Capitano Italian Coastal Kitchen — Restaurant in Beach Haven

I don't often feel the need to write reviews; however, it is crazy to see that this place still has four stars on Google. Also, from reading ALL of the reviews left for this restaurant, it is astonishing to me that the owner only comments on two of the bad reviews. A good owner would comment and address every bad review. Even more astonishing, the owner responds to the two bad reviews in such a nasty way. If you own an establishment, you should be treating every customer with respect, even if they had a bad experience. Shame on the owner for treating people this way, and shame on the owner for allowing this restaurant to continue running.

Our group of six were seated immediately; however, we sat at the table for over thirty minutes before our order was taken. We then continued to sit at the table for an hour before our meals were brought out. We did not order any apps. Four of our meals were brought out together. After ten minutes, the fifth meal was brought out. My fiancee ordered short ribs that were nowhere to be found. We called over the waitress after waiting another five minutes. She checked on the short ribs and said that they would be out in two minutes. After waiting an additional ten minutes, it was clear that the short ribs were never ordered to begin with. My fiancee got up and spoke to someone to let them know that she did not want the meal anymore. Our group was done eating -- why would she want her meal after everyone finished eating? The waitress was very apologetic; however, it would be common decency for the manager to come over to the table to apologize.

The food that we received was meh. The shrimp parm was swimming in sauce. The sauce for the chicken parm tasted like it came out of a can that you would find in the supermarket.

It also seemed like the waitress avoided us on purpose after my fiancee spoke with her about the short rib never coming out. The waitress quickly brought out the check after being confronted, and did not return to our table. If a table is not satisfied, you should be paying more attention to them. The place was very busy on a Friday night, but if you do not have the staff to keep up with the tables, then you need to close reservations.

For a place that claims that they serve authentic Italian food, you would be better off going to Olive Garden and actually eating edible food that comes out quickly.

Safe to say that we will not be returning. Shame on the owner for treating people who write honest reviews about this poorly managed restaurant like dirt. Only come here if you would like to waste your time and money. Go to...

Oof. I feel bad for the girl serving us tonight but I have to post my review. My daughter and I came in tonight for dinner after a higher rated restaurant a block over was closing up early. I was purposely not coming here due to its poor google reviews but it was late and my child is young (and demanding spaghettis and meatballs) so I was in a bind. Let me preface this review with acknowledging that it is the off season now and I allowed a lot of grace due to this. We arrived around 7:45. It was only one girl waitressing/hosting which didn’t trigger any red flags since again, off season. Anyway after ordering, bread and salad arrived timely, but that’s where it ended. We waited for almost an hour for the food to come out, which was two entrees of pasta (kids spaghetti meatballs and baked rigatoni). The table next to us was also pissed off because their food took even longer than ours. The waitress was MIA for quite some time at this point, when she came to bring another table their entrees I was able to flag her down and asked how long til our food would be ready. At which point she tells me that she’s sorry and she was HELPING TO COOK!!!! Can’t even make this up. I do feel bad for the girl because it’s not her job to waitress, bus, food run, hostess, AND cook. When I asked for the check I asked her where the rest of the kitchen staff was and she explained that the owners/managers didn’t come in as they were planning to do. Shame on these owners. I’ve been industry for two decades, you don’t leave your staff in the lurch and understaffed. You can never predict exactly how busy a night might be. If you can’t afford to hire managers (which a manager should ALWAYS be staffed regardless of the season), then at very least make sure the kitchen is fully staffed. The food was pretty good considering, even though my baked RIGATONI was served with penne. Lol not a huge deal but maybe to someone else it might’ve been. Pretty restaurant, prime location, not bad food. Poorly managed though unfortunately. Do better El Capitan! Staff a manager, hire more seasoned wait staff and your reviews will be a...

FOOD WAS RAW!!! (Long Review)

I will start by saying, it is absolutely your choice to go to this restaurant however I would STRONGLY advise against it…

This place deserves nothing but a 1 Star review. To start we were met with a server who was very nice at first and we read over the menus and started with the fried calamari. It came out and although the flavor was good, it was not crunchy AT ALL! It was very soft and overall very subpar.

We then ordered our entrees and this is where we had the most trouble. Each of our 3 meals was to come with a side salad. I just wasn’t offered one, my friend was but was not told the options and my boyfriend was told the options but very quietly. We all ended up ordering a caesar thinking that would be included, WHICH SHE DID NOT SAY IT WAS GOING TO BE AN UP-CHARGE!! (But I’ll come back to that)

We ended up getting our food and salads, my boyfriend ordered the steak special and the steak tasted not only unseasoned BUT JUST LIKE A REGULAR BURGER! It honestly was beyond disappointing. But then I ordered the lobster ravioli…

AND MY SHRIMP WAS RAW!!! I was absolutely disgusted, it was lukewarm and still grey(like uncooked shrimp is..)

All in all we got our check to see we had been up-charged $7 for each caesar salad that was only a sides worth anyway. Our server also ended up having an off put attitude toward the end as if she just wanted us out of the place.

Please if you can avoid it absolutely do not go here and if you do make sure your food is...