Lemoncello Italian Restaurant & Bar

Service wise I would give this restaurant a 4+ stars. My friend and I went for Valentine’s (Galentine’s) day dinner (a 9pm reservation) and after a long busy night, the host, waitress, and bartender were very kind and helpful.
We arrived at 8:57pm for our reservation and were seated by 9:10pm (which was ok with me, as I expected it to be busy due to the holiday… but make of it what you wish). We sat at the bar and ordered lemoncello martinis, which tasted like pure vodka. My friend could not finish hers due to the flavor. The meal came with bread which was delicious, and salad. The dressing choices were limited to four: limoncello, italian, balsamic, and one more. I was disappointed because I like to have my blue cheese dressing at Italian restaurants, but I had the lemoncello dressing which was light and creamy and pretty good. I had penne a la vodka with chicken added, I really enjoyed that they added peas and pancetta to the vodka sauce, but I needed to add salt for sure to bring out the flavors in the dish. My friend had the orecchiette with sausage and finished most of her dish. We then had the peanut butter pie for dessert and this was delicious!
I really wanted to like this cute italian restaurant. I would give it another try.

This seems like a very popular place but it wasn’t for me. I went with a friend and we were able to get reservations at the last minute, which was great, since Friday night in Rochester is always insane as restaurants. I ordered the Orecchietti Rappini and I didn’t care for it. The rappini made the dish very bitter. There was just so much of it that the bitterness was overbearing. The lemon dressing they use on their salads is usually delicious but tonight, it had no lemon flavor. The tables are so close together that anyone that walks by is touching the table and their backside is in your face.

First visit Thursday about an hour before closing.
The front bar was almost full and there was some music playing. We were asked if we wanted bar or dining room seating. We opted for the dining room, and because of the time of night it was empty except for one other table. I was impressed with quietness of the area considering live music was playing pretty close by. We ordered drinks:
French Martini
East Side Press
both came out fast and tasted great!
We noticed the person who sat us (owner/​manager?) go over to the other table and ask how everything was. He did not come over to us however. (We thought he may have been in the band at end of night?) We enjoyed the textured décor and mosaics. We questioned the choice to use Relax wine bottles over our table since it is an Italian restaurant and it is a German wine. Is it because it is a blue bottle? Did Relax give you a deal in exchange for displaying bottles?
Their house dressing was Yumtacular! The bread was bread — nothing special or exemplary. (It was a handy tool to mop up dressing for salad and sauce from pasta though.)
For dinner:
Pappardelle alla Bolognese
3 Cheese Ravioli (special)
Both came out looking fantastic and very fresh, which is a definite plus especially given that we came in pretty close to the end of their serving evening. The pasta with meat sauce was exactly what I was hoping it would be. My bites of the Ravioli were also tasty.
While we were eating there was some table breaking down, light shutting off, and employees leaving that let us know «Hey, we are ready to close up shop back here…» I won’t hold this against the restaurant, as I think it is quite normal. I think we will definitely be back…

Love Lemoncello, I have been here a number of times this past year. Sat at the bar for drinks and also been in the different dining areas. Service is always great. Food is delicious! Personal favorites include the vodka sauce and their Lemoncello Chicken pasta dish. Definitely recommend this place!

Fried calamari was really tender.
Gamberini fettuccine with baby shrimp, crisp peas and alfredo sauce was very rich and creamy.
Not a busy Thursday, service was friendly. We ordered an appetizer that came out pretty quickly, dinner… at least 45 minutes later our salad came. We got there at 5:30 arrival, we didn’t leave till 8:00, thank goodness I was in good company. The waitress did apologize that one of the other servers called in.

My husband and I came here on my birthday. The place is beautiful and we enjoyed the Christmas decorations. Our server Sasha was excellent and made great suggestions for dinner. I had the chicken Marsala and my husband had the veal parm with gnocchi. Both were fantastic! The calamari was also some of the best I’ve tasted. After finding out it was my birthday our server sent us home with a cannoli :) Great service and food. We will definitely be back!

Let me try talking about this backwards and start with dessert. The lemoncello cake, lemoncello gelato and of course the lemoncello liqueor at the end of the meal are a must. Yummmmmmmy… refreshing after partaking of their creamy specialties: the rabbit and the artichoke french. The lamb is straightforward grilled. Nothing truly special.
Customer service and ambience are fine. You need reservations unless you want to wait for over 30 minutes on a Sunday evening.
A live performance — vocals with keyboard — gives it a unique essence.
Service From the host to the water server to our Waiter Jeff is seamless and good.
The only thing is the food took a while to cook and their mixed cocktails are not the best. We ordered the Pomegranate and Lemoncello Martinis. Too sweet and strong. I have tried martinis in many places and settings. Let me just say: definitely not the bartender’s forte.
If you want to chill a bit, have a rich creamy dinner with high quality dessert, this is your place.

