). My first sign that this attitude carried down to his staff was when I asked if the lasagna (the server noted that she ate the traditional version with meat in a ragout and loved it) for $ 9 was the same as the one for $ 18. Later in the evening, as I ate the $ 18 joke, that was cold, I realized that this pushing was strictly to bump up the bill. This poor excuse for an upscale restaurant can’t justify $ 18 for a piece of lasagna with some strips of veal in it.
We made it clear, upon ordering that one dish, the shrimp fra diavolo, if it was too spicy, would be desired at a lower heat level, but when the server noted it wasn’t too spicy, we said fine, leave it as is. That’s when the headaches started (heaven forbid I complain about the lasagna being cold, or not up to snuff for $ 18). The dishes were delivered, a veal parmigiana, a family sized pasta in rose (vodka sauce), a salmon and a couple of other non-​descript dishes.
The penne al vodka was priced at $ 30 and was no larger than a regular portion (unless dining in a nouvelle cuisine style restaurant of the 80’s) and barely satisfied. At $ 15 it might have been more reasonable and it was also cold.
The veal was nothing special, the spaghetti was topped with a simple tomato sauce and the veal slathered in cheese. Any New York diner would do a better job for about $ 14 not upwards of $ 20. I’ve already talked about my lasagna, the salmon was overcooked and expensive and the damage started when my fiancée received her dish that was a seafood pasta, not the shrimp dish. When the dish arrived, I tried a shrimp, my eldest tried two and my fiancée asked to have the dish returned because it wasn’t spicy at all and we were almost all done. The server protested slightly, but agreed to take it back and offered to take it off the bill when we said we didn’t want anything else. We were looking forward to leaving the restaurant and going downstairs for ice cream and desert, when the server came back to inform us that the owner, the wanna-​be, was not removing the imposter of a shrimp fra diavolo from the bill.
This after the marginal penne, the cold lasagna, the middling veal and slow service. My fiancée, not wanting to cause a scene, but expecting some level of professionalism and food quality for the astronomical prices, got up to speak to the owner. He immediately postured and shot back at my fiancée that she didn’t know what she was talking about, too bad and «what do you want me to do?» as if he was looking for a fight. I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears and she was almost in tears. This for over $ 200 with tips!
He finally relented and we couldn’t get out of there fast enough, my friend embarrased as he frequented Roberto’s quite a bit and told me he was shocked and wouldn’t come back. I just wanted my girls to have desert, so on the way out, the obnoxious, arrogant, idiot of an owner said with a smile, as if taunting us, «thanks for visiting», like a poor cartoon of a restaurant owner. I replied «I’m not so sure» and he said in response, «I’m not so sure!» as if looking to get into an altercation. I just sucked it up and left, but couldn’t believe the attitude of this poor excuse for an owner, maitre-​D or otherwise. He should be fired by his grandfather just for that response, not to mention the over-​priced, poor quality, cold food. Don’t waste your time or money, when there are so many other exceptional restaurants in the same area, at lower cost and with staff and owners who care about their businesses. This guy is remedial at best and should go back to restaurant school…