Italian restaurant Gemma — Restaurant in Tel-Aviv

We had lunch at this place, near Gesher theatre at the entrance to Jaffa. The settings are nice and so is the location. The food is mostly great, tasty and fresh, however we were puzzled by the service. Many places in Tel Aviv bring out orders whenever they are ready, regardless of their 'classic' type (entrée or main dish). It’s usually customary to announce this practice when ordering. We were not told that this is the case. We ordered two entrées and two main dishes and you can imagine our surprise when we received two entrées with one (hot) main dish and significantly later the other main dish. By the time the first main dish was eaten, it was not so hot. Our children had to wait halfway through the meal before they got the drinks they ordered (not before we told our waitress she forgot about it). There is a children menu which includes pasta with various sauces (4 options, to be precise). The pasta in the pasta a-la crème had a funny taste, polenta like. The regular menu mentions an option of corn-pasta for vegans, and we suspected that this is what our children were served. The waitress said it’s not possible, not too convincingly. Overall, our experience was not too good, considering the above. It’s always pity to have bad or amateur service ruin what could have been...

We arrived just 10 min ago in this restaurant (20h50 in a Monday night). After 20min trying to park our car nearby. I am pregnant (8-9months) and wanted very much to eat Lasagna, but, the lady near the door, at the moment we approached her, just said this restaurant works with reservation only and recommended us to go to "bars" nearby because they have Pizza and things. (So, this is how this place expel customers?) I was clear that I would like to eat Lasagna. I was dressed with long light blue dress, my chanel purse and Havaianas. She looked to my Havainas with that look as if I was not that elegant for that place. As well as did not offer us the bar (that we saw it was empty, besides 2 guys seated). And obviously, with all her "great" service, she did not open the door for us, she was just there staring to our faces, even when we seemed a bit lost with the closed front of the restaurant (a blurry glass). 2 friendly customers just left with wine glasses in their hands and opened the door for us "accidently" because they left the restaurant. And plus, my husband and I were with our son (2y) after 8hrs in the Hospital. The results of her reception? I will NEVER consider again this restaurant to eat, because the service, from the very beginning, was very...

First of all, very nice ambience and location. The restaurant itself doesn't have a particular theme in it's design, but it's comfy and we'll designed.

Now for the important part: the food. The first dishes are mostly nice, if overpriced (45-65 NIS). This is balanced out by a respectable dish size and good taste. The main courses in comparison, are relatively cheap (60-85) and are good sized, excellent tasting dishes. obviously the dishes revolve around pizzas and pasta.

My only complaint is with the desserts, which while not bad, just felt lackluster and didn't really stand out in any way.

Overall: Price: 4 stars Food: 4 stars Service: 4.5 stars Design: 4...