Filomena Cucina Rustica — Restaurant in Berlin Township

Tldr: As a few recent reviews have pointed out, Never Under Any Circumstance Book Your Wedding Here. Im grossly embarrassed to have brought my loved ones here. As a groom who booked his reception: (I waited a couple weeks to post this. After speaking with the owner Guseppi i am now confidently out 7800 dollars and my wedding reception memories..) I was married last friday the 18. Seemed reasonable, and as an Italian i liked the idea of treating my guests to an Italian meal, even though im vegetarian. Dominica seemed at first to be ready to meet any need. Crafting our order also seemed easy enough. 3 hours of beer and wine, otherwise cash bar. We made it clear we were attempting to be frugal, avoiding extras in every way. We veered toward the vegetarian appetizers (obviously), and a special order for me was offered for entree. The thing is, at our confirmation call to order the entree count i couldnt have that order made anymore. My option was eggplant or pasta & veggies.. Why an Italian joint cant work out a peice of lasagna without meat is just beyond words. Day of: After 40 mintues (not greeted all guests), I was pulled aside to discuss the bill. This was out of line. To make a matter out of money in front of company.. There was a bill dispute. About a mythical tab. Appearing out of nowhere being charged to me. They decided to charge all liquor orders to our final bill. Why? I have no clue. We were supposed to have a cash bar. I asked to switch to a cash bar. Begged even, but Dom cited a pencil written "contract". Why I ask, to argue with a guest about this now only points out she shouldnt have been doing it. This also makes clear this wasnt the agreement. So embarrassingly I demanded she cut off the tab. What else could i do?! We never factored that money in. She told us before the event if guests wanted liquor they pay for it, to the point our guests were asking the servers how to pay for their orders, and the servers were telling them "the hosts are taking care of it." Than my guests were being yelled at by servers when they went to the bar and got their own drinks! I watched my uncle stopped by a server, and she proceed to yell at him. Servers really shouldnt make practice of yelling at guests, nor employers encourage it.

Also, my bride and I were never offered drinks of ANY kind.

Our appetizer order was wrong. We didnt pick Swedish meatballs, or beef sticks.

They rushed us to cut our custom cake, than took it away and put random ice cream on it without permission. Not great flavor combos. More money and sentiment ruined.

After we cut off the liquor tab, they cut off our beer and wine service. (We still payed for it though)

Heres the thing, why pull me out of my one, and only, ever, wedding reception to discuss a bill that you weren't so sure about? Why not work with me, and make more money?

If you want Italian hospitality for any day of meaning, this is NOT the place, mine was ruined. Olive Garden woulda killed it comparatively.

(Response to owner's 4 month late reply) The last time we spoke on the phone you hung up, cursing me off. Now before Valentine's Day you want something from us!? Regarding your bar service. We have asked numerous times, including the night of the wedding, for copies of this supposed contract. We always got a run around, and were shown the same submital form from day 1. When we were shown the order form it was written in pencil.. There was clear reason we, our parents, and most guests were under a different impression regarding the alcohol. Its because either this expectation was never translated to us, or it was made up on the spot. Like the rest of our event..

Your response feebly attemps to hand wave the entire rest of my point. My wife and i never recieved service! My guests were belittled for getting their own drinks at the bar! The food was largely wrong. Our cake was ruined with ice cream. It was just all around bad dude. End of story. Let be 100% clear. I personally asked no friends to comment. I made my terms clear 3 months...

