The most delicious Italian cuisine and best carbonara I have ever had! I used to eat at the Ennio's Waterloo location frequently when I was a university student at the Waterloo location, but this was my first time at the Kitchener location, and it was very nostalgic. When I was first introduced to the spaghetti carbonara, I have never had a carbonara in my life and it was the most delicious dish I have ever tasted that when I visited Italy and ordered spaghetti carbonara everywhere I went, I was very disappointed because I thought this dish at Ennio's was the standard. It is very rich and creamy, with a generous amount of bacon and mushrooms. The server added extra parm cheese and cracked peppers (I didn't tell him to stop for a very long time). We also got the veal, which was good, but the marinara spaghetti was mediocre. We also always get the calamari rustica, which is the best fried calamari I have ever tasted. It has a lightly breaded coat with a sweet and spicy sauce that is to die for. The portions are very generous, and although I tried to stuff myself and eat it all, I had 25% of my pasta left over and no room for dessert. I usually always get the tiramisu, which I was glad they still serve but unfortunately did not have any room in my stomach at all that day. The dishes at this Kitchener location are very consistent with what I remember from my visits to the Waterloo location and am very impressed with the portions. The prices have definitely gone up since my last visit years ago, but I still think it's reasonably priced in our current economy and worth every penny! I prefer the ambiance at the Waterloo location because it feels like a family owned pasta house, whereas, the Kitchener location feels more like a chain restaurant. The service was much slower (waited 10 minutes for menus and over 20 minutes for our appetizer and over 30 minutes for our main dishes on a not so busy Friday night at 9pm). However, the quality of the food and service are comparable between the two locations (food tastes similar and friendly staff). The parking at the Kitchener location is also easier than the Waterloo location since it is located in a large plaza. I would definitely go back to this location since this is closer to the 401 highway and more convenient for travellers driving through the city but if I had more time, I would go back to my nostalgic Waterloo location! read more

Ennio's Pasta House - Calamari Rustica - Italian Near Me - Kitchener, Ontario

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A group of 10 ladies. Very friendly staff. All dinners were ready at the same time. We we did not feel rushed.ĺ

Seriously, one of the best meals I've had in a while, and we eat out often. Delicious meals and a great intimate atmosphere. Good for families or date nights. A rare find! We were pleasantly surprised that the food wasn't too salty or overpowering. Remember to ask for oil and vinegar for dipping your bread! My carbonara was sooooo yummy! But, Hubby would order his Rustica dish again as he liked it more than my carbonara. Not photographed are the Ceasar and house salads which was a great starter! YUM!! read more

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A good Italian pasta house, reasonably priced, decent portions. The meatballs were delicious, the pasta was great. The bread that came out before the entrees were lacklustre and the aperol sprits was a very short pour with the wrong combination of ingredients, but still yummy. The service was great. They were playing the best of Rod Stewart which wasn't really giving the Italian pasta house vibe I was looking for, but overall we will be going again. read more

Ennio's Pasta House - Meatballs were delicious! - Italian Near Me - Kitchener, Ontario

Went for Lunch. Pasta was cooked wonderfully with the carbonara done correctly and not overcooked, nice and creamy. The shrimp were large and properly prepared. The lasagna was great with a nice sauce and great portion size that I had to bring half home wit me. Will be coming back again. Pasta dishes generally ranged from $16-30. read more

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We had take out at ENNIOS PASTA HOUSE. It was amazing. I have ordered from other restaurants and the food is soggy. But my daughter assured me it was good. I'm looking forward to eating at your restaurant in the near future, my family is visiting from New York City, I'm sure they will be pleased. Thank you! Anita read more

The pizza crust did not taste homemade and was very blonde. The cheesecake tasted like the refrigerator.

Ordered 2 orders of Shrimp Zafferano using Skip the Dishes; driver showed up with one order and stated restaurant staff only gave him one, even after he questioned them as he clearly had 2 pasta to pick up. Have receipt showing that staff made 1 of 1 order. Sloppy service, I could understand if there were quite a few dishes in the order, but only 2. Here we are at 9:30 pm with only one meal....thanks for nothing. read more

Wow, I wrote almost an identical review back in 2021. Unfortunately I got the same watery sauce on my linguini alfredo con pollo. The chicken appeared to be some kind of processed chicken that comes in a can. Not great. The music was so loud that the other patrons as well as my party, complained and nothing was done. One bright spot - the lovely buns had just come out of the oven and were delicious. It really is disappointing when one of your favorite eating spots lets you down AGAIN. It may be time to search out a new Italian restaurant. read more

My one star review isn't due to lack of good service, but due to the manager. The hostesses and waitresses/waiters are excellent, friendly and professional. I was in there and witnessed the manager (an Indian man) being extremely rude and disrespectful to the workers, especially the hostesses. He gave off misogynistic vibes. Just had no manners at all. The way he speaks to the workers is appalling. read more