People. Let’s be reasonable here. This place is entirely, entirely mediocre if not downright poor, if you’re honest with yourselves. I get that East Rochester is a special place, and this small spot on the «main drag,» is the liveliest thing happening, but objectively, the décor is a mess, as is all of the food and the service.
Our waiter was clearly stretched between multiple tables. We weren’t informed of specials until after ordering drinks and sitting with menus for 15 minutes. The food arrived in a timely manner, but ugh… Lemoncello, lay off the balsamic! Everything was drizzled in balsamic vinegar. I can’t comment on the food that others in my part ordered, but I had the «Mediterranean Chicken Salad,» which was fully depressing. The chicken was ½ breaded (not grilled as advertised), and sat on a bed of arugula with some canned sundried tomatoes and fried/​breaded goat cheese, with (of course) balsamic vinegar dressing. So bland with disgusting chicken texture.
Our table was the only one in the house that didn’t receive bread. I asked for some, and the helper server arrived saying, «You asked for bread?» and then announced she couldn’t find a place to put it on the table, so she handed the basket to me to find a place. Later, she asked another woman in our party if she was done with her food, while she was clearly still eating her food.
I get that y’all want to rate this place highly because it’s a family business, and the only business in town, but please… get real. The food is mediocre. The décor is schizophrenic. The waitstaff is unattentive. And these are top-​tier prices for the Rochester area. Go elsewhere.

We decided to give Lemoncello another try.
It was a busy Sat night as we entered.
Bluesy jazz was playing in lounge!
After a slight wait (we didn’t have reservations) we were seated by the owner Massiso.
We had a totally different experience!
The service was crisp, attentive yet not hurried! Excellent!
The food. We ordered the veal parmigiana over penne pasta and the prime rib special with smashed garlic potatoes and fresh vegetable medley.
Both generous portions and excellent flavor. Even the vegetables were cooked to perfection. Potatoes were the best.
The veal and prime rib were delicious.
We finished with cappuccino
And took home the last piece of their lemon cake.
A pleasant surprise from our visit a little over 4 months ago.

This is a hidden gem! Everything was made exactly how it should be. Started off the meal with bruschetta and fried calamari which were both outstanding, for my main dish I had gnocchi in bolognese sauce. The portion was very large and I even had enough to take home for lunch the next day. Everyone else I was with was very satisfied with their meals which included manicotti, one of the main veal dishes, and a shrimp linguini in a spicy red sauce (very spicy). We ended the evening with the lemoncello cake which was outstanding if you like lemon! We made reservations and were seated punctually by a kind host and the waitress was great as well. It looked like there was a large outdoor seating area so I will have to try and come back in the summer to check out the patio

Finally got a chance to check out Lemoncello. The restaurant itself is gorgeous inside, we dined in the 4 season room which gives you the ambiance of eating outside while being covered from the elements. Started off with the calamari which was great, very tender and nicely breaded. Entrees I felt were just «okay» could have used some more flavor, my bolognese was bland. I don’t make it out to ER all that often but I would stop in again for a drink and app at the bar if in the area.

Came here for dinner with girlfriends. The atmosphere was very cute and quaint — really felt like a little Italian restaurant somewhere in Little Italy! Best way to describe it is «cozy», somewhere I would like to come with family during the holiday time. However, our group of 8 was squished into a small corner table which was a little cramped. The service was okay but the food took so long to came out and was only average.
I liked the atmosphere but wish the food was a little more up to par! The portion sizes were big (had leftovers for a second meal the next day) but I wasn’t impressed with the food.

The food and service is great here but the only problem I have is this. We were sitting at a table in a huge room. We were the only ones in the room and there were at least 15 tables with no one. As soon as people came in the Host seated the 4 people at the table right up next to us so we had no privacy and they were loud enough where we could hardly hear each other.
There is no reason for this and I’m sure it is to make it more convenient for the waitress… So what about the customer who has no privacy. The customer is going to tip the waitress who can’t be bothered taking 4 extra steps to make it a little nicer for the customer.

The risotto dish is amazing, loved it! My husband and I both ordered it and it was out of this world. The service was good, we enjoyed our meal, and the price point is reasonable. I would recommend dining here.

