David R.
Yelp
My niece's birthday celebration was October 20, and she chose Catelli's as her restaurant of choice, most of us had been there a few times, we all thought it was a great choice. We were a party of 15, your reservation vs special event policies are a bit cumbersome, but we worked through that and settled on a 3:30 dinner reservation. We arrived a few minutes late, I believe we were being seated at 3:40, due to our tardiness, a point Manager Tony was too quick to point out, how he needed the table right after us for another large party . Our waiter James was phenomenal, attentive, offered substantive recommendations, even from afar, he would look at each of us to be sure we were having a good time. I ordered the Lasagna, reading somewhere it was voted as one of the top ten lasagna's in the United States. The flavor was OK, the taste as well as the presentation made me think I was eating a casserole. I truly would not have known this was lasagna if I hadn't ordered it as such, the sauce was a bit sweet, reminiscent of its origins being canned. It lacked the nose and taste of fresh herbs. My wife started with the beet salad, she was impressed it was made with golden beets, although hers came with red beets. My son was enjoying the last of his hanger steak, two more bites to go when Manager Tony came and cleared his plate. We were here for a Birthday Celebration, at this time, we were told by Manager Tony we were not allowed to have a desert we brought in, I asked him if we could bring an outside bottle of wine in for an appropriate corkage fee, "of course" he said, so then I asked why not charge for a desert brought in? His answer was "because of Covid", and regardless, he had another large party coming in and needed the table. We paid, we left, had a wonderful desert at the Geyserville Sculpture Trail, what a wonderful place. On our way out I did notice the outside patio was less than half way full, as was the primary dining room inside, hardly a need for Manager Tony to hurry us along.
Bottom line? The food was mediocre at best, but everyone is allowed an off day in my book, but your level of customer service is not allowed to be sub-par if you are going to be the elevated restaurant you strive to be. The difficulty with making reservation with Tony before hand, his lack of being warm and welcoming as we arrived, and his need to rush us out when your establishment was less that half full, make me want to not come back. However, if I do, I will call ahead to assure Manager Tony has the day off.