Love love love! Rissotto is my must have! Both mushroom and seafood rissotto are my favourites. I have tried almost every appetizer on their menu and my favourite would have to be the bread and the calamari. As for pasta, my favourite would probably be the steak paired with a thick noodle pasta (sorry I forgot the name on the menu). The steak has a smoky taste and comes with lots of mushrooms. I've been here multiple times and even if there is a line up, it's worth the wait! read more

Really, a 3.5 (downgraded primarily because of service and funky tasting water and sprite!). This restaurant, Ennio's, was recommended to us by two different locals who had not talked to one another prior to giving the recommendation! It was described as a restaurant that serves authentic Italian. Now ... I'm not Italian, and though I've been to Italy, I can't recall every bit! But one thing I CAN do is appreciate really good, flavorful foods. So, we got to the restaurant and were seated quickly. After a couple minutes, our server came and asked what we wanted to drink. From this point to getting our drink was about 5 minutes. 5 minutes may seem short, but it was a bit too long for me. There were lots of servers that were available, but they must be assigned by sections. Ours was not anywhere to be seen. (Granted, our whole section was busy and the rest of the restaurant wasn't so busy. They must've seated everyone in one section on purpose?) AMBIANCE: The ambiance is quaint. pretty simple, not overly elaborate. comfortable. You can be somewhat casual or dressed nicely and feel comfortable. I wouldn't feel comfortable in shorts and t-shirt, but they may have customers who come in dressed like that in the summer. So, I ordered a water because I'm trying to stay off carbonated drinks. The water though was fUNKY. It sort of tasted like soap water? like it had some chemical in it or something. My colleague laughed at my facial expression and asked if I thought it was weird. Apparently, she did, too, but she didn't make any face. We both decided that it was not right and sent it back. In place, I decided to order Sprite (caffeine free). However, upon receiving the Sprite, we both also decided that it had that same taste -- was not good. Colleague chose to order wine instead, and I stuck with the wine, hoping it would get better. As the flavors of food consumed my mouth, the Sprite started tasting better ... (it still really was not, though!). It tasted flat (very few bubbles to show carbonation) ..and that weird inexplainable taste. Maybe it's Canadian tap water? I have no idear! You tell me. All PASTA's come with Italian salad and bread (Caesar salad is an extra charge). The Italian salad was okay. The lettuce didn't seem very fresh, but it was fine. The cucumber, tomatoes and other vegetables seemed a little more fresh. The Italian dressing was fine. The bread and the olive dip was wonderful. The olive oil dip had some garlic and something green. I have no idea, but it was good. So, I ordered the PRIMAVERA CON POLO with alfredo sauce. It came with linguine, green pepper, red pepper, chicken, broccoli florets. All of the vegetables were cooked perfectly. The peppers were not overcooked and soggy, but were slightly crunchy with some flavor. The chicken was moist. The alfredo sauce was DELICIOUS! Perfect. Not bland, not overly salty, not too strong. They didn't give me TOO much alfredo sauce, nor too little that I had to ask for more -- just the perfect amount. BTW, the portion is HUMONGOUS! I only ate 1/3 of my pasta, and I can usually clean my plate. Maybe my stomach shrunk, but I only did 1/3. I LOVED the pasta. For the PASTA and PASTA ALONE, I rounded my 3.5 stars (only because of the water and slightly slow service), UP to a FOUR Star rating. Granted, this is only based on one visit. I shall try and come back again. Prices are slightly expensive, but it helps since salad/bread come with. Better luck next time with the drinks (for me), I hope....!!!!! ENJOY. read more

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This place was great. I like that the pasta entrees come with a small side salad and fresh bread. The oil they give to dip the bread in is delicious. I ordered the mushroom and bacon carbonara. My only complaint was that it was extremely salty. I ended up not eating most of the bacon just because it was so salty! Other than that, it was really good. read more

Ennio's Pasta House - bacon and mushroom carbonara - Italian Near Me - Kitchener, Ontario

I cannot understand the great reviews??? Three of us went tonight. I ordered Chicken Piccata - terrible. Brown gravy on chicken, which was not butterflied and had not been trimmed. Tasted like beef gravy, very stange.... Super simple recipe, done totally wrong! Husband had veal parm - ok but nothing special, and daughter, pasta bolonase - again, ok but nothing special. Hubby and i had pasta sides, but was surprised to see that ALL the pasta is dry/packaged - NOT fresh - big surprise for prices... Service was ok but not steller, and the decor is rough/dated. Along with medeocre food, can only give 2-stars. read more

Wow. Six of us came here on a Sunday. Great service (with personality!) and we ordered arcini balls and antipasto platter to start. Very well received! The.n we each had a selection of different dishes but man they were all raved over. Large satisfying portions served hot! read more

