We stayed at the Rio the weekend of November 17th, 2007 and decided to have dinner at Cafe Martorano since there was no waiting. I know why now. We were seated and were brought bottled water immediately.

The waiter started reciting the menu choices and I asked the price of a glass of house wine which was $19.00! When I stated that seemed a bit expensive, he said maybe we should go someplace within our price range. What a jerk! i threw $10.00 on the table for the water and we left and went to Buzio's Seafood Restaurant. The food and service was excellent, as was the $75.00 bottle of Jordan Chardonnay.

One plate with one meatball and a little sauce running into romaine lettuce and tomato add a bottle of water and pay $35.00
The meatball and sauce were good, the lettuce and tomato were crips and cold, the water was water....oh by the way no bread.

$35.00 way overpriced

Even with a reservation, our party still had to wait for over 1 1/2 hours! Mixed drinks were only allowed in the bar area. Wine is the only alcohol allowed in the dining area because, according to the chef, hard alcohol ruins the taste of his food. Now...on to the food -- I've had better meals out of a can! Nothing to write home to mom about. The pasta noodles were not cooked all the way through. We asked for NO CHEESE on at least one dish since we have people who were lactose intolerant at our table. Our simple request went ignored. The music was ear-shattering! You can't hear the waiter - you can't even hear the person next to you! The meal cost us over $1000! THE WORST FOOD, WORST SERVICE, WORST DINING EXPERIENCE EVER! I GIVE CAFE MARTORANO A F-MINUS AND TWO THUMBS DOWN!

This was without a doubt the very worst dining experience of my life. Firstly you cannot get a drink at the table reason given alcohol interferes with you taste according to the owner but you can buy one of his over priced bottles of wine (neat trick). There are no menus so you have to eat what ever they feel like giving you and you have no idea what you are going to be charged. My wife was given a one shrimp appetizer that was charged at $20. My wife’s pasta when it finally arrived was hard and undercooked and the sauce had large pieces of bone in it. Everybody knows that when serving “Italian gravy” the bones are left in the pot not served on the plate. I ordered chicken to be safe, wrong. It was breaded, burnt and still frozen and was covered in sauce that resembled tomato ketchup and did not taste as good. If you think the food is bad that’s only half of it. The owner struts around the kitchen cooking and supervising if you can believe this in a tank top, hairy arm pits dripping sweat over your already disgusting food and wearing flip flops on his bare feet. How can you expect the food to be good when the owner himself is a health violation. As for the ambience forget trying to talk to your dinner guest he has music blaring including rap, I believe the ignorant fellow thinks it might help you digest his indigestible food. This is only interrupted by equally loud movie clips projected onto large screens throughout the restaurant of the goriest parts from mob movies. We were treated to the decapitated horse head scene from The Godfather and the chainsaw scene in the motel from Scarface. The owners retaliates if you choose to voice your displeasure by telling you its my restaurant and that’s the way I do things and if you don’t like it get out or at least I think that’s what he said. I am really not sure as the music gets turned up even louder as the night progresses. I believe its to hide the grumblings and complaints of his customers.