Casa Mia at the Hawthorne — Restaurant in Berlin

As Saturday night regulars at the bar 2421 under the old ownership we were very anxious to try things out under the new ownership (Casa Mia). We called on Friday hoping to reserve a high top as we had always done prior, but were told that they don't accept reservations in the bar. When we got there we sat at one of the high tops only to be told it was reserved. We took another table and watched over the next hour at least 5 other couples do the exact same thing only to be kicked off the table. If you don't accept reservations why was this table being reserved all night for some mystery diners who never appeared to show up. The food and service all night long was sub par at best. I was only drinking water and my water glass sat empty most of the night and was only refilled when I asked for it to be. When a restaurant can't get filling your water right you know you are in for a long night. So we place our order and about 30 minutes later they bring over two dishes set them down and walk away. Problem was, it was someone else's order. They straightened it out and shortly brought over our order. As we were waiting the waiter says to the couple at the table next to ours, "your burgers will be out shortly," upon which the guy replies, "that's interesting given the fact that we haven't placed an order yet." It was this type of disorganization that clearly tells you that this place isn't close to having their act together. Our food comes: the calamari is amongst the worst I have ever had. The marinara sauce has a serious kick that I didn't like as well. The so called lobster rolls were terrible. You could hardly taste the lobster. The chicken wings weren't much better. My wife did like her flatbread, however. Later on in the evening when all we had on our table was a glass of water, the manager comes over and asks us if we are leaving. I still am incredulous that someone would do such a thing. Never in my life have I had a manager do something so unprofessional. When we told him we were still listening to the music he asked us how things were. I very politely told him that I didn't like anything I had eaten. He said he would bring us over a couple of free drink coupons for our next visit. Believe it or not he never came back. If I wasn't convinced that this place was being run by amateurs before that, I now was certain of it. We waited 20 minutes before walking out. So in summary: terrible food, lousy and slow service, not able to make a reservation even though tables were in fact reserved, and a manager who promises you something that he has no intentions of delivering on. Bring back the old owners...please. Oh, the one positive is the band was excellent and the dance floor was crowded. If this place doesn't keep bringing in top bands they won't last long - tonight's experience was a major...

I ordinarily don't write reviews, but the more I think about our experience at the Casa Mia at the Hawthorne, last evening, I would want to save anyone else from the same torture. During our experience, all we did was wait, except for our table and now I can see why: Wait for our wine, wait for bread, wait for the cheese and olives and lastly our meal. I was so surprised when our waitress came over and told us our bread would be a few minutes longer because it was frozen. hahahaha! Who would tell this to their customer??? Although, I have to say the bread was the best part of the meal, twenty minutes later. There were two specials for the evening, a stuffed pork chop at $29.99 and something else for the same price. Our waitress had to take out her handy dandy pad to read the specials. I remember half of the specials 24 hrs later and she can't remember them in the thick of her shift. When I finally received my wine in a little carafe to pour into my wine glass sitting on the table, the waitress did a little fancy act, pouring the wine from the carafe from a great distance up in the air. She left several drops in the carafe along with the splashes from her amazing act. At $13 a glass, I want every last drop. Sorry......When we got our meal she asked if I could take my meal from her hand because the plate was heavy. OMG! Bring out the meals on a tray, set the tray down and hand our meals to us one at a time if the damn plates are to heavy. I asked for another glass of wine. Ten minutes into our meal, she came to check on us and asked me if I was enjoying my meal. I mentioned I was waiting for my glass of wine to go with the rest of my meal. Another 5 minutes later, I received my wine. I ordered the osso bucco which I ordinarily love , yet the portion I had, had a lot to be desired. Osso bucco should come off the bone with little ease. I had to struggle with a steak knife to get the meat off the bone and had to work around a whole lot of fat. I got so disheartened with my meal that I opted to take the rest home knowing that I could do wonders with what was left which sparked me to write this. I have had my leftovers cooking in a sauce for the past three hours and it is finally coming off the bone. This is how much more time it needed to cook. I was very disappointed with the service and the food at this establishment. It is very unlikely that we will ever...

We went to the Hawthorne Sat Nov 10tht to get some dinner and listen to a band that was playing. We arrived @ 7:15 and entered the bar/dining area. It was a seat yourself situation and although many tables were empty, most had a reserved sign on them. We chose a bar height table for two near the bar. After waiting a few minutes and not seeing a server come anywhere near us I went up to the bar. The bartender told me that the server would be there shortly so I went back to the table. At about 7:35 the server did come to the table and asked what we would like to which i replied; a menu and a wine list. She returned with a wine list and said she would be right to take an order.. At 8:00 pm, 45 minutes after sitting down, we still had not placed any order so I went to the bar and order a bottle of wine. That seemed to cause some confusion at the bar but that is another story. Upon paying for and bringing the bottle back I found the server talking with my wife. She was upset that we went to the bar and I explained that we had been there 45 minutes and just wanted to get a drink. She ended up apologetic and took our food order and brought us some bread. We asked for bread plates, silverware and napkins and she said she would be right back. In the meantime, we are seeing people who came in much later than us get served drinks, order and receive dinner. The band started a few minutes after 8:00 so we enjoyed the music, dancing to a number of songs and having a good time. We continue to watch others around us, that came in later get their food order. At 8:55, 1 hour and 40 minutes after sitting down, we had still not received our food order so I mentioned to my wife that our typical watering hole was still open and we might have time to zip there and get an order in. We looked for our waitress on our way out but there was no joy in Mudville, mighty Hawthorne had struck out. If anyone can review the Filet Mignon or the Grilled Salmon let me know as we would have like to try it but waiting 1 3/4 hours proved to be our limit to patience. We did have a good time dancing to the band and might return....we will just make sure we eat somewhere else first.

We could not rate the food but we did have concerns about the quality of the food that would come out of a place where the quality of the service...