I went here with a gift card. *Any time I pay with a gift card I alway check balance before ordering. * So a friend an I went during lunch and I gave the waiter the gift card asked him to check balance. He assured all is well but hav it to some person at front desk. This female came to tell me they just got there system changed an it would take a few minutes to get on line an check balance. Note: by this time so much time passes and wasted, my friend and I decided to order because I was certain there was $50 available since checking on the phone a week prior. So we order lunch, and still no word from that female. I check with waiter to go asked said person and he said she’s sorry but they can’t get to get on line to check so he places gift card on table while we are finishing lunch, I said will get coffee just give us the bill will pay a different way, we order coffee he brings bill, we pay and enjoy a coffee, and in the mean while I get a call from my husband he got hurt on his head I had to leave to take him to the ER. I panic head out leave my friend behind as she is running behind me and the gift card is still on table. Once I get home see my husband he is bleeding but under control we head to urgent care. While waiting to be called in I realize the gift card is still on the table. I call Filomena in Berlin. Get the female on the phone that was pretending to run my card and she claims I’m sorry not sure how you dealt with, I’m like seriously lady you were only female there beside male waiters. Once I explain the whole thing over ( only been about 30 mins since this whole deal - short term memory I guess) she said oh I see your table but no gift card is there. I said can you check with buster or waiter we left with 2 tables on other side only place was empty it since passed lunch hour while talking an drinking coffee. Not like someone swiped it off the table. It’s not that type of place. It’s all business people and tables are not to close where others were sitting. In fact it was 2 men in a suit and a lady with an other person in a wheel chair type seat. So I said well since you finally remember the gift card couldn’t be run due to lack of good equipment can you issue me another card. She said nope sorry we would of saw it if you left it behind. I will NEVER step foot in this place again. They are not customer friendly or are they true about their lack of checking on gift cards. They want you to spend more money once they got in in the place. They figure your there now you’ll come any time to use the gift card. He’ll to the NO WAY!!! Never will be back an definitely telling lady groups and friends not to go there. What a gimmick in not having a working “gift card” machine so you pay another way. Then to steal it back so you can’t use it. Horrible customer service and will not return nor will my friends and I pass the word every time I get with people at luncheons and dinners. Wish I could rate this van place a...

My family and I got dinner at Filomena's at the Berlin location. We had dinner here previously and had a great experience with the food and staff. Unfortunately, tonight, we had a terrible experience.

First of all, one of the dishes we ordered was the Linguine with clams. Compared to previous times, the portion size was much smaller, almost 1/3 compared to before. We did not mention this to our waitress at first because we did not want to make it a big deal as we enjoyed coming to this restaurant.

However, our second issue regarding the bill really disappointed my family and myself. We ordered the penne alla vodka pasta dish and added chicken to it. The menu did not specifically indicate the upcharge for chicken, only crab meat (+6, total 25). However, on another dish, the fettucine alfredo, it says that the chicken was an additional $4. So I assumed that the upcharge would be $4 for penne alla vodka as well. The waitress did not mention anything when I ordered this. Then when the bill comes, as we reviewed the bill, we noticed that we were charged +6 for crab. We questioned our waitress about this and said we ordered chicken and not crab. She spoke with the owner (the brown-haired woman who stood at the front desk) and the waitress relayed the message from the owner that chicken is now +6 because crab is now +11 (total 30). This was in no way communicated to us prior. Also, the owner was confusing because she mentioned that crab prices increased, but also that they were not selling crab. The whole crab/chicken thing just did not make sense and it raised concern.

We ended up paying the bill as is. On our way out, we wanted to confirm the menu prices. We spoke to the owner directly and she was curt, unprofessional, rude, and overall very unpleasant to interact with. We were very disappointed with how the situation was handled as the owner did not own up to the lie that was relayed to us from the waitress and also restated to us face to face. It had nothing to do with the $2/3 mischarge, it had to do with the disrespectful attitude and blantent lies about crab and the recent upcharge. If that were the truth, it should have been communicated when we ordered and relfected on their menu. Simply put (while I know this was still a long review), this could have all been avoided if the menu was accurate and the staff relayed any changes on the menu. It did not have to result in a conversation/arguement with the owner at the front, which also should have been diffused. Overall, we did not receive any apology from the owner and resonate with the review left by Robert Ludwick (2 weeks ago). It's unfortunate to hear this wasn't the first time and most likely will not...