Zeppoli

The food was good, but we will not return.

When my finance asked if I wanted to have dinner with two close friends at Zeppoli, I quickly said yes based on all of the previous great things I had heard.

While small in size, the environment and atmosphere overall were good without being too loud. We were easily able to have conversations without feeling like we were cramped. The service was friendly & good, but only to a point, before turning towards being unprofessional (more on that later)

We had the gnocchi appetizer which was absolutely delicious. I wished I had ordered the larger portion. Our friends had a salad & burrata for apps which they mentioned were good.

For dinner, my finance had the grilled swordfish which was good. I had the ribeye steak which was cooked exactly how I like it (medium) and was very tasty. Our friends had the grilled chicken and the spaghetti with clams, both of which they remarked were good.

This is where things started to turn, however. They served each entree one at a time. Being polite, we would not eat until all had their entrees. Unfortunately, they clearly forgot to put the spaghetti w/clams order in, as the meal was significantly delayed and we could see the staff scrambling to make it quickly. They eventually brought out a half order, apologizing for the delay and allowing us to then begin having our meals. They eventually brought our friend another half order and said it was on the house for the delay. Fair enough.

We had coffee and for dessert, we ordered the cannolis, cinnamon donuts, and Biancomangiare. All remarked they were good, though nothing overwhelmingly delicious. Note, the cannolis did have a lemon taste to them, something I was not expecting.

After dessert was done, we paid our bill and began discussing if we’d soon head out for a night cap at another location. While discussing this, two of our four wine glasses were quickly cleared away, apparently signaling that we should move on. Minutes later, at about the two hour and twenty minute mark - while we were just about ready to leave - a woman employee (assuming a manager) came over and tapped on our table. She said hello, and that the next group has been waiting for our table for the last 20 minutes. She proceeded to walk away, while we all sat in stunned silence that we had just been asked to leave…

Looking around, there were plenty of other open tables that Zeppoli’s could have rearranged to allow seating of the next party. Further, we noticed no one, either inside the restaurant or outside, waiting to be seated. Again, it is not a large establishment so it was clear no one was “waiting” for our table.

Had this employee had a different tone and approach - asking us if we needed anything else? More coffee or water? etc. - we would have gotten the hint and likely told her we were heading out very soon, so no thank you. Instead, we were rudely and in a not so subtle way, told we had over stayed our welcome, and needed to leave because some mysterious and not yet present group was waiting 20 minutes for our table.

So, again, the food was good - save for the mishap with the one dish - but due to how the night ended, we will not return.