La Cupola Ristorante & Inn

Every dish was on point and got better with every course. Super friendly family owned and operated place where they talk to you and actually care what you think about the restaurant. Frank is the Italian owner and couldn’t be nicer. I live in NYC and know great Italian food, and this is it!

Charming Italian restaurant with fabulous service and hospitality.
I’m reviewing a few weeks after the fact so I don’t even precisely recall what my companion and I ate. She had a tasty steak, possibly a ribeye. My dinner choice was not memorable. Not bad but nothing special.
I had the best company ever which may help the rating :-). and the waitress who took care of us may have been the best I’ve ever seen.
Bottom line — well run family restaurant with great ambience and service.

Best Italian restaurant located in Litchfield with seasoned chefs who know what Italy is all about– the aura of the LaCupola exudes Italy and the absolute experience of a family meal

Came here for a reheasal dinner last weekend and the food was great! The food was served buffet style so I was able to try a little of everything: roast beef, chicken picatta, and some really delicious penne ala vodka. Next time I’m in the area I’ll be sure to stop by for a full course sit down dinner.

Probably the best Italian food in the area. Real traditional food. Don’t be afraid to go off the menu. Eat in the bar area and converse with the locals. Do me a favor and try the spaghetti aglio olio. The best pasta ever!

Don’t get out here as much as I should, but Frank provides a quality meal with fresh ingredients always. Last time out had the homemade lasagna which was wonderful… accompanied with home made meatballs. If you can deviate from the Litchfield center scene, this is the place to go… clean, attentive, and you will almost always have a dialog with the owner as he makes his rounds. This place is old Italian in nature and the owners stress that!

Had a very nice meal, could be an under appreciated location for Litchfield County
Comfortable booths (don’t worry they have tables too), nice service with great specials, appetizers and salad would serve as great meals on their own.
Worth the trip from?

Absolutely fabulous. The ambience is elegant. The service pleasant and helpful. Extensive wine list and cocktails prepared to your request. The food is to die for! I had the pollo deste, which was perfectly prepared in a wonderful brown sauce with excellent pasta in red sauce on the side. The risotto appetizer was marvelous. Portions are large and prices very reasonable. Frank, the owner, was charming and treated us to drinks at the bar after the meal. One of the best meals I’ve ever had. If in Litchfield, you must go!!!

Dined again last night with friends. Wonderful. Mussels in garlic sauce was excellent. Pear &gorganzola was superior. Lasagna always outstanding. Last night it was empty… too bad.

Nice setting. Very attracive restaurant, however, the food is overpriced and not particularly good. The veal bracciole was tough and stringy, the pasta was mediocre and served barely warm. The sea bass was okay as was the risotto. The servings were meager. The service was adequate, if not terribly professional. When asked if they served capuccino she told us they didn’t. We questioned this and she went back to the kitchen and came back with the good news that, in fact, they did. Our drinks were served with about a pound of ice and were watered down as a result. Overall, for a bill that did not include an appetizer or dessert to tally up to $ 139 dollars for three people, we woud not choose to return.

Frank serves the freshest authentic Italian cuisine in an area known for its Italian cuisine. Carefully selected Sicilian wines (I know, Sicilian, right? But incredible!) accompany skillfully prepared dishes.
I am definitely a fan!

Two hours for a plate of salty pasta? Hmm, sounds about right.

I cannot recall having a dining experience from which I left so enraged (and so hungry) as my recent dinner at La Cupola. When we arrived, the host/​manager asked us if we had a reservation. We said no, and asked if that would be a problem – we understood that we had taken a chance by walking in. The manager smiled, assured us it was no problem at all, and proceeded to show us to our table. That was at 7:35pm. Here’s the timeline that followed:
7:45 (10 min.): Server approaches table for the first time… way too long to be acknowledged.
7:55 (20 min.): Server takes our entrée order
8:45 (1h 10 min.): Server comes over to tell us that our entrees «will be right out.» This is the first time she has been to the table in over half an hour. We are now ravenous.
9:10 (1h 35 min.): We attempt to flag down our server, but she’s nowhere to be found. We ask another server if we can please speak to the manager.
9:15 (1h 40 min.): Manager comes out, ignores our table, speaks to the table next to ours, and leaves.
9:20 (1h 45 min.): We ask a different server if we can please speak to the manager.
9:25 (1h 50 min.): DINNER ARRIVES. Almost TWO HOURS after we have arrived. Manager comes over shortly thereafter, greeting us by saying, «Sooo, these are the complainers.» Until this point, the only communication we had had with anyone, aside from ordering, was asking to speak to the manager. We had not yet complained.
The manager proceeded to tell us that all of their food is «cooked to order, so it can’t be rushed.» However, everyone at the table ordered pasta – no meat – and it doesn’t take 1.5 hours to prepare pasta. We pointed this out, and he responded by telling us that it was our fault for not having a reservation. We countered that we had specifically asked if it would be a problem to seat us when we came in, and his response was, «you just don’t know how restaurants work.»
Oh really? I’m pretty sure I have worked in three different restaurants, so I know that if you don’t have enough servers/​cooks to provide meal service in a reasonable time, you do not seat people, empty tables or not. Most of all, you definitely don’t tell the guests that it’s THEIR fault their pasta dinners took 1.5 hours to prepare. When we told the manager that if he had been honest from the beginning that they were too busy, we would have happily gone somewhere else, he scoffed at us, saying, «Ha! Where else would you go? There is nowhere else.» Although that’s not even remotely true, I do think it accurately sums up the manager’s attitude toward serving his guests. I have never been treated so poorly in a restaurant.
The kicker was that my $ 18 pasta was so salty I could only stomach half of it, after waiting for two hours. I can’t remember another time I left even a bite of pasta on a plate of mine, but this night was a first for many (bad) reasons.

