Dicastro's Brick Oven — Restaurant in City of Rome

I'm sad to say that after my experience I will not be returning. It is a nice looking restaurant and our waitress was polite and attentive. I ordered linguini w/ clams, husband got the bee sting pizza. We both ordered salads and they were great, they do a house made italian dressing that is delicious. Husbands pizza was excellent. My linguini came and it smelled awful...like bad rancid sour seafood bad. I took 1 bite...sour and off. Told our waitress, she agreed that it smelled very bad and I ordered what I thought would be a safe bet: fettucine alfredo w/ chicken. Wrong. It came out with an overwhelming garlic smell, sauce thick and congealed and pasta so overcooked it would break trying to free it from the sauce. The chicken was overcooked, dry and tough. Told our waitress I just couldn't eat it. She was very nice and understanding. Mind you, I have not raised my voice or used any foul or derogatory language. I wasn't raised to behave that way. Then the co-owner comes to us stating "I hear you didn't enjoy EITHER of the meals you ordered" in a very snarky tone of voice. I told her what was wrong with the dishes and got a "well we're sorry YOU didn't like our food". Then the owner decides to approach and says"I don't know what else I can do for you, you've already sent back 2 dishes and I tried them both, they're fine. For the record, I made no demands or asked for any free dessert or anything like that. I just didn't want anything else but to go home after having to send back not 1 but 2 dishes. He proceeds to tell me where he gets all his ingredients from and insists that 14 other people ate the linguini w/clams throughout the day and nobody else complained. Basically saying that this is my problem and there's something wrong with me for not liking the food. I have traveled a lot, lived in many places and have ordered linguini w/clams and many restaurants over the years. Some great, some ok, and some bad. This place was just bad with pasta. My husband and I were even considering coming back and just ordering pizza and salad since that seems to be what they do well. But after the confrontation with the owner we will never go back there. It's too bad because the pizza was so good but we just won't tolerate that kind or rudeness from any...

The experience here is all around sensational. Friendly staff, great pricing, we order a lot (as you will see) just to get a taste of some variety. Full portion sizes with PLENTY to take home afterwards. Comfortable fulsome atmosphere, intentive wait staff (Thanks Lindsey), Loved the decor on the walls & shelves (classic & fun) The huge framed Signed by all the performs of Woodstock 1999 in Rome, NY memorabilia was my favorite. Not to mention how absolutely delicious the food was. Fresh ingredients, burn your tongue hot temperature wise.. (as I call it molten lava) Perfect amount of flavor and spice. Cheese to sauce ratio too. (We ordered: Starters- Hot dipping Oil and the Artichoke Spinach Bread Bowl.. And can i say the AS bread bowl was the best I have had. A small Wood Fire Pizza called the bee sting. If you have never had a pizza with a little honey around the edges, you have no idea what you're missing SERIOUSLY. Two Entrees with a side salads. The honey mustard dressing my favorite kind, was on point. 1st Entree was the Jambalaya pasta. I ordered this one, Which was 1 of the 2 spicy entrees they offer. Love my spicy foods!. I'm a huge fan of Jambalaya anyways so for me it was right up my alley. 2nd was 2lbs of saucy cheesy saucy cheesy.. Lol delicious lasagna. This is where the noodle, sauce, & cheese ratio matters, to much of anyone of them can make or break lasagna. The chef (who even came out to see if we were enjoying our meal) did it perfectly. Congrats! I'm glad we chose to stop at Dicastro's today. I had drove by many times before and it always caught my eye by how well kept it is. The inside is no exception. Very clean. All around experience for me was a...

I have always loved this place, and my wife as well. We used to go all the time, so tonight we said, "hey, we haven't been to DiCastro's in a while", so we went for dinner.

Well tonight was a bit of a disappointment. The food took over an hour to come out, but our server was very attentive. It was moderately busy, but the wait was long enough to notice other people that arrived at the same time as us at get served, finish eating, the table cleared, and a new party seated before our food came out.

And usually when there is an extended wait, that usually means one thing - someone's food is going to be cold. Mine was brought to the table first, obvious that it was sitting waiting for my wife's to be plated. Hers was very hot, I'm happy to say, but the chicken RIGGIES were made with penne...ok, that's fine, I guess. But the sauce had these little clumps of a doughy substance - almost dumpling-like...and after tasting one of these clumps, it was pretty clear that these were probably leftover from the roux (butter and flour mixture) often used to thicken sauces. It was not incorporated completely into the sauce, and so there were these lumps throughout making the sauce very bland.

It was pricey, but that seems to be everywhere. I don't fault them for that. I have no issues paying for dining out. The only thing that bugged me a little was 3.50 for a golf ball sized meatball...

So maybe the other reviews are correct, maybe not, but to me, this place is still a good one, IMO, but it seems like issues in the kitchen are hurting them, based on my experienceand the other reviews. I'll be back at some point hoping it was just a tough night in...