The Brown Bottle Reviews

Unique setting. Really charming building. The food was excellent; decent portions. I had the 3-cheese manacotti. Delicious, well-made sauce - or gravy, if you prefer. Garlic bread was also delectable. Service was friendly and courteous. Prices were reasonable.

I must say I thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere; especially the music. Perfect play list; totally suited the surroundings.

I will definitely be returning on my next trip to Waterloo.

Wonderful food! The Brown Bottle has an intimate atmosphere, great for a date or an evening out with friends. The wait staff was also very good. They went above and beyond to accommodate my wife's dietary needs (non-dairy Italian food is no small feat). I look forward to our next evening at this fine restaurant.

The lasagna was really good as always! Delicious brownie pie for dessert!

Food was great! Service was great! A tad expensive but very romantic with a great atmosphere. Half price martinis on Friday night.

Excellent setting. We were a large group and our server was a little overwhelmed, but did a good job keeping up. He was very attentive to our needs. The food was excellent. I had the seafood lasagne, which was quite tasty. I ordered a Manhattan before dinner that was lacking the aroma of bitters.

Great place for a romantic dinner. The food has always been wonderful. I've been going here for over thirty years. This is a gem in Waterloo. Quiet, relaxing place to get great food, good wine, and excellent service.

Expensive... Scarce portions... They can certainly improve on the product

Great people, beautiful place, foods okay, I think I just ordered the wrong thing, definitely would go back,

My daughter made my 80th, birthday party. I requested we have it there. They have great food there and I think the Laguna is the best in Iowa. We,also like the,Landua. We had 35 people and the 2 waitress were absolutely great. Thank so much for the service.

NOT a good place to dine!!
Horrible FOOD

Only been there once so far but ordered one of their pizzas and it was very very good!!! IMHO it surpasses the OP by quite a bit, and I'm a Midwest pizza reviewer, I know pizzas!!!!

Had a very enjoyable meal with my favorite gal. The Prime Rib was excellent. And went well with my martinis.

Good Italian food at a reasonable price. Wine list has a decent selection for Waterloo.

Waterloo brown bottle is fantastic as always. JoAnna and staff never disappoints, great atmosphere. Our go to for mothers day. Thanks Chuck and joanna.

Good food, Good Service, and really enjoy Library setting for that special night out!

Great food, very friendly atmosphere & staff, very expensive though.

A Waterloo classic for 45 years. Good, solid Italian style dishes. Great service. Can't go wrong with the lasagna.

Really yummy Italian food. Their raspberry Moscow mule was really good. Lasagna and manicotti are on point!

If you like overpriced, tasteless food swimming in oil, this is the place for you.

This place is awesome. It's so nice and quiet. Music slow and gallant. And the food.... SO delicious!!! That was my best veal ever. So sad I'm staying only 2 days in this town

The food isn't bad, but it's really just a nice Fazollis in so much as quality. Menu items are priced double what they should be.

My first time eating there and went to the Cedar Falls location. For $18 I ordered chicken Parmesan, which turned out to be a $10 actual value meal. The dish was done lazily and without any pride. Not particularly memorable and presented in a way I would expect from a roadside diner.

The cheese around the sides was the consistency of chewing gum. Literally, no exageration. The chicken breast was very small and it took me 2-3 cuts to find it.

Not worth the price. Much better to be had at this price point with far greater quality.

I'm not really sure how I feel about this restaurant. It had its good, its bad, and its ugly.

On the good side, the lasagna was very tasty, if a little different than what I'm use to in a lasagna. The meat was a mix of beef and pulled pork which went well together but it was a little difficult to eat out of the casserole dish it was served in. The bad was the tiny little salad and the cut-in-half single bread stick that came with it. The ugly was the $25 price I paid to go away hungry enough to go find more food.

I love the building/atmosphere and the food is fine though over priced. But the service is just okay and the owner was extremely nasty to me when the food literally made me sick and not one employee offered to help me...they just stared at me and made me feel worse than I already did. Over the years I haven't really made The Brown Bottle my go to restaurant as I used to and last weekend cemented my feelings on this place. I won't be going back.

This is our go to date night. Lasagna is our favorite! Definitely recommend.

The food is excellent and the atmosphere is really nice. It's a bit pricey but worth it for a date night.

Amazing Italian food. I could eat an entire meal of their garlic bread.

The food was good it took 50 minutes to get our salads after we ordered. The table across from us with a different waiter ordered at the same time and the same food and were through eating before our salads arrived. Love this place but I'll think twice before coming here again

the parking is lacking but the food makes up for it!

Fantastic atmosphere, privacy and comfortable seating options. Darker color tones and light make for an intement esperience. Food is classic Italian and generous portions.

Had date night here tonight and it was delicious. Highly recommend the bruschetta appetizer. Loved it so much had to get an order to take home. Thursday night is date night and you can get an appetizer and two entrees for $35. This ALSO includes dinner salads and a piece of brownie pie. Amazing food and price.

