Dontino's La Vita Gardens

If you ever find yourself in Akron, Ohio and you're craving some amazing Italian food, you've got to check out Dontino's. It used to go by Lavita Gardens until the Dontino family took over in 1975, and it's as cozy and authentic as it gets. I just had their spaghetti special, and oh my, you're in for a treat! We're talking homemade meatballs to die for, sauce that tastes like it's straight from Italy, a super fresh garden salad, and bread that's so fresh it's practically singing. And guess what? It's only $7.95! I grabbed my food to go, but the place is so charming I'm planning to dine in next time. I think you should give it a try, too. Trust me, your tastebuds will thank you. Take care and happy eating!

Visited recently for the first time. Great service, food was delicious. My husband ordered the ravioli with meatballs and I had the rigatoni with meatsauce. Next time, I will order the meatballs with the pasta as they were scrumptious! Bread came with the meal. Salad with house dressing is a must. Took home a slice of lemon cake and chocolate cake for dessert. We will be back :)

I've enjoyed catering before from this restaurant, but when we went recently, I found myself disappointed in my chicken parmigiana - it was chewy, greasy, and lacked flavor... But the fresh pasta was absolutely incredible and their salad and house made vinaigrette is absolutely delicious. Overall, it was a great time and the atmosphere and service is good. I do highly recommend ending your night with a cappuccino and a few cannolis which were wonderful!

Dontino’s La Vita Gardens Craving the taste of Italy? Stop by this family-owned gem that’s been a part of the Akron area for nearly 100 years! From the place mats and color schemes, to the vintage photographs and decor, Dontino’s La Vita Gardens serves something we think is super important in dining experiences: authenticity. We absolutely loved the style of this restaurant, and want to go back just to sit at the beautifully arranged bar (which we are SO sad we weren’t able to photograph). We didn’t get anything to drink, but were plenty satisfied with our pre-meal bread and salads. The house-made Italian dressing was absolutely wonderful, and the bread was fresh and refilled promptly upon our request! For our main courses, we got the baked manicotti and the spaghetti with mushrooms. The spaghetti dish was very average, and we weren’t too wowed by any uniqueness or flavors. But the manicotti dish was absolutely DELICIOUS, and was probably the freshest we’ve tasted. Additionally, Dontino’s menu is large, diverse, and filled with incredibly reasonably priced items. Overall, it’s likely in the cards for us to visit again and try something new!

I would give more Stars if I could. This is the closest tasting food, comparable to my Italian grandmothers dishes, that I have found. Comfort food is an understatement, it's just like grandma used to make. Excellent everything, wait staff is so kind and attentive,the atmosphere is cozy and the food of course is soooo Amazing, I always say I'm going to try something new ,but I end up getting same dish, chicken Alfredo, Yum!

I ordered their stuffed shrimp linguini; it arrived cold and bathed in oil. I was reluctant to send it back since I worked in restaurants before and I know better; also, our client/host was buying the group dinner; I didn't want to be ungrateful and also wait for my entre to be reheat/exchange. The waitress was friendly and attentive, and drinks and foods came out rather quickly. It was odd that they didn't provide knifes for bread.

Went last Saturday evening - they were hoppin’ but we were seated within 5 minutes (after being told it would be 15). I ordered the Eggplant Parm and my friend ordered the stuffed shrimp. We received our salads - cold and crisp greens with beets and tomatoes and their house dressing which we both love… then our server came over and very apologetically informed us that they were out of the stuffed shrimp - no problem- we like everything there so my friend chose the mixed ravioli- one of the nightly specials- the raviolis were filled with cheese, sausage, or spinach, and very good. My eggplant parm was exactly as I like it- sliced very thin and there were 2 HUGE cuts and a side of spaghetti. The Italian bread delivered was delicious- and our server was on top of things - timely on drink and bread refills and checked on us to see if everything was good. Her name was Nicole- ask for her if you love attentive but not intrusive service- she’s great. Still my favorite Italian food in Akron!