Reviews for DOVA Restaurant in Toronto, ON
Fantastic restaurant! Had a girls night here and ordered a few dishes to share. Loved a few and some others were good but not... amazing. Highly recommend the calamari, truffle pasta, and wild boar pasta. Our server also gave some great recommendationsand was excellent! Read more
We have to agreed with some of the reviews that there was no WOW factor. For a higher price point we weren’t impressed but not... entirely disappointed. Let’s break this one down: 5/5 for aesthetic and ambiance. The patio is perfect for a date night withlots of plants and flowers, a cute lamp for personal lighting along with the string lights above. 4/5 for food. The plating waswell done with decent flavour except for the pizza. The dough was good but overall it lacked flavour. The pasta however had anamazing flavour but also like other reviews, a slightly larger portion would be better. 3/5 for service. This is mainly becauseof our server. As we entered we were greeted by a lovely server and the kitchen staff all said hello with smiles as we passed byto make our way to the patio. We received a new server after we were seated and he just missed a touch of personalized attentionfor a higher priced point restaurant. Service was slow and for a large portion, we were sitting there waiting to be asked if wewanted another drink, twice. Traditionally when we order oysters, staff will explain where their oysters are from and what typethey are. We had to ask after we had eaten them. I think this goes with most items ordered in a higher priced point restaurant,servers will often drop off the food and explain to you again what you are getting. This was not done here. Overall, we had anice date night but agree we would not rush back for more. Read more
Wasn’t impressed but wasn’t exactly disappointed either. But for a finer dining price point, I did expect more. What I did... like was the friendly service, cute concealed patio and the creamy sauce that came with the broccolini! Everything else wasn’ttoo memorable. Read more
An enjoyable experience overall, with nice shades in the patio. Price was reasonable, though it was on the higher end compared... to other restaurants in the area. The food was good overall, though I wished the portions could be a little more generous,particularly for the pasta. Although in general, the host was knowledgeable and it was an intimate dining experience Read more
Nothing special. Polpo was disappointing though - the octopus was canned octopus, had mushy texture and 0 flavour. Pizza was... better because of the freshly shaved truffle. The dough/sauce wasn’t amazing. Pasta was average. Sufficient seafood in thesauce but weak flavour. Service was mediocre. Read more
Relatively small but intimate Sicilian restaurant. Food is top notch and there are dishes I’ve never tried before since it’s... very regional. I recommend the anchovies and the ragu. The pasta tasted very nostalgic and the sauce very similar to somethingmy mom has made me before. It was super comforting and hearty. The anchovies were just so different and came with slightlycharred artichoke hearts. The fish was so packed with flavor and unique, I can still remember how it tastes now. If you evervisit this restaurant, I highly recommend those 2 dishes. Read more
Very authentic Italian served in a happening vibe. Ambiance, service and food were all great! Only reason I went with the 4... ranking instead of 5 is that there wasn’t a “wow” moment during the meal: Most of the dishes I’m used to getting athome (yah, I’m Italian and eat very well) and the design of the restaurant felt a tad familiar as well. But for those who arelooking for “true” Italian (with an obvious focus on Sicilian) dishes that haven’t been corrupted by North Americaninfluences, this is definitely a place to try! Read more
I had never heard of this place and was in the area, so when I found it I was so excited to try. I really wanted to like this... place! Everything about it seemed so promising. However, our experience with the appetizers (which are usually the highlightsfor me at many restaurants) was extremely disappointing… In short, if you don’t want to read this whole review, theappetizers were really plain. Here’s why: After going through the menu, we ordered the pesce spada (raw swordfish carpaccio),beef carpaccio, and the tartufo (truffle linguine) as per our server’s recommendations of his favourites. I was a bitquestionable on the carpaccio with raw mushrooms (this just sounds kind of plain and I was eyeing the burrata instead). The ricoe pepe was also another one of my preferences since it sounded different enough (plus cacio e pepe is my fave) and I also feelthat truffle is pretty standard at a lot of places i.e. it’s hard to get wrong and I wanted to try something more unique. However, we are usually trusting with suggestions from informed staff and decided to go along with it in high hopes sinceeverything on the menu sounded pretty good. The swordfish tasted a bit too fishy (like it almost wasn’t fresh) and it seemedto be lacking any other flavour as the garnishes barely added anything to the dish except maybe the tiny bits of mustard. Thesauce had no taste, I think it was just oil. It didn’t even taste like anything was seasoned. I’ve had crudo before and evenif it’s supposed to just be olive oil and lemon juice as the “sauce”, this time it didn’t add anything to the dish. Thebeef carpaccio was also extremely disappointing for what I had feared in the first place - raw mushrooms just didn’t satisfyour expectations and I felt like I was eating more of a salad than beef carpaccio. Again, no sauce or sense of seasoning on thisdish. The ingredients may be good but didn’t work well together to have any sort of “wow” factor as I saw another reviewmentioned as Read more