Went for dinner at Ennio's last night. The meal was delicious, the waitress was very friendly, the food arrived quickly after ordering, the restaurant was clean and well taken care of, even though it was fairly busy it wasn't too noisy, ample parking, they take covid precautions seriously, overall great experience. I will be a repeat customer. read more

Exceptional service and atmosphere - we frequent this Restaurant on many occasions as well as the waterloo location. We have NEVER been disappointed with the food or service at either location. We had reservations for Saturday at 7 while it wasn't at capacity I would highly recommend a res for a high traffic night. We always get the pazzo bread to start which is a great starter - I never leave hungry as the portions are very generous - great Italian salad - but exceptional service is the true sign of excellence and this establishment always bodes it well! Expect to pay around $70-80 dollars for a starter, 2 glasses of wine and 2 main entrees. I feel the price is very acceptable for the level of quality, prompt service and impeccably clean Resturaunt - a KW must!! read more

I cannot like the lady from Aurora understand the great reviews???? We stopped going to the Waterloo location because of the bad food and run down condition of the restaurant. I discovered that the same owner of the Waterloo location now has the Kitchener Pasta House. The original owners are now gone and the food proves it plus the run down state of the restaurant. I had the spaghetti and meat balls. It was so bad that I did not finish the meat balls The pasta was luke warm and I was sick to my stomach when I returned home an hour later. My wife had the arrabbiata and it was average and not hot at best warm. The sever was nice but did nothing about the bad food when told. We will never return. read more

The food was excellent, no complaints. I had the Mafalda Rustica, and my companion had the Cappelletti and both were fresh tasting and delicious. The service was slow... really slow, about an hour to get our entrees. To their credit they did keep bringing us bread. I had an Italian lager of some sort, it wasn't memorable at all. As the other review mentioned the water here tastes a bit off. We were too full for dessert, but there looked to be some tasty options. The lighting was terribly dim in there, to the point of being difficult to see. I understand it's supposed to add ambience, but it was a bit much. read more

Wow... my wife and I were craving pasta while we were in town... I find that food in Kitchener typically quite horrible. We sat at a table with a bunch of photos on the wall... old Italian family photos. I thought... wow... nice photos they cut out of Vanity Fair. A nice older Italian woman that was smitten with my daughter was very prompt and courteous... the portions were perfect! Not the massive American style portions. The vodka sauce was as good as Il Mulino's in NYC... and my wife's pasta screamed Rome to us. It was quite an incredible lunch experience. Everything tasted homemade... at the end of the meal we took home a container of bolognese. Good thing it wasn't in an air-tight container, otherwise I would've bought a ton more to bring home to California... Anyhow, back to the woman serving us and the photos... turns out, she owned the joint and her photo was one that I was admiring earlier on! Love it! read more

A nice Italian family run restaurant. Classic Italian dishes served in a comfortable environment. Excellent for dining in or take out. They even sell jars of their home made meat sauce! Overall an excellent establishment. I work in the area so i have been here quite a number if times. I always enjoy it. I have seen Ennio there occaisionally, but usually its his wife & daughter that are there. read more

Definitely a go-to for us. Reasonably prices for hearty big portions of Italian food. Their chicken parm is incredible and I'm telling you that paying a little extra for blush sauce is well worth it. The blush sauce is by far the best pasta sauce I have ever had. My wife has ordered a number of different dishes and has yet to be disappointed. read more

We took my Mom to Ennio's for her Birthday. Food was great and our server Tanee was fabulous. We didn't mention that it was my Mom's birthday, but Tanee noticed the birthday card and brought an ice cream sunday with a candle in it for her and spoons for everyone ... it made her day! read more

Hands down the best spaghetti I have ever eaten. I ordered the Carbonara and was blown away, and so was my partner by the level of quality Ennios offered. Now for the downside. One downside, is how expensive the appetizers are, some appetizers might charge up to $15. I paid $13 for, essentially, cheese on bread. Now, it was good cheesebread but way too expensive. Another minor complaint are the wait times, they are absolutely on the long side and can cause a rage within you, especially when you are hungry. However, the long wait will be forgotten when you eat one of their entrees and then it's bliss. Seriously, go and check it out. read more

Food was good, Service was not. After being seated we had a waitress (who didnt introduce herself) ask us for our order. We order steamed muscles to start. The appetizer was huge and VERY good! once she cleared off our plates I order a second pint. She brought us our complimentry salads, at this point I had to ask for my Pint again (took 10mins we were sitting right accross from the bar) The salads would have been nicer served on a cold plate, I think they were premade and sitting. The entres came very hot, and so good. I had the Chicken parm and my wife had the Trout. Her risotto tasted very over cooked. Other than having to ask our server a few times to get things the over all experience was good and the food was very tasty. We will go back. 4 pints. 1 app. 2 mains. $97+ tip read more

