Exceptional service by Jasmine our Server: Classy, professional, friendly, timely and accurate. The food was amazing: Perfect chicken Piccata: The shrimp and crab capellini was awesome as well. Grotto's always delivers a wonderful dining experience. read more

Bad service, worse management. The food was nice, once it arrived. Friday July 3 waited over an hour at table with no food and an inattentive waitress. Just one table over the couple arrived after us and was finished and paying before our food arrived. Asked for a manager, we got Ben. I described my frustration. Ben tells me the other table probably ordered sooner than we did. I agree, because they got competent service. When the check comes we are given a $10 credit coded as "didn't like food." I tell Ben that is pretty weak, he goes on to tell me our food only waited 28 minutes for the kitchen. The fact we waited 32+ minutes for our order to be taken was lost on him. Very unlike Landry's for a manager to have such a DGAF attitude. I also doubt Landry's approves of a manager masking poor service by coding the complaint as "didn't like food." read more

We had dinner here with a party of 8 on the Saturday night of Memorial Day weekend. So, to say the least, it was crowded. We got seated promptly after increasing our reservation from 6 people to 8. The staff were extremely kind and responding. Our waiter Jax specifically was fantastic. We had phenomenal food and service and we'd recommend the Grotto to anyone. read more

Updating my review to note a few things I got wrong. The Grotto is only open Friday and Saturday for dinner only 5-10pm. So it would have been impossible to have lunch there on any day. Based on when we tried to visit on Friday, we probably just missed them. Our fault, we will make sure to get there earlier in the future. Give them a try. The food is great. Giving a 5 star to average my 3 star to a combined 4. Thanks Kevin. read more

Jasmine is the best waitress. She knows how to make people feel special.... Crowded and she was excellent in her attention to detail.

Jasmine was a great waitress. Food was prompt and fresh. We will be eating at the grotto at least once more before we leave

Jolie was the best waitress! Food was great and service was amazing! Will come back again and will ask for Jolie!

Jax was excellent! Super attentive with great customer service and the food was great!

Jasmine was our server and was great, so was the food and atmosphere. It's a must to come here always! Thanks!

We had an awesome experience with Gabe at the grotto. He had excellent recommendations and he took great care of us. We highly recommend him! read more

Jax our server was perfection. Great attitude. Peach Bellinis are divine. Food great. Good vibes!

Grotto is one of my favorite places to eat while visiting the Golden Nugget. My most favorite server is Jolie! Not only is she super spectacular at taking care of me, she adds that special touch in making the dinner wonderful! I will be back! Also, you have to try the Crème Brûlée!! read more

Jax was a great server made sure we had everything we needed! very good food. will definitely be back!

The food was great and our server Jolie was awesome. It was very busy but she made a point to check on us and make sure everything was okay. read more

Great birthday celebration at Grotto. Jax could not have been a better server. Only wish SJ would have beaten Duke...

Not only the food and service was great, our server Emmi was wonderful and attentive. We were 8-10 deep and we had no hangup or complaint about anything that she did. A true professional thru and thru!! Thank you Emmi, Alex read more

My wife and I really enjoyed dining here on a recent trip to the Golden Nugget in Lake Charles, but we have never eaten at the one in Houston, which is ironic since we are native Houstonians. We had the meatballs as an appetizer and then shared the chicken piccata and a bottle of wine. The meatballs were excellent and so was the chicken piccata even though I don't even like capers. The breadstick served us appetizers were super yummy as well. Our server was a young lady, and she was extremely helpful and patient and attentive to our needs. As far as the ambience goes, you don't really feel like you're inside of a casino at all and it is a really nice intimate dining area. I would love to go back sometime and we'll plan to visit the one in Houston. read more

I rarely give low stars, but this was so disappointing. Just a shell of what it used to be with the original locations in Houston. Staff was friendly, and I would give that more stars, lower for food. As for the rest, the menu it is very limited. They got rid of the delicious bread basket and they bring you one piece of bread for each person, and it had little taste to it. It also felt/tasted very stale. It might just be that type of bread but was not a fan. No dip, olive oil, butter or anything with it. The food was very lackluster. The chicken dish literally looked like crumpled pieces of paper were fried, they were so thin. My partner ended up taking a few bites and was done. And he eats just about anything. My pasta lacked flavor, flavors just meddled together and I wasn't expecting the chili flakes which took over the dish. I had to ask for parm to top the dish, hoping to give some extra flavor. Bad food can be bad food, but when charged this much, it needs a huge overhaul. read more

