Stagioni - Four Seasons of Food

Dined here for a birthday dinner recently. I was expecting my food to be a lot better than it was based off of the reviews. I ordered the arugula tortellini for my main course. The portion was so tiny. I have posted the picture for you to see. The table loved the mussels so much they said they would come back here just for the mussels. The desserts were also really good. Loved everything besides my tortellini was too small and the flavor of it was just ok.

Stagioni is part of the restaurant group that includes Boa in NoDa and Good food on Montford I’ve eaten here a few times and find the quality consistent, but not worthy of 5 stars. It is worthy of 4, not the 4.5 which it receives on google reviews. A 5 should be a high bar. Any failed execution or lacking uniqueness in a dish should not lead to 5 stars. A 4 to me means your restaurant did well overall, but isn’t Michelin ready, but hey, there aren’t ANY good n NC! Salads, two offerings including a grilled Caesar and a spring mix. Neither unique nor special. Consistent wrt quality however. Meatballs, good, but not with a wow factor. Again, consistent execution. Squash, burned, not well executed. Pizzas are well worth it! Red sauce was flavorful and savory while the Mortadella with hot honey had just the right amount of each ingredient to excite the palate. Rigatoni, good because of the sauce and proper al dente. The choice of meats was classic but the execution in mine fell short with stringy and instead of perfect bites of tenderness. Branzino, was a bit over cooked but not unpalatable, which can happen easily with this delicate fish. The richness was broken by the lack of execution, but the plate setup saved the dish. Shrimp and scallops dish was successful in execution and presentation. Deserts were very good! Zeppoles were fantastic! Excellent Gelote. Wines were pedestrian however, I didn’t expect a fine steakhouse offering from this quaint place.

Wonderful experience, food was delicious and service was great. Very accommodating for gluten allergy, pastas can be substituted for homemade gluten free. Will certainly be back.

Terrible experience. If I could give it a -1/10 I would. I usually don’t go the extra mile to leave bad reviews for restaurants but this one I just had to. We went for my significant others birthday dinner and I felt so guilty I picked this restaurant for her celebration. The food was terrible! Service was even worse, the server never told us him name and was dismissive. The pastas were dry and most of The food wasn’t even worth it. I really wanted to give this place a chance but felt super disappointed. Managers made the experience a bit better at the end but the server didn’t even come back to the table for the rest of the night. Let me just point out I made the manager aware of our problems AFTER the bill was already settled, that way they wouldn’t think we were trying to get free items or be cheap. Diners beware

Friday night dinner with friends. Our server was great - she came to check in frequently and helped switch out the empty plates when needed to (we were party of 8 at a 6-people table). Octopus (appetizer) tasted good. Pizza was great; the mozzarella one was pretty impressive and the crust was thin & crispy. Zeppoli was a must try; freshly fried and soft inside, it was sweet but perfectly balanced out by the temperature & texture. To improve… 1) oysters and mussels (appetizers) were not very fresh and the mussels were not cleaned thoroughly (we found a bit sand and sourness). 2) the reservation was a bit annoying… I had to call for party more than 6, and there was never a real person to answer the call so I had to leave voice message. We ended up updating the reservation by text communication. The I had to reply text to confirm the reservation twice - the day prior as well as on the day. Finally there was another reminder text “You're due at Stagioni in 30 minutes.” Don’t feel good about all those “reminders”, especially there was credit card on file and a $25pp cancellation fee anyway.

Tuesday night dinner - packed & vibrant, loud & dim, as designed but come aware. Order courses together, servers are busy and everything's fast-paced but efficient. My wife loved the striped Bass. I wasn't a big fan of the bone-in pork chop I got, but the sauce and veggies it came with was excellent! The apple cobbler (granola clusters) with ice cream was wonderful, and the complimentary Birthday ice cream (Gelato?) was the best...

This was a truly fantastic food experience and I highly recommend! Everything we tried was delicious. We had the lamb carpaccio, the pork, the scallops and tiger shrimp, a shared bowl of pasta, and 2 desserts. If I went back I would skip the pasta and share a dessert. I highly recommend the pork and the scallops!!! They were to die for! The service was impeccable, and everything was beautifully plated. No question we over-ate, but it was worth the tummy ache afterwards!

Another recommendation from Where Chef’s Eat (if you don’t have this book, you should def buy it. No, I don’t have any financial stake in the sale of this book - I’m just obsessed) and it was a winner. The atmosphere is casual and cozy. The kitchen is open concept, so you can see all the action while you’re warmed by the pizza oven which makes the best pizza in Charlotte (according to the local we chatted with at the bar). We started with the focaccia and the grilled romaine salad with calamari. YUM. We then ordered the pepperoni and fennel sausage pizza and it was the most flavorful pizza I’ve ever eaten. Ever. No idea how they pack that much flavor into a pizza, but it is seriously addictive. We didn’t try the pasta, but we stared longingly at every dish that passed out of the kitchen and questioned why our stomachs refused to consume more food. We ended the meal with an order of zeppole (think Italian beignets). I could bathe in that salted caramel sauce. Overall, a wonderful dining experience! NOTE: make a reservation if you want to guarantee seating. This place is clearly a community favorite because it was packed. We were just passing through Charlotte, so we did not have a reservation, but were able to snag a seat at the pizza bar facing the kitchen. All tables were totally booked!