La Vita E Bella

Reviews 4

DA

David Allen

Called for carry-out Sunday night 7/17 around 8. (Too long to read; bad service, subpar food) They picked up the phone and hung up on us 4 times before we could even order. Shouldve given up but we had out hearts set and our orders in mind. First time I called, I realized our order wasnt complete so I said Id call right back. I didnt want to keep someone on the phone while I talked to our family asking what they wanted, especially if they were busy... I called back, got a distinct pick up and hang up. I called again, asked to place a carry out order, guy said to hang on. He set the phone down without hitting hold and left me there for 10 minutes. My father-in-law called while I was on "hold", they hung up on me, picked up his call and immediately hung up on him.... Pops called back again, they pick up, he kindly asks for carry out and mentions that they kept hanging up on us. The guy on the other end said oh yeah, "theyre having trouble with the phones"... We placed our order. Were told itll be ready in 15. Ominously bad start. I started heading over to see how busy they were and to wait at the bar. When I got there, a server, Sean, offered me a menu, I declined and told him I was waiting for carry-out. I stressed "there is absolutely no rush", he joked "thats for sure" because they were clearly overwhelmed. After 10 mins of tense waiting, he rings me up and jokes "thatll be $3million." Cant fault the server, Sean, for trying to make light of a tough evening, granted he wasnt aware of the whole ordeal yet. He told me the food would be right out... I sat there for 20+minutes without any further acknowledgment from the staff, no drink offered to me, no conversation. Sure they were busy, but the only other person at the bar, maybe a friend of theirs, got banter from several members of the staff, a shoulder massage from the guy that kept hanging up on me, a free glass of wine... I was sitting there appalled with no beverage in front of me and feeling wholely unwelcome... I started reading reviews on here and saw that the food we were about to get was most likely going to be sub par... Whatever. We were in too deep. I was able to tell the server that helped me about the mess up. He apologized but the damage was done, I just wanted our food. After a long wait, I was charged for the food, Sean apologized again, as best he could, and I walked away with our meal to the parting statement of "I hope the food makes you forget about this!" As expected the food was underwhelming. Pizzas were not very hot after a very short walk. Toppings were meh, sauce, meh, crust not too bad but also meh. I got the Rigatoni de Pesce: As I saw on another review it was made dry pasta. The ingredients were cooked separately and thrown together last minute. The sauce and seafood in the pasta was pretty good, cant complain too much about that. I was ravenous. The dry pasta is excusable. The whole dish put together was lacking. The service was atrocious, despite Seans attempts to rectify with his personality alone. Its apparent they had an unexpectedly busy night while being understaffed but this doesnt excuses many of the service gaffs I experienced. Im a former server, I know what its like to be busy. Telling the truth with humilty and a smile, offering little things to make the customer feel a bit better can go a loooong way. Service, or lack thereof aside, Im especially sad the food didnt make up for the experience. Not cheap. Still tipped Sean. Wont be going back.

KA

Kalab Washburn

I went on a date here because the reviews were pretty much favorable. First the good. The service was fine. We got sat really quick, the waiter was awesome; he was helpful and attentive. The only thing I didnt like about the service, and this is unusual in my experience, it was a little too prompt. We got our food 5 to 10 minutes after we ordered it and the check came seemingly as the last bite of food came off the plate. They werent packed and we could have sat Im sure, it just felt a little pushy. But again, the service was spot on overall and I tipped them for that. HOWEVER, the food wasnt good. Frankly, it sucked. It could have been what we ordered, the Cannelloni and Spaghetti di Mare, or that they had an off night I suppose. The Cannelloni was bland and a small portion. I dont mind a small portion if the food tastes good, this just didnt have a lot of flavor. The Spaghetti di Mare was obviously made with dry noodles, which isnt always bad if the rest is done well but the rest wasnt done well. The sauce was lame and the shell fish tasted like it was cooked separately and dumped in right before plating so the dish didnt have any continuity of flavors. The bottom line is I wont be going back and I wont recommend this place either. In fact I will tell people to stay away. Some people get really bent out of shape about service, and while bad service can be annoying, I think people have got too used to being served and they have unrealistic expectations, plus the service here was good. Conversely, the food is the biggest thing for me and this place does NOT deliver.

CH

Chelsea Snodgrass

I had a great dinner here one night with the boy. We came on a coupon, per our usual, and were pleansantly surprised by the quality and deliciousness of the food and the ambiance. We had a table in the back but we could here the accordian player very clearly. This was a Friday night and the restaurant was about 50% full. We each ordered a salad; mine just their green salad with balsamic dressing and he the caprese. I really loved how large and delicious my salad was. He was a little underwhelmed with the caprese. We then shared the halibut special that came with fried polenta and veggies and a tomato caper sauce. The sauce on the halibut worked quite well with it. The portion and freshness was great given the price of the entree. The other entree we ordered was the gnocchi with pancetta and a red creamy sauce. This was DELICIOUS. Maybe the best gnocchi I have ever had. We would have licked the plate clean if we werent anticipating dessert. We topped off the meal with their famous tiramisu and a decaf coffee and savored every bite of the rich "pick me up". The owner was our server and was very friendly and extremely authentic. I felt like I was momentarily in Italy and that was just perfect for a relaxing Friday night out.

LI

Lizz L

Went here for lunch today after hearing amazing reviews about it. Food was great, everything tasted good, cheap prices but the service was disgusting and unprofessional. The server Lori claimed to be the owner, told our group of 10 people that she wasnt allowed to split the check and we all have to manually go through and pay with card whatever we think we owe. While figuring everything out people were getting confused and Lori decided to get extremely disrespectful and rude towards us asking us "what is your guys problem" "why are you guys getting pissy". Lori, the self proclaimed owner, walked over to another customer sitting at the bar and proceeded to speak badly about us saying "I dont know what their problem is, Ill tell you about it when they leave" which is highly unprofessional and childish. She proceed to rush us out the restaurant. We went back over the receipts after we left, only to find out we got charged twice for one persons meal. Extremely disappointed in the service, we tried to figure everything while in the restaurant but just gave up when we were given such disrespect.