Kristine H.
Yelp
Horrible experience at Cafe Fiore! June 27, 2024 @ 5:00pm. And please note, we are locals and have frequented this restaurant for years.
For this evening, we had a friend visiting who wanted to come to this restaurant. Reservations were booked for 5:00pm days in advance (and noted for patio as she was traveling with a dog). We arrive at the hostess station on time and stand and stand. A young man was back and forth but no acknowledgment.
None!
Nobody waited on us, even though he was right at the counter. Seriously all we needed was a smile, a hello and be with you in a moment! We all totally understand when things get busy (but it was NOT busy).
Finally, a young woman with short black hair comes to the hostess station only because the telephone was ringing and AGAIN...NOT EVEN EYE CONTACT with us or a smile and instead of putting the telephone on hold, she continues to talk on the phone. At length! At this point we discuss leaving but I said loudly that I guess the phone call was much more important than the guests - whom had reservations - and were standing here in person right in front of her! Seriously this was appalling. She acted like it was such a bother to greet us let alone take us to our table.
She finally, with a huff, shows us to the table in the rear patio. The last table in the back. We were seated next to an extremely drunk obnoxious man located directly next to us against the brick wall. He had a sweet old dog with him that we all felt sorry for as this man had no ability to care for the dog. The man was so drunk. From the moment we sat down. He would not stop shouting at us. We were polite at first then decided to ignore him. This is one of our biggest issues, the server kept giving him additional alcohol when he requested!! Where is the protocol for stopping this excessive behavior?? Talk about feeding fuel to the fire.
Part way through our dining experience, this drink man tried to get up and fell. Hard. Crashed against his table and caused all the glass to crash to the ground. Only one other two-top table was occupied, and the two of them and the three of us were just appalled and shocked at this was happening as we are trying to spend a nice evening having dinner.
Back to us. From the start, service was horrid! This was a Thursday early evening and not busy!
We had to ask for waters. Twice! My husband had to get up and go into restaurant to find a server to ask for Parmesan cheese, we had to go in and ask for another drink, on and on. No bread basket and bruschetta spread was ever served, really. None! In all the commotion we forgot about it until the meal was done. This should not have been on us. They should've served it at the top of the meal.
Food was mediocre at best. My friend ordered the Risotto con Pollo e Finghi . It was watery and not creamy. Looked like out of a box! My penne All'Arrabiatta was just blah. Not dressed with any presentation. Food is simply not up to a level for these prices. I swear they are serving boxed or premade frozen foods.
All in all. Simple not acceptable! Trust me. We will not be back. And we will spread the word. We gave them chances. We had another horrid treatment about 3 years ago with rude treatment by the owner - an older woman with dark hair - when she treated us with bad manners from the start. But because we enjoy the patio and the foods we've giving them more chances. We sure miss the days of Ursula and kind servers. We're Thomas Fire survivors, we love this town. But we do not want to be treated like crap especially when prices are so high to go out to dinner. We spent $103 NOT including tip. And hated the entire evening. It's just not right.