We have been dining at La Cupola since 2004 and it’s by far our favorite spot. The food is always consistent and delicious. Tonight we tried something new and had the pork chop on the menu. Probably the best pork chop we’ve ever had. Going to be my new favorite. Everything is always clean as can be and Dan our waiter is always smiling and ready to meet our every need. We always feel welcome and comfortable.

We have been dining at La Cupola for over ten years and it’s honestly the best authentic Italian food in north west Connecticut. The dishes are completely unique with excellent sauces and garden fresh ingredients. Another huge plus is that the restaurant is immaculate (but maybe a tad boring in terms of décor?).
Last night I had a pear and gorgonzola salad — the pears were lightly braised in amaretto then chilled with candied walnuts; very good. My husband had a pasta trio that included homemade sacchetti stuffed with shrimp and crab, pappardelle with pork Marsala and angel hair puttanesca — all for $ 19! The sacchetti alone were fantastic; each pasta was handmade and simply delicious. I wasn’t very hungry so I had the eggplant rollitini appetizer which was stuffed with ricotta and fettucini — so, so good. Cappuccino martini was specially ordered and with some instruction, the gracious server concocted it perfectly.
Each summer, the owner throws an anniversary picnic under the outdoor tent — these are actually more like feasts than picnics. Fried calamari, zucchini flowers and heirloom tomato salad to start, followed by sausage patties, steak sandwiches and octopus salad, finally a full meal of porketta, fresh fish and pasta. The picnic is ~$ 50 pp, includes summer wine and draft beer — well worth it. We’ve been to several of these which are attended by over a hundred people and had a great time.
La Cupola is located in a very quiet area, so I can imagine staffing being low and a bit off for the previous reviewers — but try again. Generally speaking, the service is good and the owner is really affable. The food is just so satisfying you feel like you are dining in the countryside of Naples on dishes that you will not find elsewhere. Some people on Chowhound recommend The Venetian in Torrington over La Cupola — NO WAY?! — La Cupola is far superior.

So disappointing! I went here with a group of 50 people while on a wine tour in the area. The restaurant knew we were coming and had our orders ahead of time so no one could understand why the service was so poor. There were only two servers working and they could not handle the number of people. The pasta course was beyond al dente being barely cooked. On a good note the sauces were delicious. I had chicken marsala, not a tough dish to prepare. Unfortunately the chicken was cold and it did not taste at all like a marsala sauce.
This was not a cheap day trip and I know that the restaurant made a pretty penny from our group. The facility appears to cater to large groups versus an everyday restaurant so I don’t understand what the problem was.
Overall not worth the cost and it’s too bad because it really is a wonderful location.

Consistently good and will cook off the menu. Find something you like or ask Franco to prepare something special. Special wild game dinners are over the top.

Overall a bit disappointed with our experience at this restaurant. The grounds are beautiful & the décor of the restaurant is wonderful. The service was pretty poor. Not sure if the young waiter we had was new but the fellow who I assumed was the owner could have spent a bit more time watching & helping his staff then walking around & talking to the guests. I have no problem with that if everything is running smoothly but that wasn’t the case. Some of the dishes were very good. As example we had the Gnocchi Piemontese that was excellent, the gnocchi itself were small & tasty. The Pollo Involtini was a bit disappointing & I wouldn’t recommend. Prices overall were reasonable.

Good food atmosphere is the problem.