The Italian Grille — Restaurant in Auburn

The food was fantastic, but service was horrendous. We seated ourselves per the signage in the foyer and then sat there...and sat there...and sat there. When the server finally came out and greeted us, they didn't even apologize for us having been sitting there forever. This was a portent of things to come because we never saw her again after our food was brought out. As we were eating several other groups of people came in and sat for nearly ten minutes before going back into the kitchen and calling out asking if there was anyone working. We were just about to go do this ourselves as we had finished eating by then and were going to be late for an appointment if we weren't out of there within five minutes. We ended up being quite late to our appointment because it took over fifteen minutes for her to come out, get us boxes for our food, give us a bill and come back for our credit cards. Considering there were only two other tables in the whole restaurant and she'd already brought them drinks and turned in their orders, I don't know what on earth could've taken that long to do those few things!! We even told her repeatedly that we were in a hurry and she acknowledged that and moved about as casually as you please like she had all the time in the world! The waitress was as sweet as could be, but clearly not cut out for the service industry. We don't hold this against Italian Grille, but plenty of other people probably would. Service is an important aspect of a business, and having an inattentive server with no sense of expediency--especially when the customer tells them they're in a hurry and have somewhere to be--can impact a...

I haven't been in Auburn to eat in a while and we almost accidentally ate at the pizza king because we didn't know it had changed hands. When I say accidentally. we ordered "pizza" watched children doing disgusting things to the underside of the table, and listened to 1 part gossip about a co worker who called off, and one part peppa pig babysitting the children wiping things from their noses under the table. Anywho, we were saved by our friends who informed us that the former owners of that pizza king place owned the Italian Grille. When we got there, it was so nice, it doesn't have a truckstop vibe like that other place does. We ordered our drinks and they were there before I got back from the restroom. (No way was I going to use the bathroom at that other place) and the pizza was amazing! I ordered zupa and it was so good that I wanted to keep eating the minestrone and take the pizza home, but back to the Italian Grille. Our server was very nice, attentive but not the third cheek and we never had to slurp the ice to encourage a refill. Our friends ordered the chicken parmesan and it looked delicious. Nice large piece of chicken and the sauce is thick and flavorful with basil, garlic and other spices. I tried a bread stick, it was delicious. We will be back! Normally we eat in Ft Wayne, but now that we know about the Italian Grille we're going to be...

Sad to give only 2 stars when the food was really good. We were the first patrons there today. Our drink order was taken and the waitress asked if we wanted breadsticks etc. I asked if they no longer have the complimentary bread and she said they did and would bring some out. 15 minutes later I finally got my wine. My husband asked about the bread and we were told it was still in the oven. Did I mention we were the first people there? What got me was I saw at least 2 other tables by this time who had the complimentary bread. ( it is awesome and that's why I wanted it)... Our meals came out before our soup. We asked for it to go. The waitress asked me when we ordered if I would like soup. She never asked me about a cup or a bowl. When soup came out, we could tell they were not same size and she told my husband I ordered the cup-which I didn't. I assumed it would be the same as his. We actually measured my "cup" of soup when we got home and it wasn't even half a cup. This place was great when I went first time. Not sure I'd drive from Fort Wayne just to go...