Grotto Ristorante - a close up of a plate of food - Italian Near Me - Lake Charles, Louisiana

Over all greeting was nice, once seated took about 10 minutes to be greeted, once greeted ordered waters and appetizer, took about 20 minutes for appt of calamari, which had little to no flavor. We ordered our food three entrees and two salads took over 55 minutes to come. Never being checked on during the wait time... Ordered Shrimp & Crab Capellini to be served a sliver of crab (felt like a joke). Overall, first time and last time i will ever come to grottos read more

Never ever order the Redfish Siciliano at this restaurant in the Golden Nugget. I was sevred approx. 4oz of Tilapia with a light red sauce and crab. It was definitely not Redfish. They should be ashamed trying to pass this off as award winning dining. Take it off the menu! read more

Second time around, the experience was sadly largely the same as the first time. This time the service was MUCH better! Our white sangrias were delicious and a great way to start our meal. The caprese salad was divine with the creamiest mozzarella and sweet beefsteak tomatoes. My chicken picatta was fantastic, but the pasta served with it was perfectly tasteless. The others ordered spaghetti bolognese (gave it a 5/10) and the ravioli (4/10.) we prob won't spend another of our hard earned $200 bucks here again. read more

Grotto Ristorante - Chicken piccata - Italian Near Me - Lake Charles, Louisiana

The food was phenomenal, and the service was warm and attentive, making us feel truly welcomed and cared for.

My advice is to skip this one. We have thoroughly enjoyed our dining experiences at the other restaurants in Golden Nugget (Saltgrass, Vic & Anthony's, Chart House, and Landry's), but this one was thoroughly disappointing. We had a reservation for dinner several weeks in advance, but when we arrived were told our only seating option was a high table (as opposed to one of the empty dining tables) unless we wanted to be put on the waiting list. Service was a tad slow but not terrible...until we waited an hour between finishing our salads and receiving the entrees. At this point the dishes, which were supposed to be chicken piccata, contained shriveled chicken nuggets and mounds of stale pasta. read more

Outstanding, original taste, excellent service and great atmosphere. We prefer home cook Italian food, but on occasion will go to the usual mom and Pop Italian food, or to Piada, Olive Garden, etc. but even though this is a chain are owned by Landry's, the food is exceptional! read more

Grotto Ristorante - Italian Near Me - Lake Charles, Louisiana

What once was a pretty good restaurant is now a step below Pizza Hut. The menu only has 8 entrees on it not counting pizza. Why isn't there a decent SEAFOOD restaurant in a town 40 miles from the Gulf of Mexico? read more

My friends and I ate here last night because it was the only place with open reservations. Now we know why Our waitress was overwhelmed, stressed out and unable to keep up with even the basic things. The cocktails we ordered had to be sent back because they were so horrible The menu is extremely limited but we managed to find some things we wanted to order. The pasta Alfredo dish was so salty I couldn't eat it. The grilled chicken flatbread was supposed to have chicken, roasted tomatoes, basil & goat cheese. The amount of those toppings was about one per slice To top it off, it's expensive. Our meal for four people was $150 and it was horrible Will not eat here again read more

Grotto Ristorante - Grilled chicken flatbread - Italian Near Me - Lake Charles, Louisiana

The spaghetti we ordered was delicious and the meatballs were huge. The service was exceptional. I will definitely be back read more

Grotto Ristorante - We ate at the Grotto last night and had the spaghetti and meatballs. The meatballs were huge and delicious. The waiter was very attentive. - Italian Near Me - Lake Charles, Louisiana

