La Favella — Restaurant in Niagara Falls

I think that this was my fifth time dining here and will likely be my last. I’ve recommended La Favella to several friends and clients who were looking for good spots to eat by the Falls in the past and I’ve always summarized it as “the service will be terrible but the atmosphere and food are good and they always have great happy hours”. The restaurant offers the “convenient” option to order and pay from your phone or through a server. In the past we’ve always been handed, or at least offered, traditional menus when sat to allow for a choice between both ordering methods but this time we were sat with no menus, no water, and no explanation of their system.

I came in to celebrate a friend’s birthday (which we noted in the reservation) and were immediately taken back by the sheer volume of the DJ. While a fun vibe is one thing, we sat down and immediately found ourselves screaming across the table at one another, we ended up having to text to communicate despite being 30 cm apart. We’d opted for dinner rather than going to a club because we wanted to chat and catch up over some drinks and dinner but spent most of our night in awkward silence instead.

Because this restaurant wants you to order from your phone, the servers pretty much ignore you at all costs or treat you like you’re causing them great inconvenience if you try to speak to them. When we looked at the menu on the La Favella website one of the pizzas we had planned to order wasn’t on option on the web-order site, so we tried to get a server’s attention to ask if it was unavailable or if it was still something we could order, no luck.

It took 15 mins for someone to come over to our table so we could finally ask for water (throats already hoarse from just trying to talk to one another). We tried to order through the waitress while she was at our table but she walked away before we could (likely unable to hear us, in her defence). This ended up being a disaster as even though I had added food to my tab online, somehow half of it didn’t get submitted properly and one of the pizzas ended up on a different tab altogether, meaning that our food came out at different times. While the food thankfully came out quickly once we managed to sort everything out online, it was disappointing. Our tacos were good but one of the pizzas we ordered had more sauce than toppings and thus was a soggy mess that we ended up having to scoop up with our forks. The flavours were good, and I’ve had good pizza here in the past, but this time was a huge letdown.

We ate quickly and in silence, definitely not the birthday celebration we’d been hoping for. We noticed that the table next to us got a birthday dessert, which raised our hopes slightly, but as we weren’t able to order any dessert (nothing sweet on the menu other than dessert pizza), the reservation note clearly didn’t matter, and it was next to impossible to get a server to come to the table to ask about dessert or inform them we were celebrating a birthday, we ended up not bothering.

While one server did eventually check on us and was friendly (which sad to say was a huge upgrade from previous experiences here) we were all severely disappointed with our experience overall and I was frankly embarrassed to have suggested this restaurant in the first place. While as a longtime server myself, I’m sympathetic that we arrived at a pretty busy time, it seems that the staff know they are making the automatically charged 18% gratuity and therefore do the bare minimum rather than prioritize guests’ experience.

This place has SO much potential it’s frustrating. If the DJ’s volume was lowered enough that people could still maintain some level of conversation and if the servers actually served, this would easily be one of the best restaurants in the area. The food and great cocktails have always been enough to justify returning to this place for me but unfortunately that’s no...

Reservation was made for 8:30, waited 45 minutes to be sat. Was told when checked in that they were waiting for another two topper to finish in order to put our table together..... the table we were waiting on had full drinks and food on their table. My guests were getting ansy so I checked in with the manager - he said there was a 2 hour limit and that the two topper was exhausting their 2 hours so he was about to kick them out to put our table together and our drinks were on the house (though 1 wasn't drinking - ok)... we watched the manager inform the guests but of course waited another 10 minutes for the guests to actually move from their two topper so the manager could actually physically put our tables together. Finally we sat down, not one server came to our table to greet us or apologize for the wait or tell us how this place works in terms of ordering and not even to provide us water or plates for our table. We figured out that it's an order and pay through your phone type of jam - so we order. Btw, my brother in law was so hungry and bothered by the wait, poor customer service, and loud music to which you cannot converse even the slightest bit, he left. Another guest of mine who does not drink ordered a soda which she did not get but rather after some time, food starts coming out so I kindly asked one of the servers for water and the soda to which the server was rude, no expression or response or empathy for that matter, and comes back with one of our alcoholic drinks and not what was asked for. We tried to get her attention again but was ignored. I then asked again for water and the soda, the same server ever so slowly goes and gets us the water but no soda. So I asked another server for the soda, and though heard, we never got the soda. Not to mention, we were never given the plates so really and truly, coming from the food and beverage and hospitality industry and being a person who is passionate about customer care, this was a terrible experience. Truly unacceptable. Quite shocking in fact, we even heard other guests having negative experiences as well. At that point, we've had enough and there was no way I was not making the manager aware. While we appreciate the manager Tufan Dinc hearing me out, apologizing, and then covering our bills (which doesn't truly flip the experience to a positive one and please note, we still gave the manager a $40 tip and said it was upto him what he did with that) and the two gentleman bartenders who made our drinks while we were waiting for our table, the customer service and their etiquette need to be reassessed and evaluated. Respectable owners of Copa Cabana, La Latina, etc. would not be happy with this - puts a bad look to their names. This place could be doing much better if all that I mentioned was corrected. Sadly I would...

I'll start by saying the food tasted good, the prices were incredibly reasonable (especially for the falls), Maria (the shuttle drivee) and the DJ they had was great. The rest of the experience was not as good unfortunately. We get to our table and they don't tell us anything. There's a little sign with a QR code we need to scan and order from there. Which is fine, but no one explains that to you. So my group orders and we order at the same time. Then food and drinks come out sporadically whenever they're ready. One girl got her whole meal before any of us got a drink. It was so awkward, half the table had their meals and the others didn't. My whole table all got all their drinks and food (after a VERY long wait) before I even got my drink and I didn't get anything weird, I got the cheapest cocktail on the menu. So I had to inquire about my drink and then it magically appeared after that and my group was all halfway through their meal. My meal, the burger and fries, still hadn't arrived and most of my group was done their meal. I kept checking my tab to make sure it had gone through and ensure it wasn't my mistake. Of course, my order had absolutely gone through and it wasn't my error. Though, when I checked my tab, it had said the server added 3 items to MY tab that was someone else's meal. So again, I had to inquire about my meal and then it magically appeared after that. So I got to eat alone because my table had all finished their meals. I want to pay my tab to get out there and my tab includes my items and the three items the server added. Which, I'm sorry but I'm not paying for someone else's meal. Again, I had to ask for them to fix it and they said they did. The girl in my group whos items were added to my tab was able to pay for her tab because her tab had my items on it as well. The server insured it was fixed so I go to pay my tab and low and behold, I'm not able to. Great, now I have to bother a server again. I finally get a server and I pay. Also, the 18% gratuity? Very tacky. I wanted to get out of there but my friend ordered a dessert pizza. It was ordered at 7:30 and she got it at 8:30! One hour for a pizza! The best part? We only got it after asking a server and again, it magically appeared after that! Absolutely insane. It's a shame because it's a beautiful restaurant with great food. But with the service and wait time they're offering, I...