Vitales Pizza of Ada Inc — Restaurant in Ada Township

A Very Disappointing Experience on 4-28-21 around 1:30pm. Upon entering a sign at the hostess sign said “Seat Yourself “. That’s when our lunch turned south. We chose a high top near the bar. Within minutes we were approached by a stocky short brunette that immediately conveyed her unhappiness by how she spoke and acted. It immediately went downhill from there. It looked liked there was a younger thinner long haired brunette bartender and her working that room. The bartender had a whole different attitude which was obvious by her smile and the way she was greeting her customers both at the bar and in the room. I immediately knew we sat at the wrong table. The rudeness from our waitress continued through our entire lunch, so disappointing. Part way through our lunch our rude waitress stopped by and asked if there was anything else, so we asked for a refill and continued to be polite as from the start. She said ok and headed off never to be seen again. Finally after finishing our meal with nothing to drink I finally waved down the other waitress/ bartender. She swiftly headed over and I asked her if we could get our bill, She said sure. I went on to explain that our waitress has not returned to our table from 1/2 done with our meal, when we asked for a refill. She apologized nicely and I then went on to tell her how rude the other waitress was. The other waitress seen her at out table and beelined it over. The younger one told the other that she’d cash us out. Then our waitress asked if she could still get us the refills (I thought she was joking, but she was serious). We were done with our meals and asking for our bill. A few minutes later our waitress returned and stated she wasn’t going to charge us for our meal. We said why? And she stated that it was ok and didn’t have to pay. I then asked if the Bartender was a manager and she stated they both were. WHAT! I was completely floored that a supposed manager would treat customers in that way and act down right rude. I’ve been visiting most of the Vitales restaurants for 35 yrs from when I used to speak with Sam & Marie at the Leonard st location in the late 80s. We left unhappy with the entire experience regardless of a bill or not. I’ve come to the conclusion that the Vitale family that owns this location is really not concerned about its customers. If they cared you wouldn’t have someone like that waitress waiting on your customers and if she’s a manager, shame on you! I will not return for a long while based on how the place is run and I won’t recommend it to others. It’s all about customer service and of course good food cooked properly. Unfortunately your lacking in a couple areas. Nice finish to your response! I’ve spent so much money at your place over the years. I watched the build on a daily basis. Sometimes reviews are in the heat of the moment, as mine was. I was upset I took an hour out of my day to get a so so pizza, horrible service and then to follow up the owner responded with “ yeah your right” meaning you know you have problems but elect not to fix them. Then your turn this on me by saying I was rude in my review! So you, your son and husband were where when your restaurants falling apart. So are you saying you weren’t even in the restaurant, none of you? To finish, based on your response it sure feels to me that your realizing running the restaurant is over your head. Maybe trying to respond with an understanding of how our experience was and how you could fix it rather than attacking me. I probably would have redone my review with a better tone and higher rating but you have a lesson to learn. I’ll never be back to your place and will not recommend it to anyone. I’m a very successful business owner and know thousands of people in the area. Now down...

Went here for a family dinner with 8 people. We didn't have a reservation, but to my surprise, they were able to add 2 chairs to a 6-top and got us seated. It was probably 15 minutes before we talked to anyone, and 25 minutes before we put in a drink order ("I'll be right back to take your drink order"). There was general consensus at our table that our server was over-booked, but there was no shortage of waitstaff working. The restaurant was not overly-full--I would guess about 75% capacity. I won't throw the server under the bus here because I honestly couldn't tell if they were over-booked. But something wasn't working. I had a simple drink--non-alcoholic, not water--and when I was finally asked if I wanted a refill, it was an hour after I wanted one. I ate my entire meal (which finally arrived) with an empty glass. Since the servers don't actually bring the food out (kitchen staff or runners), I didn't get a chance to ask for the refill, and we would go 20+ minutes between even seeing the server walk through the room.

The bottle of wine ordered by some of the table was brought out unopened, and sat there for 15-20 minutes before someone came back to open it.

The food was... fine. No specific complaints. The menu is incredibly heavy. The people who ordered pasta said it was very good. But if you want something other than pasta, pizza, or large subs/sandwiches, there are few other options--yes they have salads, but something in between all-carbs and yard-clippings would be appreciated.

As we were settling the bill (2.5 hours after we sat down--not because we wanted to have a 2.5 hour meal), we checked the bill carefully to see if a gratuity had been added because we had 8 people--it had not. But we did notice that they charged us nearly $9 for the privilege of using a credit card (or gave a $9 'discount' for cash, however you want to view it). I know it's something businesses are increasingly doing because they get charged for it, but that's between them and their bank. It's a cost of doing business and already built into the cost of the menu items. I don't know who is carrying around $300 in cash for dinner, but that's not how I typically handle large dinners. Depending on drinks and food orders, could be $200-$500. You never know. So I don't typically carry cash for that.

Again, I don't blame our server, but with the number of people working, the workforce appeared to be incredibly poorly managed. So when I say "1-star" for Service, it's the entire service experience, not the specific server.

This one review won't change anyone's mind about Vitale's, and that's fine. It's apparently very popular. If you go in looking to order, eat, and leave in a reasonable amount of time, I...

My server, I believe his name was Henry, was a delight - very warm and friendly, attentive without hovering. I had the special burrata and prosciutto appetizer. It was very tasty (really, how can you go wrong with cheese and prosciutto?) with generous portions, but a little unwieldy to eat. It basically consisted of a ball of burrata served on a bed of arugula, red onions, and prosciutto, with a basket of fresh bread on the side. So you had to carefully construct each bite. I’m not a chef but if I were to recreate this dish at home, I might serve it hot on a flatbread instead. That way the burrata’s warm and spreadable, the arugula’s a little wilty, everything’s a little more melded together and easier to eat. For my entree, I had the lasagna. It came out bubbling hot and was delicious. I ended up burning my tongue several times because I couldn’t help but try to take “just one more little bite” before it had properly cooled off. I don’t know what the ratio is for their meat sauce, but it’s just savory and satisfying. I had the creme brûlée cheesecake for dessert. It’s really just more of a caramel cheesecake (it didn’t have the crusty sugar layer I associate with creme brûlée) but still excellent, decadent, very indulgent, great crust. I THINK they put a little shmear of panna cotta or something similar under the scoop of ice cream, which really just elevated the whole thing. Love Vitale’s, I’m sure I’ll be...