Dattilo Restaurant

We will miss you so much. Loved the Italian décor and the lovely service by everyone there. My granddaughters loved the special treatment given by Mr. D, who prepares a mean Shirley Temple, followed by free ice cream! I have had graduation parties and baby showers over the many years.
You will be missed!
Donnette Waters

Datillo is an institution in uptown Whittier while other pop up restaurants come and go. I have been visiting Datillo for over 20 years. Their food is always fresh, bread is tasty. I typically get their grilled chicken and vegetables and load up on table bread. The atmosphere is that of an Italian patio inside. High ceilings, nice patio to sit on, friendly servers. I just love coming here.

Excellent food as well as great service. Our graduation luncheon was a success!
Thank you
Fred

Ok let me first say if I could give this place ZERO stars I would .
I’ve lived in Whittier my whole life and have only been to this place because of parties (3) I’ve been invited to.
Let’s start w the food. It’s mediocre. Very bland, all three times I’ve had to add salt. The salads are probably the best part.
Now for the atmosphere it’s nice and well kept but the décor is very outdated.
Now for the customer service. First two parties it was ok not good or bad. But recently I attended my friends baby shower and I’ve never experienced such HORRIBLE customer service. They rushed the baby shower the WHOLE time. There was a time frame given which is understandable but when you constantly have someone in your ear to hurry up and rushing you AND putting food away that’s just ridiculous. Not because they have to set up for the next party but because the manager had a hangover and wanted the guest out at exactly 4 on the dot.
Now in the midst of being rushed an expensive camera with pictures of the baby shower was lost. When my friend was concerned about her camera I offered to give her a piece of mind and go check the restaurant myself.
When arrived to just check, the owner Francesa and her daughter shouted at me and told me she would treat me like a dog simply because I wanted to check for myself.
How they’re in business boggles my mind and I will NEVER return

This place is great! Try the Ravioli Contadino its better than food in Italy. Franchescha is always entertaining. Service is 5 stars.

If you’ve ever read any of my reviews you will know that above all customer service is king and that’s why I am giving the Ditallo a five star rating for their customer service coupled with their excellent food. Caesar salad, antipasto salad, creamy pesto, Mostaccolli marinara green beans, chicken piccata, and chicken marsala… each entrée was excellent I can’t see enough about the chicken piccata or the creamy pesto. I will definitely be back. The customer service was out standing,… Francesca made sure that me and my family had everything we can possibly need or ask for during our lunch… definitely five star combo

I agree like most everyone else saying that the food is just ok. My food was on the salty side. The marinara was a salty broth base instead of a real tomato taste. I should have Unilocal before I went there. Only 2 tables on a Tuesday night. The restaturant looks like its had its days long time ago. No… I won’t be returning.

Great décor, I just wish the food matched. Our party had over a dozen people and most of the food was overcooked. How do you overcook Lasagna??. My garden salad was good with fresh greens served on a chilled plate. The meals were served late. Don’t think I’m coming back again.

The owner turned on the basketball game for us. Checca was good. Crustini was good. The Princess ate all of her pizza, which is always a good thing. Mike’s suggestion to add sausage was a good one. Too bad Wisconsin did not win. Check in for ten percent off one item.

Oh my goodness where do I start? First off, Francesca is such a sweet heart! She is so attentive and kind which is hard to find now a days. The food is authentic and super tasteful. I have never had an «okay» tasting plate, always exquisite. The environment is so nice, relaxing and peaceful. If I could give it 10 stars I would!

Date: 12÷13÷14 Saturday
Time: 6:00pm
Occasion: anniversary Dinner
Food Ordered:
Lobster Bisque soup
Fetechinni Alfredo with Chicken
Drink: tea
Desert: none
Good:
Ambience is perfect. Beautiful feel of Italy. Marble tables, solid seats, fresco paintings on the wall, Italian opera in the background, fountain centerpiece, columns and statues, window front décor. Bathrooms nice and clean going with Italy theme.
Garlic bread dipped in olive oil, Parmesan. & balsamic was wonderful.
Choice of tea
Elegant to go bag
Bad:
No fresh Parmesan to top food
Food presentation was surprisingly poor & lack color
Sauce was too watery and little bland
Soup was too salty
Summary:
Clean. Look and service was stellar. Food was okay. Tasted okay and looked okay. Need better presentation and flavor.

Disgusting Italian food. Very bland. Not worth the price. The owners daughter Francesca was very rude and unprofessional. I will NEVER go back there again.

I recently visited this place for a Company Christmas Party and my «Credit Card» information was stolen !!! Should you visit this place, make sure you check your credit report !!! «BEWARE».

I almost don’t want to get in the middle of the pendulum swing that seems to be reviews for Dattilo, but who am I to not throw down an opinion?
I’ve been here a couple times now, once for a free event (don’t get mad at me Alec V!, I did eat and buy drinks) and once for dinner with a larger party. All in all, I would give Dattilo’s a solid 3 stars.
The ambiance is indeed lovely and makes the perfect backdrop for a party. They have a lot of space to accommodate gift tables, display tables, tons of guests and even a slide show. We attended an engagement party here and it was truly a beautiful venue.
To me the food is just okay. Recently I shared the pear salad and ordered the chicken picatta. The salad was adorned with the most delicious pears, but there was strangely no dressing. While there was a drizzle of balsamic reduction on top, but I had to use the olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper on the table to dress a 10+ dollar salad. My chicken was fine, nothing mind-​blowing, but I did request gluten free pasta for the pasta side and that was FANTASTIC. The rice noodles that they are using are long spaghetti style and I thought they tasted great:)
Service seems to be at an Italian pace here. Our recent dinner lasted for an extremely long time as we waited for the food (and some table members were finished with their food long before others had even gotten their food) and then we waited for a really long time to have our credit cards rung.
So there you have it, my experiences here could certainly be improved and we will likely be back because our friends are in love with the lasagna. 3 stars for a restaurant that is A-​OK by me!