This is my new favorite date night spot. My girlfriend introduced me to it after her and her mom went here a year ago.
The service is absolutely fabulous. We called an hour before the kitchen was closing on a Friday night and they reserved us a cozy table for 2 in the main dining area. Once we got there they seated us immediately and brought us a huge pitcher of ice water (I personally love this touch so the waiter doesn’t have to keep coming back to refill). We decided on the fried calamari for an app and it was SO good. The calamari rings and little squids were fried perfectly. Could have used a little lemon but overall, great start to the night. For entrees, I ordered the bololegnese and my girlfriend got the ravioli special (spinach and mushroom). The homemade pasta was awesome — I definitely recommend. My girlfriend wished she had gone with the lasagna since the mushrooms were really overwhelming in her dish. I also wanted to try the veal parm or veal french as I heard those were good.
Overall, really great place for dates or to bring the family. I definitely want to come back on a Tuesday night for BYOB and to try some more dishes.

The food here is absolutely amazing. The itailian dishes are huge and filled with flavor. Two people could split a meal and still have left overs. However, the service was incredibly slow and not tentative. If I did come back I would probably order take out which I’m not even sure if they offer.

I wish I came with a bigger stomach.
First, the décor and service was lovely. The only reason I’m taking off a star is because as the dinner crowd showed up it got cramped in the dining area. This is fancy food so I would have liked some elbow room. Also because my coffee arrived after I finished my fab dessert when I asked for it with my dessert.
Ok, on the good parts. The Moscow mule I ordered is rarely on cocktail menus now and I sincerely appreciated how it was so well done. I ordered the special which was a ravioli smothered in a red sauce with ground beef, eggplant and mushrooms. I opted for this since it was a special and I can get the stuffed eggplant whenever I want because it is always on the menu. The entrée came with a simple salad of field greens and cucumber slices with their signature limoncello dressing. The dressing is so good they sell it. I recommend it for stocking stuffers. I was impressed with the simplicity of it. My entrée was also simple but well done. Rich in all the right places, the cheesy ravioli, the creaminess of the sauce.
Gram and I split the coconut cream cake for dessert and it, to me is the perfect summer dessert. It’s light but creamy, the cake was great. Part of me expected it to be a stale, dry slice of something that was sitting in a display case for a week because coconut cakes usually fall prey to that fate. This was delightful.

If you’re here, you’re here for Italian. There’s a lot of flavor in these dishes! We love stopping in for a few apps and drinks during happy hour (4 – 7). The pesto double-​cooked chicken wings are a nice twist on classic, and the beans and greens had me spooning up the last of the dish.

Lemoncello deserves a bump up from my previous review in 2013. Since then they’ve made a dramatic effort on all fronts. You will notice right they’ve improved they layout and added more space. Thankfully they’ve kept the great desserts too. Have you had the coconut cake? It’s a must have!
The menu may feel a little easy to get lost in. I can help. Head straight back to the rabbit cacciatore and the rack of lamb. Both are generously portioned, delectable meals that will comfort your troubled mind and sate a hungry body.
We chatted with the chef after our meal and while we offered our thanks and praise for both entrees, we understood why they were so good. Her goal with those dishes is just that. A slice of countryside life.
If you like ricotta gnocchi she recommends them. I’d need to visit on a quiet night and try the chefs tasting to see what happens when she really gets into it.

Adam took me here for my birthday weekend after I said I wanted to go out for dessert and a cocktail. He made 8:00 PM reservations ahead of time so we figured everything was a breeze and it pretty much was.
When we first walked in we found the hostess station and walked to it then we stood there, and stood there. Finally the bartender said someone would be with us and then was asking us about our reservations. He really led us on thinking he was going to show us to a table but of course he was working behind the bar so he didn’t. Then to host came and said someone would seat us shortly. It took about 5 minutes before we were seated and no one was waiting to be seated besides us. It put me off a little but all well.
We got to our table and we were content with it and our waiter Juan who did a great job. He was very attentive to all of our needs and was very personable. We each ordered a cocktail and they were very good — Strong, but good. We then got our desserts. I had the molten lava cake and Adam have the lemoncello cake. His cake was delicious. Very moist, light, fluffy and just the right amount of lemon in it. My molten lava cake was pretty good but I have had it better at other places. I didn’t feel like the inside had enough chocolate ‘lava’ in it — or really at all. There was a small amount at the bottom of the cake and that was it. I liked the molten lava cake because it was warm but if we were to go again I probably would skip dessert.
I do want to return to try dinner. As we were sitting at the table and smelling everyone’s food being served I told Adam we had to leave before I ordered meatballs.
Overall, it was pretty good. Juan saved the day from me being put off by service. I probably wont’ get desserts again but I do want to go back to try dinner.