Dubrovnik — Restaurant in City of New Rochelle

I decided to celebrate my birthday here (early Sunday dinner) because of my past good experiences at this place. Unfortunately, this recent experience was definitely a disappointment. Sadly, this restaurant seems to have declined!

A) Our group tried to settle in and also ask questions about the menu (particularly about the details of certain fish due to dietary restrictions or certain members at the table) but felt rushed to order with the waiter proceeding to talk over us and also mentioning how customers at the other table are ready and “you don’t want them to take your fish”. Seriously… it’s around 4:00pm on a Sunday afternoon and if a restaurant is worried about running out of a fish special that early in the day then why bother even listing a fish special on the menu??? At one point I openly stated that things are being rushed, expressed my concerns, and and even offered for the waiter take care of the people at other table and come back to us when he has time so that things are not rushed - keep in mind that only 2 tables of customers (including my group) were actually seated at the time).

B) The portions of the fish special advertised on the menu were disappointing because this place usually has fish specials that are 3+ pounds available on the menu (had it the previous time I went and was hoping to have it again); however there was only a limited selection with 1.75 to 2 pounds being biggest available and 2 out of the 5 fish shown to us on tray was farm-raised rather than wild-caught which was quite shocking to me because this was not what I experienced during my last dining experience at this restaurant - which considered of a varied selection of big and fresh wild fish.

C) When I asked the waiter for additional bread, he refused. After refusing, our group went back to conversing and then he proceeded to say “you won’t enjoy your main course”. Basic etiquette… there are multiple people sitting at a table and it someone asks for more bread that means either the bread which was given was clearly not enough and/or one or more people actually want to eat some more bread. A refusal (jokingly or not) is both inappropriate and disrespectful considering that paying customers are asking (especially when those customers are ordering expensive appetizers and expensive entrees which clearly surpass the cost of bread). At that point, I wanted to just ask for the check, pay, leave, and go eat somewhere else; however, I didn’t end up doing that because I didn’t want to embarrass anyone sitting with me at the table, especially since it was supposed to be a birthday celebration dinner. Our table was reluctantly given additional bread after the waiter realized that we seriously wanted bread or perhaps he felt awkward saying no and ultimately realized his mistake.

D) An order for one member of the group arrived with the wrong type of vegetable on a plate but was corrected afterwards with a replacement side dish.

E) The fish special entree (2-pound John Dory) arrived and I couldn’t even enjoy it because I can’t tolerate beets. The fish special was supposed to come with fish and a side dish of choice. At the time we placed our order, beets was clearly not listed or advertised on the menu nor initially mentioned by the server for either eating or decoration purposes. The John Dory platter ended up being served with a beet juice design that had dripped into the oil and ended up mixing with the meal. I didn’t want to start an argument to either get a $70+ entree taken off the bill nor ask for a replacement (especially since there was already an issue of the waiter initially refusing to bring more bread) therefore I didn’t end up eating the entree and let someone else in the group have it so that the money wouldn’t go to waste since we had to pay for it anyway. The restaurant needs to do a better job either listing or verbally stating what ingredients are on the plate (especially since not everyone can tolerate certain...

I'd like to start with the positives first: If you love seafood, THIS is the place to get it. They've got large portions and a wide variety. When they present the menu they actually show you fish etc. on ice, which I thought was a nice touch. I came with bridal party for a rehearsal dinner. We pretty much got to taste the entire menu. The Risotto appetizer hit the spot. The grilled octopus was perfect by all accounts! So the food is good to go.

Now when I saw the name of the place I was excited because I have actually been to Dubrovnik, Croatia (in another lifetime where we could fly freely and worry about nothing but peanuts on the flight). So I wanted to see if the place gave me the same feeling. It didn't but that's ok! It had it's own unique old school feel which was nice, so I didn't feel disappointed. The lower level seating area (see pictures) had a small fountain in the middle with string lights strewn across the yard. It was all very cute!

I have only one gripe: Maybe half of the staff were wearing these plastic facial coverings that did not rise to the level of a "mask" in my opinion. They sort of looked like inverted miniature eye shields. My issue here is that masks are meant to catch, block and decelerate respiratory droplets. The chin shields they were wearing will not do that. So I was very uncomfortable anytime workers wearing those came by our tables.

Edit: I looked at the website for the Westchester County Health Department (which links to the New York State Department of Health). The New York State (NYS) Department of Health differs to the Centers for Disease Control regarding masks and their conclusion matches mine. The effectiveness of face shields and masks with exhalation vents is questionable at best. In my opinion and probably the opinion of experts these types of masks will not be protective for others in your vicinity.

Bottom line: The science matters. I would give this place the full set of starts if every worker wore an actual mask, that was form fitting to their face and covered both their mouth and nose...

SAFE Review Service: We were seated immediately with a choice of where we wanted to sit. There were a few patrons but sufficient empty seats to choose from. The menu was on a tablet, which is nice because you can see what your order looks like. The server immediately brought a tray of fish on ice to describe the specials for the day, but with the mask on it was hard to make out some of what he said - it did not matter as we were not interested in fish anyway. The experience dropped from there. We had already chosen what we wanted and just waited on the waiter to approach us. There was no welcome bread, no approach by the waiter saying he will attend to soon nothing. However, he was on the next table for over 10 minutes, serving one bottle of wine, helping them with the menu on the tablet and chitchatting. After a long wait, we just stood up and walked out the door and went to Posto22 where we spent over $300.

Ambience: The restaurant is spacious and well decorated. Acoustics is an issue, conversations appear loud, but generally a place where you can go for a good dine in.

Food: Cant comment, as we did not have any. However, the meu looks good. I was hoping to have the cornish hen.

Experience: Disappointing. We have passed by this restaurant many times and always wanted to try it out, but passed on each time because of the difficulty in find parking. We saw a valet this time and immediately turned around to try it out. It would have helped if the waiter had some assistance with someone dropping in to ask for drinks or putting some welcome bread on the table, but just sitting there waiting for someone to show up at our table for over 10 minutes was a encouraging enough for us to walk out. Glad we did, as we had a great time at Posto22.

PS: As we walked out, the manager did rush out behind us asking what happened and we did explain the situation to him. He was very apologetic and wanted us to go back in but we decided not to - we already had a bad start which we did not want to carry forward in...