Cellos Farmhouse Italian — Restaurant in Candia

OK Italian food but terrible service. I have given this restaurant many chances with its service. The first two times I had bad service here the restaurant was packed so I was a little more forgiving of the terrible service. How ever the service I had yesterday was shocking. First the dinning room was not that packed. There were only a few other tables filled with customers and a couple people at the bar. I decided to meet my parents here and have a nice meal with them. We ordered our dishes and it seemed like everything was going alright until my Dad's salad was brought out. It was a big garden salad meant to be shared. He had ordered a small side salad. (Because he was also going to have a risotto) To add insult to injury the dishes my mom and I ordered were supposed to be served with a salad that was supposed to come before the entrees did. That didn't happen. We got our salads halfway through eating our entrees. What truly made this ridiculous is that the other tables that had customers got their salads before their entrees came out, and these tables had the same waitress might I add that on. I have tried to be nice to this restaurant time and time again but we have had horrible service at this restaurant and yesterday was some of the worst service I have seen in years. As Gordon Ramsay says "good food needs to complimented with good service", and unfortunately this restaurant lacks decent service. It would be a very VERY long time before I would come back. Honestly I would rather travel down to Boston's North End, pay the expensive prices there and get great food with good service than making the quick drive to...

Tried out Cello’s on the recommendation of friends. The place was hopping busy, probably 80% of capacity on a Friday night, and people clearly love it there. There is a bar shoehorned into the middle of the dining room and table/booth seating was pretty crowded. We had to raise our voices just to chat across the table.

We got our food and drinks in a reasonable time and it was a mixed bag. The portion sizes were very good. My wife’s eggplant parm was huge and had good texture of sauce and cheese, but neither of us found it to be anything special in terms of taste. The Caesar salad ($4 upcharge over regular salad) was drenched in dressing that had a weird spiciness to it. Regular salad came with a creamy “house Italian” dressing that was fine. My veal was terrible. All breading and very dry, flavorless, and a chore to eat. The pasta was overcooked and swimming in watery Marsala “mushroom sauce” that had no flavor at all. I’d typically send something like this back but it was so off the mark that it wasn’t worth wasting their “chef’s” time and effort.

The waitress was attentive but had zero personality - just going through the motions on autopilot. You would think if they charged $25-$35 a plate for Italian food you would at least get some fresh grated Parmesan cheese. I’d need to give them another shot to say for sure, but on first pass this wasn’t especially good...

DO NOT COME HERE FOR ANYTHING SPECIAL!!!  I flew in from Colorado to take my mother out for her birthday.  My dad (her husband) recently passed away and this was her first birthday without him. I wanted to make the night very special and let her of course pick the place. Sadly, she picked this restaurant.  I booked a limo, had reservations at 6pm and received a reservation confirmation text that evening at 5pm.  All that said, when we arrived all the doors were locked and no sign on any door.  We called a million times- nothing.  They confirmed with a text to my # but can't call to cancel?! Nothing even on the door?!  Then we had to scramble and try to find something else, which cost us much more than we were anticipating as we had to pay for an additional 2 hours for the limo driving around, making arrangements, etc.  MY MOM CRIED.  I then called the restaurant the next night, requesting the owner call, since the manager was unhelpful and basically said "I don't know, I don't work Tuesdays". I am still waiting for that call, it is 3 weeks later AND I emailed twice since then. I hear my mom's friends went in and they gave them a gift certificate. Not cutting it. Have some accountability and deal with the person that had to deal with the mess...