Al Fresco

My absolute favorite treat!!! The restaurant, the staff, the food, the service… if its fine dining experience you’re looking for… THIS IS IT… look no further. I eat there at least once a month; been a customer for about three years. Love love love this place!!!

Horribly disappointed with our service tonight. We sat at our table for an hour before our food was brought out, without explanation or apology. Our server never came to check on us during our wait and took 20 minutes to take our order in the first place. The experience was bad enough that it would take extreme circumstances for us to return.

This place is a total gem, off the beaten track, but seriously delicious. It’s the first place I’ve found around the area that knows great Italian food. I tried the veal and it was out of this world. They also accommodate gluten-​free diets with gluten-​free pasta and certain substitutes. Gluten-​free folks have a wide variety here because of that. The bread was delicious as well. You can tell it’s fresh and home-​made. Give this place a shot. You’ll be back for sure! I know I will.

By far our favorite Italian spot. The food is delicious every time and the service is impeccable. Ronnie is a phenomenal host!

Another great dining experience at Al Fresco. The food is always freshly prepared, good sized servings and their service is outstanding. Our server, Krysten, was terrific and very friendly. She checked on us often and was quite attentive. We will definitely visit again and again.

Al Fresco has been around as long as I can remember, I feel it was there before my wife and I married in 1979. We visited it for the first time yesterday for lunch. There is one Italian restaurant in my life that I really miss and it is nearly fifty miles away. When I visit an Italian restaurant, I always get my childhood favorite. Spaghetti & meatballs tells me about the quality of the sauce and how well they season their foods.
I was very pleased with the food and the service.
Al Fresco is in the corner of a nice shopping plaza in a good area and it much more elegant inside than I’d expected. I was glad I went at lunch because even then, the other diners were in business casual or better and I was in jeans and a graphic T-​shirt. An ittybit underdressed.
Alexandro, our waiter, didn’t bat an eye and along with the young lady I believe was one of the owners/​management, made my wife and I very welcome. There are around 50 seats in the interior room and the enclosed porch and beautiful wine bottles decorate the shelves behind the bar. It is, as I already mentioned, elegant and comfortable.
Garlic bread sticks were brought to the table followed shortly by our house salads. The bread sticks looked like miniature French breads and had been sprinkled with herbs and a bit of parmesan. The salad was ample with iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, Greek olives, carrots and more.
The meatballs were not yet ready when I ordered, so I switched to Italian sausage and my everything was good. I like a rich, thick sauce with a lot of flavor. The Italian sausage was unlike what I have bought for my own Italian dishes and I enjoyed the subtle variations in each bite. The noodles were thick and once cut, stayed on the fork so I was able to avoid the dreaded public noodle slurp that keeps me from ordering spaghetti in public. My wife had the meat lasagna. We’ve been married 37 years (poor girl, if she had robbed a bank, she’d have been free by now) and we pretty much share each other’s food, especially in places we’re visiting for the first time. I usually order lasagna at Italian restaurants we’ve visited before (once again, gotta avoid that noodle slurping) and Al Fresco’s lasagna is the best I have had on the Virginia Peninsula. My wife’s mother was taught to make sauce by an Italian neighbor and my wife says the sauce tastes JUST like the sauce her mother used to make. She was thrilled with it.
We only had water and both of us had to have our food boxed and ate it again the next day.
We still have a couple of Italian restaurants to visit, but if we want Italian, I don’t think we’ll return to any of the restaurants we’ve visited in the past. Al Fresca is worth putting on a button up shirt on and a nice pair of slacks. Go eat!

We ate there for the first time Sat June 28. Everything was delicious. Garlic bread with individuals olive oil, vinegar and cheese was great. Shrimp with garlic sauce was delectable and waitress recommended using the bread to sop up sauce. Yum!
Dinners were cooked well and presentation was very nice. I ordered the chicken and Shrimp dish. Combined with spaghetti peas and asparagus. Wine selection was good with some not too pricey options. Definitely go back!

Not good! We’ve gone there often and been very pleased. This time was different. My food was fine — but my wife’s lasagna was not. The bottom noodles were so tough you couldn’t even cut them with a knife! Then she found some egg shell in the lasagna. When she told the waiter he took it back and came back saying the owner or manager said «we use eggs in our lasagna!». We don’t care — we just don’t want your egg shells! She didn’t want it replaced and at least they didn’t charge us for it
And — they didn’t have the wine I wanted, from their wine list, on a Saturday night!

WOW!!! I’m a pretty hard person to impress with food quality, atmosphere and the whole dining experience. So let me begin with this… I took my girlfriend here for an evening dinner not expecting the wonderful outcome. So we started with some soft, warm garlic bread slices along with some EVOO, shredded cheese and a dash of vinegar. Next for an appetizer we had the tortellini chicken soup which was probably the best tasting soup I’ve had down here in Hampton roads, really good. For an entrée I had veal, prosciutto and spaghetti in a buttery garlic sauce — so this dish was fantastic!!! See photos. Followed up with desert which I had the canolli, again a great way to finish off that delicious dinner.
Folks I can’t brag enough about this place, if your in the area and enjoy fine dining then I highly recommend this establishment. I can’t wait to go back!!!