We recently used the banquet room after a funeral at Rose Hills, and Dattilo did a really nice job for us.
The arrangements were easy, and they are able to create a private room with it’s own entrance.
We went with a simple meal — three pastas and two salads, bread, drinks and cookies. Pasta is hard to do well in a buffet, but it was great.
I highly recommend them for what we did, and I liked it enough that I’m planning on going back to try the regular menu.

I’m on the fence, between two and three stars. The restaurant is really pretty inside and has a banquet room where my family held a surprise 85^th birthday for my great-​uncle. I’d say the set up was nice, tables placed nicely and a place for people to talk in the front of the room. Now, lets get down to the nitty-​gritty.
First and foremost, the bar… it was a nice bar, but the bartender wasn’t very pleasant. I ordered four beers while I was there (2 for me, 2 for my lil bro), the bill came out to $ 30, a bit steep for a couple of bottled beers. The first time I ordered the beers, the bartender (which I found out later was the owner) told me if I wanted to close my tab after my first order she would not let me run my card again. I asked why and she rudely replied that the bank charges them per transaction and she doesn’t want to pay the fee! Really lady, you’re running a business here, fees are associated with any business. Anyways, I left my tab open, but when I did, she walked to the back and didn’t say anything to me, I was just left standing there like «is that all», she came back and said «that’s all». Okayyyyy!
Next, I couldn’t help but notice that the owner was overseeing everything for the party which I can understand, she wants things to run smoothly in her place of business. However, when we were in the buffet line she had her waitress serving the pieces of chicken and pork, and rudely told the waitress «you need to tell these people this is pork, you need to speak up so they can hear you.» I heard her fine when she asked me if I’d like a piece of pork. The poor girl was just doing her job and looked like she was scared of the owner. The owner was very micro-​managing on the floor in front of customers.
Lastly, I went through the buffet line, nothing that really stood out. Two choices of salad, one Caesar, the other Antipasto. Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo only it was made with bow tie pasta instead of Fettuccine, kind of seemed like they ran out of Fettuccine and this is what they had on hand to replace it. It tasted okay, kind of watery. Next was tube pasta in red sauce, that one was good, just added extra cheese. There was also lemon chicken which tasted okay but was really buttery and then the pork which I didn’t get. When I said no to receiving the pork on my plate, the owner was standing there and said «whats wrong with my pork, don’t you like pork, it’s good meat.» I felt like she was really trying to be a pork pusher, I told her I wasn’t a big fan of pork and she gave me a dirty look.
Anyways, the party went off nicely, the customer service on the other hand was very shaky!

Been coming here for 20+ years! Great family recipes and wood burning oven, not that bland chain restaurant stuff!

This place is so cute but it looks familiar. Pretty sure I never went to this restaurant but I had this déjà vu feeling when I was there.
Ordered caesar salad and agro dolce pizza.
Caesar salad ($ 4.95): romaine lettuce with caesar dressings and croutons. Fresh but I didn’t finish my salad.
Agro dolce pizza ($ 10.95): fresh tomato, basil, brie cheese. I like the fresh tomato but I was disappointed with my pizza. I couldn’t taste the brie and its thin crust pizza was mushy ;(
Complimentary bread.
My waitress is awesome and friendly. The other workers are wonderful too.
3 stars!
Dattilo’s restaurant is almost yummylicious!

This place seems to have gotten a lot of mixed reviews. I can only speak about my experience.
I’ll give them two stars for ambience and ambience only. The thing about ambience is, if it looks good you also expect the food and service to be good and during the Thursday night that we were there they failed miserably to impress us.
My husband and I came it about forty-​five minutes before closing time. It was confusing to figure out where the main entrance was as there are a couple other doors and the front of the restaurant is wide. It’s hard to miss it from the main road. When we entered, no one greeted us and we were trying to figure out who to approach as the only two people we saw were behind the kitchen window.
There were a couple of diners who noticed that we weren’t being entertained. It turned out they were friends of the owner. The owner was actually sitting at the bar watching television and has his back turned that’s why he didn’t notice us. He was a nice, friendly man. He laughed and apologized, but it didn’t really make up for the fact that we were standing for about two minutes without being greeted even though it wasn’t a busy night.
We were seated to a private couple’s table with a terrace-​like setting. It was pretty cozy with a lighted candle on the table. The server dropped off our water without even greeting us so we were disappointed with that. When she finally came back (I think she’s the owner’s daughter). We ordered the Anchovie Bruschetta to start. At most Italian restaurants they give you several pieces of brushcetta but here they only served us two pieces which was a bummer and not worth it for what we paid. I ordered the Tortellini with meat sauce. It tasted bland like ti came right out of the can.
My husband had the Fettucine Bolognese and complained about how horrible it tasted.
Overall we regretted coming to this restaurant and we’re not sure we’ll be back again. I heard that the owner of the organization I work for is a fan of this place. After trying it out, it makes me wonder why. Perhaps, we came at a bad time?

We came here as a large party in their banquet room after a funeral.
The food was sophisticated, and not at all tasting like it came out of a can like other reviewers have said.
My favorite dishes were the beet salad and the chicken fettuccine. All pastas served were thick and creamy, and very flavorful.
Also, I asked for a sweet red wine, and they delivered perfectly.
The layout of the restaurant is elegant, and the servers were very courteous.
Except for one, (the bartender?), who was apparently very rude to my uncle when he asked for a Cadillac margarita and it wasn’t made the way he was accustomed to.