Cioppino was out of this world!!! It tasted so fresh, all seafood inside was perfectly cooked. It just kept getting better and better as I ate it! It was so filling too. It had to be the best seafood stew I have ever had. I also highly recommend the meatball appetizers, it's the perfect portion to prepare you for your meal. It had so much flavor! I honestly want to go back to the Golden Nugget just to eat here again! The ambiance of the restaurant was also so peaceful, we had a party of 13 and they accommodated us amazingly. Our server Tina made the experience even better, she handled all of our requests and was on top of everything the entire time! I wish I could give this place more than 5 starts, I absolutely would! read more

Grotto Ristorante - Italian Near Me - Lake Charles, Louisiana

Located in the Golden Nugget casino, it's a solid choice to grab a cocktail/wine and dine at the bar when seeking a diversion from gambling floor and/or don't want to leave the casino to eat. We ordered the soup, two of their pasta dishes of chicken parm, spaghetti and meatballs, and chicken Caesar. All were good Italian just not remarkable but good bar scene pleasant experience. read more

Place was super clean, excellent service and great ambience. The staff went above and beyond to ensure a quality experience. Being a Nola native we are spoiled with excellence in service and food, I can say I felt home here. read more

We decided to try this place out, and we ordered the rigatoni Della sansoni and shrimp & crab capellini. We got bread and olive oil as appetizer (every table gets this). The bread and oil was perfect. The outside of the bread was crunchy and the inside was super soft. Exactly how bread should be like. The olive oil dipping sauce is the best olive oil I've ever had. I think they use light olive oil instead of regular oil because the color was lighter (and I cook with light olive oil, so I think I can tell the difference). There was red peppers mixed in the olive oil and it gave just a little bit of a kick to it and the mixture made the dipping sauce so so so good. I can eat this nonstop. However, you will get full off of this quick because the slices of bread is really big. They also include like bread cracker sticks with this and it was good too! If I only rated this app, then it would be a five star alone. Rigatoni: this dish was alright. The homemade meatball was good and it wasnt dry at all. It had the right moisture in it. The meat sauce was just a regular tomato sauce. So this dish wasn't anything special. Shrimp and Crab Capellini: this dish looks pretty when it came out. I wish there were just a little bit more crab meat in it. The first bite taste really really good but after that, I realized that the dish was a bit to "lemon-y" for me and I wish they added less of it. I can understand if they try to add it to the shrimp but I think they over did it with lemon for the entire dish. It is still pretty good though, but I just got tired of the taste. read more

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We stopped in for a Saturday night dinner shortly before 9. Ambiance and decor could be better, as in they don't seem to quite match the prices for the mains on the menu (linens would be a simple upgrade). We skipped a starter but both had the Grotto Salad. Both of our salads were very sad - they looked like they had been made 2 days ago and stuck in a refrigerator somewhere. I expected more for $8.95, at least something that looked a little bit fresher and consisted of something more than lettuce, a single olive, and a couple of tomato cubes. To call it an Italian salad was a stretch, it was really just lettuce. Fortunately Grotto redeemed itself on our mains. Portion size was huge and they both came out steaming hot. Both the Chicken Paglia e Fieno and Rigatoni della Sansoni were extremely flavorful. Overall, a good but not great experience. L'Auberge and the Nugget have a pretty captive audience here so probably no huge incentive to overachieve. read more

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I have been to Grotto a few times now and I'd give it three stars. The good: when they have the bottle of wine + a pizza for $30 special its worth it! Pizza is really good and they have a decent selection of wines. The bread and olive oil is made well. Room for improvement: I ordered the shrimp and crab capellini. I was really looking forward to this dish and was let down. There is an overwhelming lemon flavor to the dish that ended up being the only flavor I could taste. There is also an underwhelming amount of crab meat. Even if there was more, it would have probably tasted like lemon anyway. The antipasti: pretty typical but only order if you want olives upon olives. Onto the service- The hostesses need some training. We reserved a table for 7pm and we received a call shortly after 6pm saying they would only have a cocktail table or patio table. We chose the cocktail table. About 6:40 we receive another phone call from a different person saying they may not have a table for us exactly at 7pm. We arrive at 7, they have a lot of tables open, and then mention that we had requested a cocktail table. We explained that someone called and said those were our two options. Long story short, they need to work on their communication. The waitress was very sweet and really put in the effort to provide a good experience. read more

