La Stella Trattoria — Restaurant in Nanaimo

We had high hopes for this place. My mother and I, both Italian, heard great things about this “authentic” Italian restaurant. But unfortunately it does not meet authentic Italian standards. The prosciutto was cooked?! On the burnt pizza. We ordered a salad that was basically just a bowl of sliced apples with some cheese and walnuts on top. Italians don’t make food this way. The taste of Italian food is fresh in my mind as I just returned home from a trip to italy to visit family. Others around us also experienced problems with their food that we noticed while dining. We knew this place could not have been run by Italians. We were correct in learning that it is run by Croatians. It meets Nanaimo standards, but thats not saying much. Our server was very nice and I appreciate that nanaimo is trying to create an authentic Italian experience for its residents, but they should consider to study further Italian cooking to improve the dining experience. We did complain about our food to our server, by the way, and received a discount on our bill, which was nice. Thank you for that. But again, to make real long lasting change, fixing mistakes as they happen is not the way to do that. La Stella should be learning from mistakes and making sure they don’t happen again. I have read a few reviews of too much salt in the food, ours was also too salty. This should now be fixed. Just reduce the salt. I have read other reviews that their prosciutto was cooked. Now you should know not to continue cooking it, unless specified. It’s not normally how it’s done. As Italians, we won’t be back as we expect different, but I’m glad that many in nanaimo are able to attend and enjoy, thinking they are eating real Italian food. I don’t live in nanaimo, I live on the mainland. There is a great AUTHENTIC Italian restaurant in port moody called Spacca Napoli. Check it out if you are on the mainland for a more authentic experience! Then you’ll know more the difference. Or go to Italy. 😂 Until next time, grazie, arrivederci e...

Been here before, great food and service so decided to go again with the family to celebrate a special day for us. All was going well until we wanted to order wine. My wife and I like wine and since it was a special occasion, we decided to order a bottle. I don't remember the names, but we ask if we could sample one or two to decide (one bottle was around $50 and the other $80). When the server came back, she said that they don't have any sampling bottles for those wines, which I was fine with, but offered us a sample of something else instead, one of their cheaper by the glass selections. We sampled it and it was not good at all so we simply asked for one of the $50 something bottles and said we would risk it and laughed it off. Next comes someone else, maybe a manager or something, and offers us another sample - what? - and suggests we consider the house red instead of our $50 something choice. My wife and I look at each other, not knowing what's going on...and then it dawned on me. Anyway, we ask if we could have the bottle we asked for and she said it was ok for us to have it, great. She asked if we wanted to keep the sample of house wine as well, I thought that was a nice touch ;). We get our bottle, start enjoying ourselves and ignoring what just happened but the staff had other plans. We were asked five times of we liked the wine. Five. So this is what I think was happening. I am a POC, my wife is not (Scandinavian roots), so I’m pretty sure that the staff thought they would have a fuss over an expensive bottle of wine because someone like me wouldn’t like/appreciate it and may decide not to pay for it so it’s easier to get them to buy something cheaper since they’re more likely not even care either way.

If that isn’t what was happening, then they simply made a family uncomfortable doing a very simple thing: order a bottle of wine for dinner.

The food is good but dining out is more than good food – dignity and respect should also be...

I went to La Stella Trattoria with friends (group of 6) on Saturday, June 29. We arrived at 5:30 pm, and since we did not have a reservation, we signed up on a waitlist. They said we could get a table at 8 pm. We killed time around downtown Nanaimo for 2.5 hours. Just before 8 pm, we went back and were told that our table was unavailable. The hostess told us we would have to wait 30 more minutes, and there was nothing she could do. She did not offer an apology.

The restaurant’s patio area was closed for service, but since it was raining heavily and there was no room inside to wait, we pulled some chairs to have a seat while we waited for a table to become available. Shortly after we sat in the patio the chef came out and told us the patio was closed. We told him we had been waiting since 5:30 pm to get a table. We were about to explain that we would rearrange the chairs once we were ready to be seated inside, but he stormed off, visibly frustrated. After waiting for another 30 minutes, we arranged the patio chairs and went in to check on the status of our table. The hostess told us that the chef felt disrespected and would not serve us that night. We asked to speak to the chef to clarify any possible misunderstanding, but the hostess told us the chef would not be talking to us and that we should leave a message with her instead.

I understand the restaurant was busy, and the staff were probably having a stressful time. However, these issues could have been avoided with a bit more communication and a bit more attention to customer service.

I won’t be returning, and I do not recommend this restaurant since their staff was rude and wasted 3 hours of my time.

If the restaurant manager or staff reads this, I hope they will take this feedback constructively and do better with their...