Ristorante Dona Onesta - Winnipeg

This place was amazing when it was open. But it's obviously been shut down for weeks. I made a reservation using Open Table (who clearly are NOT on the ball about these things) and wound up looking at a dark restaurant with the doors shut up tight. Their phone number still plays their old voice mail message but the place is definitely shut down.

I phoned and left messages on several occasions. I wanted to make a reservation in June 2017 for between 15 - 20 people. NOTHING!!! No return phone call. I tried to email as per their website Bounced back - again.... NOTHING!!!

I telephoned this restaurant to make a reservation for four people. I stated my phone number, last name and how many people, time and day for the reservation. I also stated that two of us had dietary issues and stated what they were. I made four (4) phone calls to this restaurant over two (2) days. I never heard back from any one from the restaurant. The last message I left on their answering machine, I asked them to please phone and leave a message if there was no answer at my end. NEVER HEARED!

I cannot recommend Ristorante Dona Onesta. We have visited twice, in December 2016 and February 2017. The food is hit and miss, decent the first time, but mediocre the second. Both visits, the service was excruciatingly slow, inept, and uncaring. This is mostly due to being severely understaffed, with a single waitress, a single busboy and a single chef for the entire restaurant.I predict this restaurant will be closing very soon.

Hello TrippiesThis restaurant is so bad it's only the 2nd time in my life i left because the food and all around dining experience was so bad!From to start to finish Dona Onesta was a total disaster. It took 10 minutes to be greeted and seated.After being seated it took easily a 1/2 hour to take our order and ask for our drink order. It took over an hour to get our food. When our food finally arrived it was truly an embarrassment.My wife ordered vegetable risotto and i ordered chicken in tomato sauce. My wife's risotto was literally green giant frozen vegetables in risotto with a chicken broth. I mean it when i say they were using green giant frozen vegetables. It was so bad she took two forks full and sent it back.My chicken in tomato sauce was basically like chewing on a rubber tire. I'm pretty sure it too was frozen and defrosted in a microwave. If i were a betting man i would bet the sauce was Classico sauce you buy at the grocery store. I'm actually going to check that next time I go grocery shopping. My meal came with penne which was supposedly homemade. It was inedible. If the pasta is truly homemade i would recommend the chef toss the recipe. It was tasteless rubber tubes. I also only had a couple of forks full of my meal then got up with my wife and left the restaurant.I believe they are serving a lot of boxed food and the word fresh on the menu should be taken with a grain of salt at Dona Onesta.With that said I have to mention that i originally wanted to order the beef lasagna. I was told it was made alternating days then frozen, defrosted, then served to customers. Although i appreciate the honesty it was not something i ever expected to hear in a restaurant that portrays itself to have a good "chef" and fresh homemade food. Lets also use the word "chef" loosely. I wholeheartedly believe the owner is not a true chef but someone that got money to start a restaurant that "thinks" he can cook. Nothing we experienced indicated any culinary talent whatsoever.The service was honestly non existent. They were at 75% percent capacity or less and they couldn't handle it. I was told by our server who i think might be the wife of the owner that they were only expecting two tables that night. When a restaurant only expects two tables on a saturday night you know something isn't right.I heard two other tables complaining around us. It truly was a gong show in all aspects.We had a split of two servers. One guy was wearing a muscle style t-shirt and the other server appeared to be the wife of the "chef/ower" Jesus. How do we know "Jesus"?The whole time were there all we heard was our server running to the kitchen yelling "Jesus" this and "Jesus" that. The whole restaurant was listening to her frustration all night with Jesus. So much so the table behind us started down her "Jesus" impression.Clearly these people aren't restauranteurs. I honestly would be surprised if they are around in 4 months.Lets talk about the kitchen bell. Every time an order is ready they hit a bell in the kitchen that resonates in the restaurant. So picture and nice classy atmosphere, then every few minutes a bell from New York City diner is being hit. Ding order up.... ding order up... ding order up. After and hour and a half it becomes a little old hearing the order bell from the kitchen being rung. The funny thing is it's totally meant to be annoying as it is meant for the servers to hear it throughout the restaurant. Hey lets annoy our customers on purpose. I saw a table of 5 laughing every time the bell rang.Needless to say after an hour and half of what i would consider hands down the worse dining experience i have ever had we left our food, paid for our wine and went somewhere else.One thing did go right. They did have the decency to comp our two meals. I'm glad we didn't get charged for four fork full of food.It truly was a Twilight Zone experience. Literally after leaving we were walking on the sidewalk in front of Dona Onesta heading back to our car and we said "did that really just happen? It was like being in the Twilight Zone."The whole experience was so odd and crazy I would never recommend this restaurant.Winnipeg is jam packed with great places to enjoy and amazing evening with family and friends. Do yourself a favour and skip this unless you want to take a trip to the Twilight Zone.If my review helps you in your travels please give me a thumbs up. It inspires me to keep reviewing and helping others in their travels.