Giando On The Water
Seafood/Italian
412 Kent Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11211
(Btwn Broadway & S 8th St)
PHONE:(718) 387-7000
AVERAGE ENTREE: $18-$45
BOOZE: Full Bar
HOURS: Mon-Fri: 12pm-11pm; Sat & Sun: 4pm-12am
CARDS: All Major
SUBWAY: J, M, Z at Marcy Ave
MAP: Click Here
MENU: Click Here
Reservations are required
WE SAY: Old school Italian. With a beautiful view of the city, Giando is the fanciest place around (if you went to high school in Greenpoint).
From Village Voice
"Outfitted with masses of gleaming chandeliers, this soaring glass box is located on the Williamsburg waterfront between Domino Sugar and the Brooklyn Navy Yard--hardly an auspicious location. But the pricey retro-Italian fare is much better than expected, as with a first course of penne alla vodka with a zingy cream and tomato sauce, and a second course of well-browned chicken rollatini featuring a huge breast wrapped around cheese and prosciutto. The best deal is the prix fixe four-course dinner, $19.95 before 7 p.m. and $29.95 after. For dessert, don§t miss the freshly filled cannoli."
From Dinesite
This free-standing modern structure looks more like a mini-mall than a restaurant, smack dab on the East River with a view that`s better than a cruise ship`s. It`s widely used for bar mitzvahs and wedding receptions and designed more for banquet seating than intimate dinners. The food is traditional Italian, with baked clams, fried mozzarella, veal marsala, and chicken rollatine. A variety of fresh seafood -- salmon, swordfish, tuna -- is also featured. Stop in Giando On The Water for a restaurant that cooks up Continental and Italian cooking. Expect the average entrée to cost between $12 and $20, and you`ll be appropriate if dressed up -- on the nicer side.
From NYMag
Just south of the Williamsburg Bridge on the East River waterfront, this tri-level Italian compound offers stunning views of the Manhattan skyline and surrounding bridges. For those who find the restaurant’s mirrored walls cheesy, the “crystal” chandeliers ostentatious, and the tuxedo-clad waiters a bit much, the spectacular view provided by its floor-to-ceiling windows may ease the pain. The well-executed food is textbook Italian-American: gigantic portions of fried calamari, eggplant Parmesan, and veal done every which way. The scene inside the restaurant is as uninspired as its menu, with a piano player cranking out jazzy versions of Broadway hits on a detuned upright piano in the adjoining bar-lounge area as a few lone patrons at the black lacquer bar stare off into the East River. There’s an unapologetically suburban feel about the place; a scan of the dining room makes it clear that most patrons did not trek from Manhattan on the J train. Extra Weddings and other large gatherings are Giando’s bread and butter; there are two additional levels above and below the à la carte dining room that are available for parties, and both offer the same memory-making view as the main dining room. Recommended Dishes Rollatini di pollo, $22; scaloppina di vitello piccata, $24
Comments
Giando is not good italian food. period. It is basic banquet food. The view is spectacular, the service is ok, the room is kind of cheesy, but in a kind of funny way...but the food is almost inedible...seriously ...and Im italian, and believe me I know good italian food...this aint it, I can name 5 italian restaurants in a one mile radius that put this food to shame
Posted by: bobcat | May 6, 2008 06:55 PM
I haven't been to Giando's but this yr my high school prom will be there. I saw that its right by the water. I think It'll be great.(can't wait). See u soon Giando's (LOL).
Posted by: Jenelle R. | March 18, 2008 03:06 PM
I have been to Giando on the water, I love it. The food was great and the desert was excellent. the cheese cake was the best and the cannoli's were out of the world great, and I honestly cant' even begin to tell you about the magnificient views the best
Posted by: cathy Loizzo | January 13, 2008 04:15 AM
Sounds like some angry campers. I have dined at Giando over the course of twenty years about 20 times. I therefore have an arc of experience over a long span of time -- not isolated experience.
Giando is not only an exceptional value, but an outstanding evening and dinner. I have attended events (both weddings and reunions) in the upper and lower party areas, and they have never been anything less than excellent. The banquet room upstairs is plenty large and you never feel like a sardine as in many many other places.
But as regards the restaurant specifically, I have never had the experience of these other posters. I am not suggesting that they are lying, just that in the course of twenty years with an average of a once a year (or so) visit, surely I am a random enough guest to have landed on *one* off night. I have never experienced an off night.
Try any of the fresh seafood or any of the veal dishes.
I've read that their menu is uninspired. Giando -- for all their chandeliers and sparkle -- is not really trying to win menu awards or present anything approaching nouveau. Their menu probably hasn't changed over the course of my visits. That's not a negative for me.
I don't get the angry tone in the other reviews. Just seem odd and agenda-driven to me. I love Giando both from a restaurant/diner perspective as well as a party guest in their banguet areas.
Posted by: Anthony | July 3, 2007 08:27 PM
the food here is really bad. the ambiance is entertaining as a sort of "fancy night out" kind of place for middle class italian mafia types stuck in the 1970's. oh, and the view is one of the nicest in wburg. i guess it's ok if you're bored and just want to smoke pot and go do something you never would otherwise but are too lazy to ride the subway anywhere. otherwise, fuck it.
Posted by: brian | April 5, 2007 07:29 PM
I have never posted anything about a restaurant before, nor am I one to complain...Giando's was the WORST experience I have had in the tri-state area. We ordered veal and chicken which were both cold and bland. The service was non existent and to top it off they auto gratuitied 20%. For dessert they highly recommended the canoli which they were GUESS WHAT? OUT OF!!! Instead we got a mediocre frozen ice cream packaged dessert and a piece of frozen cake.
Sure, the view is impressive, but you can't see anything past the glaring, bright 80's plastic chandeliers that are encompassing the entire restaurant.
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