Dominique D.
Yelp
This is the same message sent to the owner of Andiamo:
This was by far the worst dinning experience I have had in my life. My family and I were in town for a funeral of a loved one. We had expected a nice family dinner to ease some of the tension and pain that my family was experiencing after leaving the funeral home. We are accustomed to high-end restaurants and having fresh pasta while traveling in Italy. The experience of dinning at Andiamo Bloomfield made our day worst and was by-far below standards for a restaurant within this price range.
After getting out of the car, I fell on the lifted step pavement in the driveway of Andiamo, right in front of the door of the restaurant. This should have been a warning to me...
Before coming, I called for a reservation and asked for a booth. When we walked in we were greeted by a hostess who seemed to have a bit of an attitude and gossiping with a co-worker.
She sat us at a table in the middle of the room instead of the booth, that we reserved.
At this point, I went back to the front desk to ask someone else why we weren't seated in a booth and if we could instead be seated in a corner at a larger table (Specifically for my father, who is disabled, to have accommodating space, as well as conversational space while still in a state of mourning after attending a viewing for a loved one earlier in the day).
It was odd to see the general manager, Rocky Mestari, at the front desk instead of managing the staff. His demeanor was very aggressive mixed with unfriendly and misogynistic from the beginning. He said he couldn't find my reservation and seemed to be scrambling. I had to show him the text I received from the restaurant showing my reservation for him to believe that I had made a reservation.
There were multiple things that were wrong with the experience my family and I had at the Andiamo Bloomfield restaurant. I spoke directly to Rocky Mestari, the general manager about these issues within his restaurant. He had no remorse, empathy or compensation for the overall terrible experience at his restaurant.
They are as follows:
1. Demeanor of all staff and conversation slightly racist jokes made at an attempt to lighten the mood. The personality type within this location doesn't fit the caliber of the restaurant with the hostess, general manager and staff talking badly about guest in front of guest. There was not a happy demeanor inside the restaurant but instead an annoyed mood amongst the staff.
2. The staff was not knowledgeable to their own menu. I was served a Lambrusco that was flat. The second glass I received was bubbly. I asked the waitress why this was and she stated, "it was probably because the bar tender had opened a new bottle." I told the general manager about this (along with other complaints) and he told me "there was nothing wrong with the glass I was served, it was served correctly and he was not going to do anything about it. And the experience I had was a good experience." The misogynist tone in his voice as he mansplained and disregarded my own experience was unsettling.
3. Due to the unpleasant experience we were having, another server stepped in to help our table out. She was very lovely, friendly and personable probably the only person in the restaurant that understood the persona of a well trained server. She offered to pay for two dessert for the table to help with the bad experience. It was my understanding, she was paying, out of her pocket, for these two desserts. None of the three managers ever came over once, to try to make the experience a little better through conversation, compensation or explanation.
This experience was not a one-off experience. Listed on the Andiamo Bloomfield Yelp account multiple people have mentioned the bad service and terrible experience they have had while dinning at this location.
I would advise others to save their money and not waste it on a guaranteed bad experience at this Andiamo location.
