Ispalina Restaurant — Restaurant in Boca Raton

I never leave bad reviews but this was by far the strangest and most unprofessional dining experience I have ever had, and I feel I cannot in good conscience not warn others. We had a 7pm reservation on a Saturday night to celebrate a birthday. When we walked into the restaurant something was immediately off. The restaurant was full, but weirdly quiet, very few people appeared to be eating, and nobody looked happy. When we sat down our table of 5 was given one menu to share, and the waitress seemed confused when we asked for water with ice. As we ordered things become more confusing: the salmon could only be cooked medium-well, and there was no burger, no shrimp and no chicken available. It took 45 minutes for our appetizer to come out, an underwhelming bowl of grainy hummus with a few small, hard, burned pieces of bread on a plate. After an hour and a half of waiting for our food, we asked the waitress for an update and after checking with the kitchen she let us know our food would be at least another 20 to 30 minutes. At this point, most of the other tables were also starting to complain more loudly or pick up and leave without having been served, and the table next to us literally started to cheer when their appetizer finally arrived (they were there before us!). We finally made the decision to just leave as it seemed clear this was going nowhere and we ended up going out for pizza (shout out to PiZano’s who served us late and the food was tasty!). A person I believed to be the owner was there but never once came to any table to apologize from what I saw. I should have read the other reviews more carefully, but following the advice of another patron I looked up the latest health inspection report and I am very glad we made the decision to leave before the food arrived. I have no idea what was going on at this restaurant but this did not seem to me like just an off night, and I would not recommend this...

THIS PLACE IS WEIRDDDD. Should’ve known something was wrong when we walked in and the place was completely empty at dinner time.

The decor is nice but it’s strange that they play loud movies on a giant projector screen in the middle of the dining room.

Also, the waiter was immediately tryna make the hard sell on the most expensive items on the menu (the tomahawk steak.. bottles of wine). He said he’d give us a good price (..who says that in a restaurant??).

While we’re deliberating over the menu, a random guy who had come in at some point, sat at the bar and was previously chatting with the waiter, calls over to us to say he’s a chef and that he and his chef friends like to order a tomahawk for the table and share it.

We got bad vibes and decided to just get apps and drinks. Even opted to get a bottle of wine. After 15min, we had no wine and no apps. Waiter then walks over to a wall of wines and pulls off an empty bottle and tells us he’s out of the wine we ordered and instead has something better… We decide in that moment to forget the wine and just have the app we ordered (which still hadn’t come). He then pushes back and tries to sell us more stuff. After that we all got up and left.

We got some delicious Italian food and wine a few minutes up the road at Positano’s. Highly...

The food was average. We had the charcuterie board, the burger, and two pasta dishes. Not one bite stood out as awesome. The atmosphere is really pretty but the owner (I presume) yells across the restaurant and his voice echoes on the concrete floor. So let’s just say it is loud. The owner was louder than the music at times which I feel is distracting from the calm glam ambiance this restaurant is trying to embrace. The service was good. Our server checked in with us and made us feel welcomed. I would give this place another shot. But if they can’t figure out how to plate a burger so it doesn’t fall apart or season food for flavor, then I am going to assume they need some more time to get the menu right. The charcuterie board had nothing too special on it. No mustard. The bread you see in the photo didn’t come with the board so if we hadn’t had that then it’s surely...