I love this place. I’m dine at Al Fresco once a week.

I grew up in an italian family, so I know good Italian food. This is the best Italian food I’ve had in the area. Sauces are great, pasta is cooked perfect & al dente, service is very good. This is one of my favorites. You couldn’t pay me to go eat at Carraba’s or Olive Garden.

Nice restaurant in an older shopping center. You can tell by the full parking lot at dinner that locals love a frequent this place. Good atmosphere with kind and attentive wait staff. I’ve called ahead and ordered takeout and every server/​host in the restaurant stopped to ask if we’d been helped while we were waiting for our order. Favorite dish is the Ravioli a la Vodka. Just want to sop up all the sauce with their bread. Some good desserts as well if you have room in the tum.

love this place, food is great, nice wine selection and great people. Wide selection with more than pasta. Ronnie is always around and the team is very attentive and cordial.

Great food, authentic. A bit pricey, but the wait staff was attentive and provided excellent service. I did like the lunch specials and speedy service. Quiet and clean.

Great, great, GREAT place! Dad had veal marcella; I had penne carbonara. Both outstanding. Great food, atmosphere and service… Thanks Bailey. Our server even made my Dad’s martini to his specs… Nice!

Tortellini soup & the veal are delicious! The owner is very friendly & service was superb! The exotic bamba desert was AMAZING!

The fiancé and I were bored with the usual haunts in the area so we decided to try Al frescos. We were pleasantly surprised the food was delicious. I had the fettucini with scallops shrimp and prosciutto and I loved every bite. the salads were pretty standard but they are free with the meal so really not looking for a creation there, the bread was nice and fresh and our server honey was a sweetheart who did a great job. All in all every thing I look for on my date nights. We will be back

Back in Newport News for the weekend, and arranged to meet at Al Fresco for dinner. First time here since last New Year’s Eve.
This time the restaurant was more sedate on a normal Saturday evening. We missed the 8 o’clock rush and were seated promptly at 6; party of 5. The full menu was available as opposed to the more limited options on NYE. Service was friendly and timely. A few specials sounded good, but I ordered Flounder Francaise, which included a salad (oil and vinegar), and much better than average Garlic Bread in the form of finger rolls. Nicely done.
The flounder was fresh and thin, and spread out on the plate with Linguini Aglio Olio on the side, and sun dried tomato strips as accents. The lemon/​wine Francaise sauce was light and in the right proportion. The remains of the olive oil from the iron skillet was unobtrusive and just pleasantly slick on the tongue. The Chianti was very good in freshening the palate so each bite of dinner after a sip was a new taste experience.
I enjoyed this meal much more than the last, and would not be disappointed if my sister and brother in law wanted to go here again on my next journey here.

Though a little pricey, to those of you who are budget minded, it was a nice quiet place to eat lunch with my husband. I would NOT recommend this eatery to families with young children since it seems more of a date or business setting… and stays pretty quiet as a whole in that regard.
The staff were attentive, though it seemed a little busy to only have one main waitress, one server, and one person to re-​fill waters… the waitress held her own though, and seemed to have a good amount of energy to run around to all the tables :)
We were pleased with our dishes, and the quantity was pleasantly surprising as well… but for those of us who are on a budget… it won’t be a place I’ll be frequenting… even with my coupon… ouch! LOL!
Desserts were fabulous… housemade cannoli and tiramasu… yummy!!!

This review is way overdue. I tried Al Fresco for the first time last October. Being the huge pasta fan that I am, finding an awesome Italian restaurant in Newport News was a major win! Al Fresco needs new interior style, for the look is very outdated. Fortunately it’s interior design doesn’t take away from the dining experience. The service at Al Fresco is usually very good. There is an elderly server who is so sweet. I am yet to learn his name, but it never fails that when I walk in and sit at one of his tables he asks me how I am doing and tells me that I am beautiful. You don’t see a server like him very often. Penne Carbonara is one of my favorite pasta dishes, so I ordered the Carb. All meals come with a side salad and home made garlic bread. The salad is never good and the bread has been a hit or a miss. When the bread is fresh and hot, it is absolutely wonderful. However, the salad department at Al Fresco simply needs major work. Now, the best part of Al Fresco is the penne carbonara. IT IS SO DELISH. The creamy cheese sauce, crisp bacon and prosciutto, and caramelized onions go perfect with the al dente penne. It will melt in your mouth. I have been back two times since my first visit and have continued to order the Penne Carbonara. I know I need to explore my options, but the Carb is just SO perfect. It is obvious that the pasta dishes here are home made and crafted with care. This is true italian eating. For dessert I recommend the Bomba. The Bomba consists of chocolate and vanilla gelato with a maraschino cherry in the middle. It is covered in a dark chocolate shell. I’m sure this thing is loaded with calories, but please indulge and order it. SCRUMPTIOUS! Al Fresco is truly a wonderful dining experience. Check it out!
On a side note, I docked Al Fresco a star because of the awful salads, terrible interior décor, and the hit or miss bread.