Excellent pizza (salami, olives, onions) and really really good prosciutto spaghetti! Had house soup and salad also. Very reasonably priced and definitely authentic. Its my new spot! read more

Ennio's Pasta House - Salami pizza - Italian Near Me - Kitchener, Ontario

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This is, by far, one of my favourite restaurants in the K/W area. My family is traditional Italian with one of my parents and 2 grandparents coming straight from Italy, so I recognize and highly-value authentic Italian cuisine when I see, smell and taste it. Upon entering the restaurant, the smell immediately reminded me of my grandmother's house when she was cooking. When my order came, I quickly realized why. This is authentic, delicious Italian food, people! This is not Boston Pizza/East Side Mario's garbage. It doesn't get much better than this in the K/W area. The staff is always pleasant as well. A few times, I had the pleasure of even having a conversation with the owner. I cannot remember her name, but she is a sweet Italian lady with good stories to tell. As previously mentioned...very dim lighting. However, I think it is meant to be a romantic/intimate atmosphere (as evidenced by the Italian music that plays in the background), so no complaints from me. They will adjust the lighting if you ask them to though. I will continue coming here for as long as they stay open. I fear how long that will be though with more and more people opting for more "kid-friendly" atmospheres with sub-par food. read more

I absolutely love this place! The ambience is very nice. It feels fancy but is small and homey! I went with my family that came to town and everyone loved their meal. The pasta was very flavourful without feeling heavy. Service was great too! Our waitress was very friendly and very efficient. Highly recommend this place for going out with family or for a date night! read more

This location was excellent! So much so that my family and I ate there twice in one week!! The pasta is fresh and made with high quality ingredients. I was very impressed, considering the prices were not as high as some other Italian restaurants in the area. I would also recommend the four cheese flatbread as an appetizer - Delicious! read more

After coming home from a recent vacation in Italy I was craving some Italian food... This was my first visit to Ennio's and I can honestly say it won't be my last! The server was very friendly and the atmosphere was pleasant as well. We started with antipasto platter which was a fabulous array of fine Italian salami, prosciutto and ham. As well as various cheeses, peppers and olives. I had the carbonara as my main and it was absolutely amazing!! I will definitely be back again soon! read more

Fantastic food, Alfredo con polo is absolutely fantastic! Bread wasn't warm like usual, I'm sure it's a one time thing, I will return again and again and again! Best traditional Italian food in all of Kitchener! read more

While visiting Kitchener, we wanted to try Italian food and Googled local restaurants, settling on this one based on its ranking and some reviews, as well as past experience from their first location many years ago. Overall, it was a disappointing experience. First, it was a hot evening, around 515pm, and the restaurant was too hot, although later they corrected this by cooling the place down. Little finer points of service one would expect in a restaurant of this calibre were missing. No water refills were offered. No ground pepper was offered with the Caesar salad appetizers, and there were no salt or pepper shakers on the table as an option. The bread that came at the beginning of the meal was a bit stale, although the pesto dip was great. This isn't nitpicking, it's all stuff that should not have happened. Onto the food: I had gnocchi with bacon and zucchini and it was really good with a large portion. On a 10 point rating system, I give it a 9. My brother-in-law had veal scallopini, which he described as "tough meat with the crap pounded out of it". Rating, 5/10. My wife had the manicotti, just ok (6/10), and bread pudding, which was not very good at all (3/10). Also notable was the lack of any garnish in her Cosmopolitan. My sister's seafood risotto was described by her as sticky and much too salty. (4/10.) My grandson had the meatballs, which he said tasted like tomatoes and not much else. (5/10.) My mother had the Osso Bucco, which she said was "ok", and later rated at 6/10. Overall, while the prices are fine, the experience was not a good one, and we would have been better served with wings and beer from Moose Winooski's, which is always great. I know I could come off as whining here, but this was our genuine experience, and it was most disappointing. We will not return. read more

So my first time to this Ennio's location and I would say overall it was a success. Like the previous reviewer my Sprite tasted really weird, it wasn't flat but it was definately off. I think maybe the need to have someone take a look at their pop machine. I also had a bit of an issue with my service, I do believe my Waitress was possibly the owner (owner's wife) and she was very slow but very friendly. Aside from the fact it took almost 10 minutes for our drinks to arrive I had a bit of an issue with the fact I (and the other tables around me) was being served presumably by the owner when there were Waitresses standing around with no work to be done. The only reason this bothers me is because I used to be a waitress and without my tips I likely would have found myself homeless in a very short period of time. The meal itself however was delicious, we tried one of the gnocchi dishes and a spicy penne and let me tell you it was amazing. We also really enjoyed the bread, salads and calamari. Over all I would definitely recommend Ennio's if your in the mood for some traditional italian pasta. read more