We tried to book this venue and the lady in charge of booking (not the lady at the desk she was lovely) was quite rude and wrote us off completely as she was "too busy" even though we had an appointment, she was not accommodating at all. The lovely woman at the desk on the other hand helped us with all we needed

Super Awesome place for italian...great wine list, for such a short one. Waitresses are super friendly and helpful!!! Oh, food is out of this world.

Excellent food, helpful service, and great atmosphere. I've had nothing but great experiences here. A great place to go to celebrate a special occasion. Also, I insist you go out of your way to eat at the Waterloo Brown Bottle, and NOT the Cedar Falls Brown Bottle (they're owned and managed separately).

A five star night . They were busy beyond belief but all guests were treated fairly. No rushing. Just order, sit back and enjoy your meal. Our meals were perfect. Served bubbling hot and tasted fantastic. This was a great Valentine's date night dinner.

A large group of my family and I just recently went to the brown bottle for a college graduation. Although the restaurant was absolutely packed because of the combination of prom, graduation, and mother's day weekend, our table of almost 20 people was served very well. Only a couple of minor hiccups. Very polite staff, appropriately timed appetizers, drinks, and dinner orders were all enjoyed. I love ambiance at this place, and the array of drinking meal choices. I had the veal marsala, which was considerably good. Would definitely recommend for a date or a large celebration like ours.

As I am on oxygen and there are candles on the tables, I presume we were seated in the first dining room as you enter (we were the only ones seated in there during the whole meal). Our waitress was mediocre. She obviously had tables in the other room as we hardly saw her except on her way to other tables. Felt as we were a walk by table. The food was okay. It wasn't the best and not the worst that I've had. Would I go back... probably.

One recommendation, as more individuals are on oxygen nowadays, get battery operated tea light candles for the tables. This way it won't matter where customers are seated.

One of my favorite places to visit. I love Italian food and this is one of the best places to get it. Awesome staff too. Located downtown in an amazing historic building with a beautiful lobby. Great place to take someone you want to impress. Perfect for small/med parties too. They have 2 party rooms etc... I wish parking was a bit better but I don t know what anyone could do to help that outside of changing 5th st into a two way with parking on both sides.

Great place, great service, the food was great. The spaghetti and meat sauce and meatballs was what I had. And would order it again.

My family and I always go to the brown bottle when we visit Iowa, and it never fails to be one of the best meals of our trip

I grew up with this place. It was nice going again.

gluten free menu makes it easier for my family to enjoy eating here. Service was great and food was good. Housemade salad dressing was awesome. Garlic bread had good flavor but crust was too hard and crunchy

Both the Waterloo and Cedar Falls locations never disappoint. Have loved them since the 80s. We even had our wedding rehearsal dinner there. Classy all the way!

Good atmosphere, friendly staff. Great for a date night out.

The service was very good, and bread was amazing, but they have the most bland food I have ever eaten, although they do have very big portions.

Food and service was descent tonight although their signature lasagna which I usually get wasn't smoking hot like usual. For the price, I'm not sure if I'm going to go back for a while.

Good food, service was ok, portions were small for the prices.

Beautiful decor, huge servings! A bit pricey and the layers of flavors are all there, but they haven't melded. Our party of four agreed none of us would order our dish if we visited again. Can't quite out my finger on what's missing???

The garlic bread that comes with the meal is very good.

Great service, good place for a date. Romantic. Food was ok.

Very cool old time hotel building is interesting location. The food the party had was all very good. Seafood lasagna, chicken marsala and baked ziti. Pleasant service comfortable atmosphere.

We felt like the food was overpriced for what we got. Last time we were in, we were served by a man with gross looking long hair. Not too professional looking, that one. We were disappointed by his attitude and poor service.

Good food, nice atmosphere. The cedar falls location is a little nicer, and has much better parking.

I always have a wonderful experience dining here. I have lots of food allergies and have never had a problem. The wait staff is excellent.

Romantic place but service was very slow. Food was good.

Wish larger groups were able to enjoy the environment that the smaller groups do surounded by books and music.. It's so enchanting... Food is tasty

2nd visit 1st was a 2 star as well. Wait staff was slow with every part of the meal. Spinach and artichoke dip was awesome. Salads were ok. Seafood lasagna had SO MUCH BUTTER I was able to pour it out and fill up an entire plate. Waiter was kind enough to replace meal with another option the Shrimp in butter sauce (her recommendation said it was popular). It was a HUGE plate of plain fettuccine noodles with dill and over cooked shrimp. Didn't even take it home. What a waste of money. Way over priced. Cheap ingredients and terrible cooking. Went because we had a gift card.

A great dinner and very good service from our waiter.

Great good. Gotten pretty pricy. Stopped going as often as we use to cause of the prices. But still splurge once or twice a year

can't argue with half price martini's and delicious food

The Brown Bottle is a great Italian restaurant that looks and feels fancy schmancy. The staff looks very polished and is very nice and welcoming towards us every time we go there. The interior is very brown, literally having brown decor and books around the entire place. The food is excellent, and I highly recommend trying the Brown Bottle out!