Strega — Restaurant in Boston

One of the worst restaurant experiences of my life. My husband brought me here for Valentines dinner on Saturday night. I've been to two of Stregas other locations and have had wonderful meals and service. My husband made an 8pm reservation. We have a small baby at home and assumed 8pm would be a perfect time to get in and be home by 10ish. As soon as we walked in and to the hostess stand we were met with handfuls of disgruntled customers and zero space to move. We were informed that although we made a reservation two weeks ago for 8pm, that they were "over booked" and we would be seated in 45 minutes to an hour. Of course we were annoyed but we decided we were already in the city and we would wait and get a drink at the bar. There was zero room to move and were forced to stand up near the door next to the kitchen. Within 5 minutes the door swung open and hit me and a man, who I soon found out was the manager pushed me with his back. He proceeded to tell me We were standing in a bad place. I informed him We had no where else to stand because he had over booked the night and there were 20 people smooshed in a small area because all of our reservations were pushed back an hour. He apologized and gave us a drink on the house. It was now 1 hour after we were waiting when we asked the hostess how much longer until we were seated. She told us there were 5 tables ahead of us. She said they were just seating the 7 and 730pm reservations. It was now 8:15pm. There were a handful of upset couples all yelling at the hostess and the manager and all he could say was "i'm sorry" . We commiserated with the other couples and were in absolute disbelief. At 9;30pm the bartender gave champagne to the couples that had been waiting over an hour. She was the only person who felt terrible for us and sincerely apologized. We were seated at 9:50. 2 hours later than our original reservation for our valentines dinner. At this point we had lost most of our appetite and were so upset and frustrated. We got a salad quickly and put in our meals as soon as possible. We ended up eating at 10:24pm. The manager came to our table twice and only said again "i'm sorry". Zero remorse, zero accountability. The bill came and as a final shock there was nothing comped, no discount, no gift certificate, nothing. I have never been so horrified by a manager and restaurant in my entire life. I have already seen a handful of reviews from this same night. There was no resolution or excuse for what happened on Saturday. What was supposed to be a romantic Valentine's day for many turned out to be a horrible night. I will never, ever...

Our party arrived for a 1:45 reservation. I went inside to check in and hand them the celebration cake to put in the freezer. I went in alone because I know how small restaurants in the north end can be and, being a party of 8, did not want to overcrowd the already busy restaurant. The hostess took the cake and I never saw her come back. As I stood and waited in the narrow doorway for her to return, another person who worked there was brushing up against me, backing me up into the host stand. She was chatting it up with another employee while the phone was ringing. She turned to me and yelled “phone” before realizing I didn’t work there. I then proceeded to check in a 2nd time with her and she said to wait outside, that they would come get us when the table was ready. It was a cold, cloudy and slightly rainy day. We were with our 80 year old, disabled grandmother who had flown 12 hours from South America for my sisters graduation. At around 2:30 I went back in to ask what was going on and said “we have our 80 year old grandmother with us” the 2nd woman said “well your party just showed up and we have to wait to get a table ready”. Our party was there waiting the entire time and when I initially went in they never asked if all of our party was there, just to wait outside. Finally at 2:41 we gave up waiting and went to eat at the restaurant next door, Nando, which was PHENOMENAL. It is unfortunate though because my sister really wanted her graduation lunch at Strega and our grandmother had traveled such a long way to see her graduate and celebrate, that is why we waited as long as we did, even though we had a reservation. While waiting we could see inside as they moved tables and chairs around to accommodate other guests that were arriving late to their parties. They took care of and catered to their friends and other industry people that showed up, rather than honoring our reservation. I know they have a policy where you can not be seated until your entire party arrives, and our entire party was there. But if this policy was true, I’m wondering why I saw 2 women alone at a 14 top waving at their friends who were driving by looking for a parking spot? Absolutely appalled with how we were treated on what was supposed to be a very special day and I can not wrap my head around how an establishment is ok with making an 80 year old woman in a wheelchair wait outside in the cold...

Let’s to begin that I’m not one who can stay upset for longer than 5 minutes nor am I the type to write a review. I had a group of total of 4 people and this was for my cousins birthday. Our reservation was at 8:45. We live almost an hour away and ended up arriving early about 8:23 and our whole party was there too. We check in and get told we will be seated around our reservation time, fair enough and totally okay with that. We sit outside and it’s a bit past 8:45 I would say 8:50. I go in and ask if there’s an update on our table and we get told that it’s a few more minutes, again we were okay with that since it was 5 minutes past our reservation. We began to talk to a group of girls that was there before us and they tell us their reservation was at 8 pm. They were rightfully irritated, a few minutes they get seated around 8:55ish. It was a few minutes past 9 we were freezing, starving and just irritated. My cousin (the birthday girl) goes in to ask about the empty table with four seats and as told larger parties were a priority (we were literally supposed to be seated next). Then another group gets seated at 9:17 at this point I was irritated and wanted to scream (I didn’t but wanted to). I went in and told the hostess that we’ve been waiting since 8:23, our reservation was at 8:45, and we waited longer than that group that was just seated. We were told to wait a few more minutes to get seated in this little corner where we were crowded by other people waiting it was uncomfortable. That was my last straw and decided to write this review. We had to wait a little more to put our food in as our waiter was attending multiple tables but was sweet enough to get a sparkler candle for my cousin. The food was good but with this experience couldn’t even enjoy my food. In the end I would never come here ever again due to this horrible experience. I hope in the future they will have less availability for reservations to accommodate the waiters/waitresses and customers. If you still decide to come here avoid weekends and/or have a back up reservations in case you’re in the same...