Did a weekend trip at Golden Nugget for Father's Day, and this was the only place that was available last minute for a party of 7. Food here is a hit or miss depending on what you order. The menu is also very limited. I am under the impression that the appetizers are way better than the entrees. We were served complimentary bread and olive oil dip. To start, we ordered the tomato basil soup, the meatballs (these are HUMUNGOUS), the calamari, and the caprese salad (thick slices). All of which were delicious. My entree was the shrimp and crab capellini. This was very difficult to eat. It was sour, buttery, and fishy. My friend had ordered the redfish Siciliano. So I decided to taste it as well. The fish is pan fried with a noodle crust topped off with a shrimp sauce. The fish is a little bland and the pan fried noodle exterior was very off putting. I would not order any of those two entrees again. The only entree that was delicious was the meatzza. The sausages on the pizza had so much flavor I was shocked. TIP: Appetizers and pizza is the way to go. read more

This is the second time I have been here and will be my last. It's just not good food. The first time I went I just got the chicken Alfredo. Pretty basic Italian dish. Well when I took my first bite, the sauce tasted spoiled. It was like the cream had spoiled. I usually don't send food back but I told the waiter that the sauce tasted off. He sent manager over and I told him my problem. So then the cook comes out and argues with me. He says my tastebuds are off and there is nothing wrong with the sauce. I said ok whatever you say! So I just ate the salad and got the heck out of there. This was a few years ago before covid. So now I'm back out going to restaurants so I decide to give them one more chance. I was seated immediately because I was only one in the restaurant at 5:30. Should have been a clue for me. I ordered the Chicken Piccata. Usually it doesn't have tomatoes but I like them so I was ok with it. The chicken was breaded with a thick breading that was very doughy tasting. Usually chicken in piccata is just lightly rolled in flour because the sauce is a thin sauce. Sauce was just meh. Having that extra flour from chicken just made it gooey. It came with asparagus that was hard as a rock. Angel hair pasta was fine. The only dessert they offered was cheesecake. Maybe this place is getting ready to close. Waitress was very nice. read more

I sat on the patio because the weather was nice on a Saturday evening. Great place to eat. Food was phenomenal. Service was slacking. Will visit again tho...I believe in second chances. read more

Grotto Ristorante - Chopped salad. - Italian Near Me - Lake Charles, Louisiana

Initially, I was disappointed with how the hostess at the stand was handling things. I asked her how long the wait for a table of 3 was. Her response, "Uhh...um...It's going to be..umm..." she then turned to her coworker and said "Um...can you seat that family and I'm going to grab Louis." She then left to grab the manager and the family in front of ours was seated. She came back with the manager and told us the wait would be an hour because they had 2 reservations although there were plenty of tables open... Whatever, hot mess. We went and sat at the bar. Our bartender was very attentive and very nice. Drinks were made to perfection and bread and menus were given immediately. There are 3 TVs at the bar so we were entertained while waiting for our food. DELICIOUS. Oh my goodness this food was perfection. This would have been 5 stars if not for the hostess stand. But I definitely recommend this place. read more

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So like everything in the casino you expect the restaurant to up their prices but it's actually pretty consistent with what they offer in Houston. The dishes are really filling. Even the salad is huge! The service was good. Waitress would come check on us often. There is seating out by the pool or inside. Food was decent. Can't go wrong with the spaghetti bolognese! read more

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Do not eat here! Food was terrible, not worth the money! The service was amazing but the food ain't it!

Was pretty impressed. I've seen grotto around Houston. Waiter was cool, new manager from New Jersey was nice. I ordered Salmon Brioso and it was a good size and got me full. Salmon cooked right My friend ordered Cioppino a dish I only eat in San Fran (I'm fancy like that) & it was pretty good as well. I recommend both dishes. Oh almost forgot... I ordered a Tito's Vodka on the rocks and the bartender hooked it up. Biggest pour I had. Everywhere else I had it around the casino was teeny tiny. Posted some pics read more

Grotto Ristorante - Salmon Brioso. I would order it again... - Italian Near Me - Lake Charles, Louisiana

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