Fiamma Pizza e Vino — Restaurant in City of Rochester

Sat June 3 my husband and I arrived at the restaurant just as it opened, at 4:30 PM. Having been greeted and seated, I went to wash my hands, to realize there was no soap left in the dispenser. That turned out to set the tone for the entire experience. Back at the table, we were served 6 small slices of bread, still frozen in the middle. We then ordered appetizers, which came out very fast. Cozze Fradiavola $13 Mussels, spicy marinara sauce. Received about a dozen mussels, some still closed (dead), smothered in sauce, accompanied by with triangles of insipid bread brushed with oil and grilled. I could not taste anything beyond hot pepper and after 3 mussels I gave the rest to my husband. My mouth was on fire, and not in a good way. Fra’ Diavolo (also misspelled on the menu) is supposed to be “devilishly hot”, but this was “reaper pepper” hot.

Polipo e fagioli $14 Grilled octobus, cannellini beans, diced tomato. The octopus was severely overcooked, to the consistency of a hard pencil eraser. Beans and diced tomatoes lacked salt. We sent this back immediately, and replaced it with a combo appetizer, Cuoppo fritto $14 Pizzetta, Arancino, Pasta-ball, Croquette Pizzetta (small pizza) - crust severely undercooked (stuck together when pinched), with a tablespoon of tomato sauce topped with a thin half dollar sized dot of mozzarella. Arancino (fried risotto and cheese ball) - nice crust but the rice was insipid and it severely lacked cheese. Croquette - made with real potatoes, but severely lacked parsley, garlic and salt. Once again, the amount of crust created by frying was nice, and golden brown but the croquette lacked flavor. Pasta-ball. - this was the only thing salvageable out of the entire meal. Perfectly crunchy fried crust encased clearly hand-made pasta tossed in gorgonzola sauce, and topped with very flavorful mushrooms. An absolutely delightful combination of textures and flavors.

Our chosen entrees were (Special) Pizza $18 mozzarella, burrata, wild mushrooms, speck ham (misspelled as spek), drizzled with baby arugula pesto, thinking I would get something close to what they advertise on the menu “Pizze tradizionali” 12’ Neapolitan pizza, baked for 60 seconds in wood burning oven at 1000 degrees, fragrant outside soft inside, following Associazione Vera Pizza Napoletana rules. Served uncut.” The crust of this pizza was white, with burned spots, reminiscent of badly cooked naan. The rim of the crust deflated upon being cut and was not crispy at all. The pizza had a soggy, mucus-like, paper thin middle (undercooked). A few mystery mushrooms swam in a pool of oily baby arugula pesto. The speck was leathery although abundant. I sent this back after the first gummy, soggy bite.

Costatelle di maiale $18 Pork chops, beer and gorgonzola sauce, cherry pepper The porkchops were clearly pre-cooked and reheated, very tough, gristle in every other bite. An overwhelming amount of hot pepper obliterated the taste of the beer and gorgonzola sauce.

Service was attentive and fast. Nonetheless, having been born and raised in Italy, I deeply resented being told upon sending back the horrible pizza that “those are not flavors all people like”. Flavors were not the problem at all, thank you, but execution was a problem across the board in every dish we tasted except for the pasta ball which, sadly, was small part of our combo appetizer. Someone I assume was the chef – with a bright white shirt on - stood at the counter, pointedly watching us through the meal after we sent back the octopus. Had anyone checked the quality of the food, rather than staring at us, we probably would not have been served dead mussels, overcooked octopus or have had to experience any of the other over-seasoning/under-seasoning over-cooking/under-cooking “newby” mistakes that pinpointed our meal. The poorly executed, slightly overpriced food and abysmal overall experience does not entice me to go back any time...

I made a large group reservation for a surprise 30th birthday party, about 3 weeks in advance. I told the waitress the number of guests, and she told me I was all set. Upon arrival, I found out that our group was only being served the “family style” dinner option, requiring each guest to pay a specific amount of money. This wouldn't have been a big deal, if I was made aware upon making the reservation. I had absolutely no idea what the bartender/waitress was talking about, as this was my first time hearing of it. She proceeded to tell me that the owner should have been emailing me prior to the event to discuss the family style, decide on a menu, and explain how the night would go. The owner had never reached out to me about the event. I was extremely upset as I now needed to tell all of the invited guests upon arrival they had to pay a specific amount of money for dinner, with no say on what they order. The owner was there the night of the event, and never once made an effort to come up and apologize about the miscommunication. Instead, I was given $2 off per person, and an attempt to make some quick decisions on meals to be served. $2 a person? Really? The bartenders and servers that waited on our group were extremely nice, supportive and kept saying they wouldn’t be happy if they were in my shoes. In my opinion, the owner was extremely unprofessional and lacked good customer service. I won’t be going to this restaurant in the future and won’t be...

The food and the atmosphere were pretty good, but right after ordering desert the bartender walked over to our table to say "don't hate me, but the credit card machine just went down and the credit card company won't come to fix it until tomorrow, so we have to ask you pay in cash" We had a large group, nobody carries that much cash! They refused to take a check, they refused to write down our credit card number to process it later even though we also offered to give a drivers license and any other information they might need. We were told the owner had been burned before and wouldnt allow either of these options. (So if they've been burned before, this must happen a lot?) The only solution they offered is that one of us could leave to go to the atm while the rest waited. We asked to talk to the manager or owner personally and we were told nobody was in charge, and the owner want answering his phone. After we waited close to an hour somehow the credit card machine was working again and they processed it, and took $10 off our bill for our...