EATaliano Kitchen — Restaurant in Brookhaven

Avoid this place at all costs, it is very clear the manager and staff don’t care about their clientele. Details below:

The vibe and energy here was great and that’s where the positive ends. We had family in town and decided to try this place for the first time, and made a reservation for 10 people thru their listing on Google maps. Something went wrong and their system didn’t receive the reservation. Despite a half-full dining room, they argued with us at the door about not having a reservation. 10 minutes of arguing later, they finally sat us, since they had plenty of room. The entire interaction was silly and unnecessary, and should’ve been an indication that the staff only cares about what they think is right. It took us a while to figure out what we wanted to order. We ordered six appetizers and I ordered a coffee, while the waitress acted annoying by ordering too much food. As we waited for our appetizers, the restaurant started filling up, and the loudness of the place grew (It got so loud. We had to scream to hear each other. I went home with a raspy voice because of that) I saw a lot of groups of 2 and 4 being sat, ordering, and getting their food, while we still didn’t have appetizers. 4 of our 6 appetizers showed up about 20 minutes after we ordered them. Other staff brought them to the table, and our waitress never came back. After another 20 minutes, we had to flag down our waitress so we could order meals. Were they shortstaffed or was the waitress that bad? We are now roughly 45 minutes into our meal, and I still haven’t gotten my coffee! After flagging down the waitress, we ordered our meals, which included a pizza for me, 2 fish dishes, and a bunch of pasta dishes. 45 minutes later, the waitress came by to apologize and say the food will be out shortly. Another 45 minutes later, (1-1/2 hours after ordering mains) the waitress came again and apologized that the kitchen was backed up. Obviously she lied the first time about the food being out shortly. The kitchen is a little bit open air and I saw the tickets stacking up. I’ve been in the industry long enough to see the tricks kitchens play. They knew they were behind, and decided to sacrifice our large table, to get all the smaller tables in and out of the restaurant. Now two hours after ordering the waitress came back again, and said some of the food was ready and did we want part now and the rest as it got cooked. Slowly, but surely, from nine of the 10 dishes came to the table (2-1/2 hours after ordering). The manager brought some of the food, but never introduced himself or really apologized, only saying “thank you for your patience.” Another 10 minutes later, after having to flag down the waitress once again, I had to point out that my pizza still had not shown up. She looked beside herself, went into the kitchen and I could see if she had to point out to the cooks that they never made the pizza. Which was clue number 2 that they never fired any of our table’s food in the kitchen the entire time. And then this was the point they brought our two orders of breadsticks from the appetizers that we had never received! 2 1/2 hours after we ordered it! The waitress told us the manager was going to take care of those breadsticks. Well, he better! They should have asked if we even still wanted them and apologize for the abysmal service. After being in the restaurant for almost 3 hours, we asked to speak to the manager about the service. He came to the table finally delivering my pizza, and saying he take care of the pizza. My wife explained our whole experience, and told him that did not seem like enough to compensate us for over three hours of being in their restaurant. He said he would not do more, and had the audacity to blame us for walking into the restaurant with a large party. I guess his restaurant is not there to get customers and serve food- my mistake! All in all the food was not even very good, the tomato sauces were very watery and bland, and the Alfredo was almost entirely butter, not that awesome food would have made up...

Husband and I stopped in for an impromptu dinner after a long, difficult day of drama and broken bones (literally). We hadn’t been and hadn’t known anything about the place but were delighted with our experience.

I had two Casa Bellini cocktails. They were excellent. It’s a spin on a peach Bellini made with tequila as the base, and it was a home run. I was craving something bright and refreshing and I was not disappointed.

We shared a ciabatta and a fried calamari appetizer, both of which were good if unsurprising.

My husband had a calzone and it was really good. This place does feature pizza on their menu and my experience with pizza places and calzones tend to be that the calzone dough is usually hard, flavorless, and dry af, existing as merely a vehicle for the stuffing, and I hate that. Dough is supposed to be good, and Eataliano got it right.

I had chicken piccata. Piccata is my favorite Italian dish (I love capers) and I thought they did a great job. It was unsurprising in the best possible way.

We shared some sides, too. The fries were surprisingly good.

The biggest standout for me was that the food seemed less salty than typical Italian-American fare, and this is a good thing. I’m sure it was still loaded with sodium but perhaps just a little less than most other places and the result was that we could actually taste all the subtle flavors in everything we had, from the calamari to the fries. Fried calamari is usually really bad with this, but here I was able to actually taste the seafood and the spices in the breading. I wish this were more common.

We had a great experience and...

We went on Valentine’s Day. I was so excited to go to an Italian restaurant because I haven’t been to one in a really long time.

We had a reservation and were seated pretty quickly. Everything took a long time to come out but we expected such since it was such a busy night.

My real issue was taste. I was very disappointed. I’m not sure if the lack of seasoning was due to their volume but honestly nothing but the garlic bread stuck out.

I was especially disappointed in the $30 lobster ravioli. It was 6 of them and it was really lobster flavored. Like maybe the lobster was chopped up and then mixed with a filler. The worse thing was that my ravioli was cold. I actually had to send it back and ask to heat it up. She took it back and heated it up. No apologies. I also had two very small crab cakes that were very celery forward. Like minced crab meat mixed with celery chunks.

The wings were okay. We got the lemon aioli and cilantro garlic. It seemed like the wings were cooked regular and then doused with sauce. No real flavor to the wings.

My husband liked the Italian wedding soup but his chicken Florentine also lacked flavor and seasoning. My Greek salad was good I guess. Red velvet cheesecake was amazing.

All of the other reviews were so good so I don’t know. Maybe they were off their game since it was such a busy night but they took reservations so it seems like they should have been prepared for a busy night.

I have absolutely no desire to return. I don’t feel like I got my money’s...