Diana G
Google
I felt like a Times Square tourist… And not in a good way-The quality of the food was very good, but that is the only real positive I have for Scalitenella. where to start?
should I start at the end when I received a phone call from the restaurant at 11:45 PM(!) accusing me of leaving without paying my bill. Here’s how it unfolded:
1. THE RESERVATION - reservation was for 7:30 PM but not seated until 8:30 PM. The restaurant is small and very full. Kudos to them but wasn’t great for us.
2. THE BAR WAIT - we were asked to wait at the bar, which is quite small, we were a party of three, and there was one chair available. So we squeezed in and took the one chair and two of us stood for an hour. The entire time we were there an older gentleman was giving us the stink eye. because he felt he was there before us when the hostess asked us to sit there.
…at this point, things are still salvageable
BUT THEN,
3. we are finally seated and instantly affronted with a very busy waiter, who proceeds to give us 3 very paltry menus, and then rattles off probably 30 “specials“ but as he’s rattling off all those specials, he’s NOT rattling off the prices - no clue on pricing
4. tried to order appetizers (since we were seated an hour later than we had anticipated, the couple I was with was hungry) but i was told, as the waiter huffed off “not placing any orders until you order your entrée”.
6. later a busboy whisked away my friends appetizer plate and fork out of her hand. She was not done eating.
7. we asked for our leftovers to go, but the beef carpaccio that was left (1/2 of the order) didn’t manage to make it into the box with the leftover pasta.
8. in the end, we had three appetizers, two entrées, a glass of champagne, a martini, a glass of wine, a port, and two desserts.
9. The bill with tip came to $420+/- which I paid with my AMEX at 10:22 PM, and which I also retained a customer copy receipt of thankfully. so imagine my surprise…
10. ACCUSED OF NOT PAYING - when at 11:45PM I get a phone call accusing me of leaving without paying my bill. I did have two martinis so in the back of my head I’m thinking anything is possible… So I checked my Amex card and sure enough it showed the charge pending and I had a copy of my receipt that was printed out from the processing machine.
I called the restaurant back and explained the situation and they said they would check into it and then they called ME back and told me I paid the WRONG bill….In a way that made it sound like it was my fault that I paid the wrong Bill, not that they gave me the wrong bill and i paid it accordingly. (My bill was actually $60 less than the bill I paid). I was asked to come back in so that they could credit the wrong Bill an recharge me the correct amount. I told them I would be in the next day, they wanted to know what time and I said I didn’t know. The next day a woman called me and asked me what time I would be in or if they could take my credit card information over the phone…at This point I am not comfortable giving my credit card information to the restaurant over the phone so I told her I would be in later; the woman aggressively asked me if I could be in “now” and I told her no I was working and she said can you be in within an hour and I said no I’m working and she said “when can you be in” and I said between 4 o’clock and 5 o’clock. none of this exchange is friendly or apologetic on the Restaurants part. I did get to the restaurant later that afternoon, and they did process the credit for the $60…i received a hug for my troubles but even that felt disingenuous.
I was hoping for a neighborhood, Italian restaurant experience at a high end, but I ended up walking away, feeling like a Timesquare tourist to be taken advantage of. I would not go back, nor would I recommend dining at this restaurant.
I understand that they were left with one ticket unpaid, but who calls a customer at 11:45 at night to accuse them of not paying their bill without making sure it isn’t their mistake first - 🤷🏻♀️