Grato Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Cypress

(⚠️REVIEW CONTENT WARNING: BODILY HARM TO A CHILD⚠️) Update from owner reply: After seeing that event, I knew they were gonna lie in their reply. And I'm 1000% certain I watched that man smile at a wounded child and her angry family. The dad even yelled about it on his way out as additional confirmation. Wow. Seriously. I've never seen an episode of Kitchen Nightmares live until this. This confirms that I will sadly not be returning to this restaurant. These are not good people. You'll say anything to make yourselves sound good without putting in the effort to actually look good. Trying to lie to someone who was there is hilarious. "We have video" Okay then you can watch the lies and the waitresses black state on repeat. I know you won't post anything so why would you bother mentioning it. Dumbbbb

Let me start by saying the food is great and I've had few concerns over many visits. My personal experience has been very good and I do enjoy coming here for the good food and decently quiet seating area.

That being said, things have since changed upon seeing something quite horrifying take place. I saw the entirety of what felt like a scene from Kitchen Nightmares when a waitress tending to another table had a mishap with the plates she was bringing. One plate caught on another in her hands and launched one of them onto the table which in turn sent scalding hot food flying all over a little girl. Instantly, the girl is wailing in pain as her parents waste no time in trying to clean off the hot food even to the point of desperately stripping off her ruined and boiling hot clothes in the middle of the restaurant. Meanwhile, the waitress was just standing there and staring. There was no worry in her expression. Nothing. Dead to the world. She doesn't even move to apologize or grab towels. I hoped maybe she was in shock over the situation but throughout the ordeal her face didn't show concern in any way.

After her family got her cleaned up and the dad gave her his shirt, he rightfully turned his rage at the owner who did nothing but smile in an upsetting way that showed how little he cared about the damage done. The smile even stayed when I saw him look at the injured child which shook me to my core. On all previous visits, I never saw the owner do much aside from play on his phone or stay behind the register. I never even really clocked him as the owner since he doesn't seem proactive in the business hours. But in this event, it was clear he was definitely the one in charge of the restaurant much to my surprise. Thankfully I don't think the family paid for their meal when they finally left and I think that was the one right decision made by the restaurant in this whole situation because the owner wasn't willing to take accountability for his waitress maiming a child.

Once they were gone, another waitress (according to previous replies, the one in charge of social media so likely the one who will see this) started making rounds apologizing for the scene though I had seen her defending the owner so her apologies meant very little in my opinion. I didn't see anyone apologize to that family. The waitress who did it never said a word.

The whole debacle made me second guess a lot that goes on here only to find video of staff ignoring the fact that they have roaches infesting their pizza boxes. Their reply was that they don't have a problem because they have pest prevention every few weeks. Um. That's not prevention. That's active treatment.

This is a lot and I'm severely reconsidering my continued patronage. I have never felt so let down by a restaurant and it's owner. This review could have been 5 stars if only they could have handled that situation even remotely decently. They failed to do so even when faced with the fact that they caused a child direct harm. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it.

To the family: It was so sad to see you and your daughter treated in such a heartless way. I do truly hope she is okay and that you get a solution to this a soon as...

Grato’s glory days may be nearing the end, sadly it has become just another subpar restaurant. We started going to Grato a couple years ago, and were excited to finally have a good Italian restaurant nearby. It quickly became one of our faves that we went to often, the sauces in the dishes were flavorful, garlic knots freshly made with a moist chewy center, and salads were always a fresh crisp green. It was great- until this past year. We always get the carry out, and the quality began going downhill. Things would be missing from the bag, no bread, wrong dressing- missteps that are easy to forgive and overlook. Not a big deal, we felt this place was still great. Then the food dishes themselves started to change, quantities were less than usual, sauces less flavorful, bread is often hard and dry. In one example about a month ago, an order of lasagna was received with less than 25% of its normal serving size. Quite literally 3 bites, with the remainder of the carry-out container overfilled with sauce and cheese. While extremely disappointed, this had to be an oversight, right? It looked like they had probably gotten to the end of the pan with a sliver left, put that in the carry-out bowl and forgot to put the rest in? The sad thing was the amount of sauce and cheese covering it seemed intentional to hide the quarter serving of lasagna. This weekend we decided to give them another chance, and had an even worse experience- something inedible in the penne tetrazzini. My husband was eating his meal, one that he has ordered often, and about halfway through he spit it out- when asked what was wrong he said it was something hard he didn’t know what it was. Upon examination, it appeared to be something of a hard layered cardboard type of material, some sort of packaging. That was the last straw of missteps by this establishment and I called the restaurant to let them know what happened with this mystery object inside my husband’s food, thinking they would want to know that some sort of non-edible packaging material was inside of the penne tetrazzini. When calling the restaurant, after explaining several times to the hostess, she apologized, recognized our long history as customers with the establishment, and offered to replace the dish if my husband would like to drive back again. It was nice for her to give a heartfelt apology, but their problem quickly became our problem as to whether we wanted to drive back again- and we did not, so she offered to make it right “the next time”. At this point there might not be a next time, at least for quite a while. Maybe we will check back in a year or so after they have time to implement, test, and prove quality control but then again after having this last experience maybe not. In the meantime...

I’ve visited this restaurant a few times before and always had good service, but my last experience was incredibly disappointing.

From the start, the waiter who took our order was very rude and dismissive. He rushed us while we were ordering, and I had a bad feeling he wouldn’t get the order right because of how impatient he was being.

When the food arrived, he brought out the wrong plate for my daughter. I politely let him know that it wasn’t what we ordered, and to my surprise, he became visibly upset and started raising his voice — in front of my kids and my husband. He told us that if he changed the plate, the cost would come out of his own paycheck, which I found very unprofessional. I reached for the plate and told him it was fine, I’d take it, and he snatched it out of my hand. At that point, I asked him to please call the manager.

The manager came, but unfortunately, the waiter continued to raise his voice, even in front of the manager and other guests. The manager didn’t seem to have control of the situation, and my husband had to ask the waiter to leave our table. He went to the back, but it was clear he continued talking about us to the other staff, as they kept looking over at our table — making us feel uncomfortable and embarrassed.

Despite everything, we stayed so my kids could finish eating. The manager eventually brought out the correct plate and later told us we weren’t charged for the incorrect one —She also gave us a complimentary dessert.

While I appreciate the manager’s attempt to make things right, the entire situation was uncomfortable and upsetting. Unfortunately, after this experience, we won’t be returning.

Edit It’s very disappointing to see such a dismissive and inaccurate response to our experience. To say there was a lack of staff that day is simply not true there were multiple people working, including another waitress, the cooks, and you as the manager.

We absolutely felt uncomfortable, and your body language made it clear you were, too. The waiter in question was extremely disrespectful, and yet you allowed him to continue serve despite our repeated concerns.

At no point did my husband threaten anyone. He spoke to me about the situation. The waiter escalated the issue by getting upset about the wrong order and snatching the plate from my hand after I had already said we would keep it. That was completely inappropriate.

This was not a case of miscommunication it was your waiter rushing through the order and failing to listen. We had to ask several times for a manager before you finally stepped in.

We came to your restaurant to enjoy a meal as a family. Instead, we were disrespected and made to feel unwelcome. Your response only adds to our...