Bistro di Marino — Restaurant in Collingswood

First of all I have to say that I have been to Bistro di Marino plenty of times in the past and have always been happy with both the service and food selections. But, when I went there last night with a friend for dinner, our experience was VERY disappointing. We were seated by a large party who were very loud to begin with. Our server seemed nice enough at the beginning, but she took a long time to come over to greet us and get us wine glasses. We decided to order a gnocchi trio appetizer after our waitress suggested a few, including the lobster one. The sampler on the menu was $14.50, and the waitress never told us that it would be $20.95 if we ordered it with the lobster choice. So, you can imagine our surprise when we got the check. Mind you, the sampler only includes 5 gnocchis of each kind. A bit pricey for the amount you get. And charging an additional $6+ for bits of lobster is ridiculous. Next, we waited for a LONG time for dinner to come out. We were starving at this point and had to ask when our meals would be out. We kept being told, “Thank you for your patience.” Once our meals came out, they looked yummy, but mine was supposed to have asparagus on it, but there were only a few tiny chopped up pieces. When I said something to the waitress about it, she then offered to bring out some more. I never asked her for more. She then put in an order for asparagus that I did not ask for, brought it out AFTER I finished my meal, and then proceeded to charge me $5.99 for it. I did not know this again until I got the check. Of course I told her I was not paying for something I did not ask for. It was taken off the check. Now let’s get to desserts. We decided to order dessert to take home. We were not given a dessert menu. The waitress only told us verbally what the four choices were. The waitress highly recommended the limoncello cake. My friend ordered it. It was $11.95 for a small slice - ridiculous! Again, prices revealed on the check. At the end of the night when I talked to the waitress about the price of the appetizer, she automatically said, “Do you want to talk to my manager?” I guess she has issues all the time to refer customers automatically to the manager. So, since she obviously was not going to help, I did speak with the manager. He was the one to apologize, not the waitress. He did take off $10 from the appetizer after he told me that what I said to him was what the waitress told him. Really? What happened to the saying “The customer is always right.”? Our waitress never apologized for ANYTHING. She just ran away and avoided us. Seems to be a pattern with the younger generation today. But, I am glad to know that my own children know how to take responsibility for their actions. In the end, it was a disappointing visit. The waitstaff is younger and from this experience seems to not care about service. The manager was also young. I found it funny when the kid filling up water glasses wanted to help me figure out a tip- really? So, in the end my advice is to make sure you ask prices ahead of time, check your bill before paying, and don’t expect much from service. Also know at the bottom of the check it stated they will charge a 3% surcharge if you use debit or credit cards. I did not see that on the menu. Luckily we had cash. Overall I am giving 2 stars because the food was good. But, this turned out to be a disappointing dinner experience because of the poor service. I...

I’m going to start by saying I’m pretty easy to please and typically enjoy my dining experiences, even if they’re not perfect. This place is awful.

Walk in to the hostess stand to check-in and the staff is f-bombing each other. It looked as if someone had dropped something and the manager was f-bombing one of the waiters or bus boys. The hostess did apologize for it, I found it funny, but just wanted to paint the full picture for you here.

We ask to be seated outside, it was nice out. The courtyard is nice. We sit, the bus boy comes over and fills our water and provides some really good bread and a pesto oil which was really good. Then it takes about 20-25 minutes before a waiter even acknowledges that we’re there and apologizes and grabs us wine glasses finally.

I’d say it took about another 20 minutes before we saw the waiter again to take our order. At this point we put the order in and the food comes out quick. We had the pumpkin ravioli appetizer which was pretty good. We also had the gnocchi sampler, Stefano, Pomadoro and Caccia Pepe. The gnocchi were pretty good as well. Then it got really interesting.

After we finish up with the apps, the entrees come out. I went basic with the chicken parm. It was very average. I get the feeling they’re cooking their cutlets ahead of time and reheating them. I know a fresh fried cutlet from a reheated one, reheated ones tend to be dried out and just not as good. I promise you, no matter what they say, these were reheated. Still the parm was fine. Was it great? No. It was passable.

Things got really interesting with my wife’s salmon dish. She takes a few bites of the ends, fine. She gets closer to the center and realizes, the salmon is completely raw. I mean this thing could have swam up stream if it wanted. We inform the waiter who stated “wow that’s raw”.

At this point we already had the check at the table bc we requested it with the entrees (we were attempting to go see Seinfeld but bc the service was so slow we had to pass on tickets). Waiter takes the dish away, apologizes. Manager comes over and apologizes. About 20-25 minutes go by and nobody has come back to us. We honestly considered leaving without payment at this point.

Waiter finally comes back, asks if we wanted dessert!? Like dude no we wanted you to fix the check and we need to get out. He says, “oh yeah”. The manager brings us two shots of chocolate cello. Thanks?

They finally bring a new check, salmon was removed as well as an additional $15. I just can’t believe how bad an experience this was.

I have no idea if this was just an off night or if people in Collingswood just have no idea what good food and service looks like. If this is the norm, I’m not sure how they stay in business.

Go here at your own risk. Too many options to ever come back here. Hate to bash a place but damn this sucked. Overall dinner took like 2-hours and that was just for apps and entrees, one of which wasn’t even cooked 😂. And we didn’t even get to enjoy a nice dessert or coffee. And I never leave without either, that’s how...

What the hell happened to this place? Very disappointing food and management. Bistro Di Marino in Collingswood used to be our favorite restaurant; we’ve been here many times and recommended it to many friends in the past. Our last two visits were very disappointing with our final visit on 10/29/2024 being extraordinarily bad. My wife was treating us to our anniversary dinner. We waited 30 minutes after ordering for a waiter to apologize that they very short staffed and they were out of the appetizer we ordered as well as several other items but we could choose any other app on the house, the app we chose was ok but now as described as it missing half the ingredients. We waited another long wait for our entrees while listening to loud profanities coming from the kitchen staff which I can only guess was because they were out of several items as well as being short staffed, was an actual cook even there? My entrée was ok but my wife’s was disappointing to the point of her not even taking her leftovers home. We figured out on the way home it was because the asparagus was missing with spinach substituted. (I can only imagine if someone had dietary restrictions as they were substituting items without mentioning it)We were pretty much ignored as far as water refills and such. When our bill finally came we were charged for our original, more expensive choice of appetizer. My wife had to chase down the waiter to straighten that out, just the way we wanted to spend our Anniversary! We became pretty irate as we discussed the expensive disappointing evening on our ride home so I called the manager the next day to give them a chance to redeem themselves before writing a scathing review. The Manager, Ed said it was a “bad night” and begged me to give them another chance, when I said oh sure, we’ll come in and spend our money again to see if you can do better. He offered to reimburse us with a gift card and took our info. A week and a half went by with no gift card so I called them again fairly angry that I had to do that and spoke to a different manager named Christa who apologized again and promised it would be sent that day. Well it’s been another two weeks and still no gift card. I guess they no longer care about their reputation, I’m not lowering myself to call them again. We will not be back and will certainly not be recommending them anymore. It’s a shame, this used to be our go to restaurant but they have gone severely downhill since Jim is no longer...