Mamma Rosa's Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Cookeville

Poor attitude and service from hostess(?)/server. (Food was okay, so 2 stars instead of just 1)

I walked in and there was no one to greet me. I gradually wandered over to where the kitchen area was, and an overweight woman with light brown hair said this: "What do you want?" I ask you, the reader, is that weird, or what? I might should have said, "An oil change and rotate the tires, please."

But I refrained, and told her I would like to have a meal (Surprise!) and asked to be in a quiet area, please, if possible. She said nothing, but led me to where two loud-talking women were seated and put me right next to them. The place had maybe 10 people in it, and there were about 40 other places where I might have been seated, but no. Did she ask me, "Will this be okay, sir?" Of course not.

Instead, she plopped down a menu and walked away.

I said to myself that I would not sit near two loud women for the duration of the meal. I walked back to the kitchen/checkout area and stood there for about a minute while (even though she saw me) she ignored me. Finally she responded and I told her I would like a quieter seat.

Instead of apologizing, she went into "Defensive Crawfish mode" and started justifying her behavior, telling me the other areas did not have soft seats, etc. Yeah, right.

Then she took me to an area that was perfectly okay. But by this time I was not really in a positive mood to enjoy the meal.

Even so, I was there, so I ordered some food. She brings it, and I did not hear from her for about 15 minutes. Finally she brings the check and I make it to the kitchen/checkout area. She is not there to take the money, but passes by and tells me it will be just a bit. I wait for about 2 minutes, put more than enough money on the counter (left a 20% tip on table), told one of the cooks what I was doing, and walked out.

I will not be back.

The attitude of the hostess/server this: "Oh, no, here comes another one. Now I will have to see what he wants."

She does not have a servant's heart.

Listen to this, you who own Momma Rosa's: Care enough about your customers to train your help to have people skills (check out El Tapatio for a good example, for they far outshine you) or your business will...

After tonight my family will probably never return. My husband, son, & I went there for dinner & it was a disaster. We were there for about 2 hours (we didn't even order an app or desert...this was just the time it took for drinks & our meal. Sure it is Saturday night so they were a bit busy, but there were several open tables. Upon arrival we stood there for at least 5 minutes, several staff members waked past us w/out acknowledging we were there. Once we were seated it took between 15-20 minutes for our waitress to come by for our drink order & by that point we knew what we wanted to eat so we went ahead & placed our order. Then took 10-15 minutes to get our drinks. When we got our salad the Caesar dressing was so overpowered with anchovies it was almost uneatable. After or salads it took a full our to get our entrees (just 3 entrees, I understand they make everything fresh, but there were so many staff members it should not have taken that long). When we got our food the waitress said she'd be right back with drink refills, but never did so we had nothing to drink for most of our meal. My chicken was WAY overcooked, but I didn't dare send it back as I didn't want to wait again...plus the server didn't come back until we were almost done eating & it was time to give us the bill. Since the waitress disappeared the whole meal my husband had to get up & go find napkins for us. We noticed on the bill we had been overcharged & when we said something to the girl at the register she argued with me, I had to ask for a menu to show her I was right & we'd been overcharged. Most of the food was good, but there was no excuse for the horrible service & the arguing with customers & hatefulness of some of the staff. This place used to be really good but it has really gone downhill over the last...

It has been over 7 years since I last went to Mama Rosa's. I do not go there because of the slow service. In 7 years, nothing has changed. I called an order in at 5:00 pm on January 9. I was told it would take 45 minutes to an hour for my order to be completed. I arrived at the restaurant at 5:50 pm. I paid for the order and was told it would be 5 - 10 minutes more. I waited by their front door for another 44 minutes. At that point, I asked what the problem was. They told me part of my order had been burned and another part of my order was just put into the oven. They told me they would refund my purchase in full. I was angry that I had to ask what was going on while they ignored me for that unacceptable amount of time. I finally received the order at 6:58 pm - two hours after I placed the order. When I got home to eat, 20% of the order I placed was missing from the bag. It has been 3 days since I paid for the order and my credit card has not been refunded as of the writing of this review. Failure to service at the minimum level expected, failure to own their mistakes, failure to inform the customer of the issue, failure to double check an order that is already plagued by problems and failure to follow through with their strategy for repairing...