La Stella Cucina Verace — Restaurant in Dallas

My wife and I went to this restaurant. TLDR; Of the 6 dishes we ordered, only 2 were worth the price. All else felt like they were phoned in.

When I reserved my table for 7:30, the restaurant had cautioned me that they would charge $50 for no-shows. No big deal, we weren't going to no-show anyway. However, when we reached there right on time, our table wasn't ready. We were made to just wait in front of the bar (I didn't want to order a drink at the bar, I was going to order wine, more on that later.) for more than 10 minutes. When you pride yourself and charge the prices you do, you should not make your customers wait for a table that they've already reserved.

Onwards to the ordering experience. After we got seated, our server came by in a few minutes with the menus. Again, not TOO late, but it was starting to feel like "Where's my server?"

After he came by, he gave us our menus. He did ask if we'd been there before but upon hearing that we hadn't, didn't recommend anything to us. No big deal, Italian food is not difficult to navigate!

They have a pretty big wine list that they have on iPads. I searched for a Cabernet Sauvignon and asked our waiter for a bottle. Again, after a period of time that just seemed like getting to be too long, another person came along who seemed to be the sommelier (when I asked if he was the sommelier, he said he was actually the CEO of the company that owns Stella and sometimes serves wine at this restaurant). A little out of the ordinary but nothing super strange. Here's my beef with the wine service, however. The bottle I had ordered was $160. The sommelier-plus-CEO came and said oh we just ran out of that wine but I can give you another one. After tasting the one he recommended I declined and asked for a different one. He came back with one that he highly recommended. Now, this "recommended" bottle was $195. The difference in price, $35 is absolutely nothing at this place but, it's the principle of the thing. If you are out of the product I want, and you promise to give me something else in its stead, I expect that you will charge me the price I'd expected to pay or at least let me know the difference. To be fair, I didn't ask for the price, but I shouldn't be expected to do that.

Onwards to the food. We ordered the Frittura Mista and the PB&J but with double Burrata (no Prosciutto, my wife being vegetarian). The Frittura Mista was bland. The sauce was okay and it didn't make up for the blandness of the prawns and other seafood on the plate. The Burrata, however, was heavenly!

My wife is vegetarian so she ordered the veggie risotto for the entree. I ordered the Ravioli All’Aragosta for the Primi and Branzino Mediterraneo for the Secondi.

The veggie risotto was nothing to write home about, bland. The Ravioli, when it came to the table, the aroma was pretty sensational. However, the lobster meat inside was not-quite-luscious. It was almost to the point of being chewy. I was not completely disappointed, but for the price of the plate, the food WAS disappointing.

The Branzino Mediterraneo, however, was FANTASTICO! It had the right amount of crispiness and tanginess and was cooked to perfection.

By the way, if you have Primi and Secondi menus and if I order a dish from the Primi and Secondi, I expect that the Primi dish will come first, then, when I finish it, the Secondi Piatti will arrive. Our server brought out both the Ravioli and the Branzino together. He did take away the Branzino and brought it back after I'd finished the Ravioli, but this is absolutely unexpected at an Italian restaurant!

We ordered the Tiramisu for dessert. According to our server, it's made from scratch in-house. Again, it was not bad, not awesome. One thing I did like about it was that it wasn't cloyingly sweet, which generally turns me off.

All in all, of the 6 dishes we ordered, 2 were great and worth their price. All others were below par and this restaurant would do well to get a proper chef to...

My husband and I dined here last night and to say we were disappointed in the overall experience would be an understatement.

In short, our server neglected our table at every turn. In the 3 hours we were here, he only came to our table a handful of times. We weren’t even initially greeted until we had been seated for over 15 minutes, and the time between each visit only got longer and longer. At one point, we sat there for 45 minutes without ever being checked on.

While waiting for our entrees with empty water glasses and looking to order another round of drinks, we highly considering getting the check so we could go have dinner somewhere else, but our food arrived right as my husband started to get up. We decided to stay and hope things got better. However, things only got worse. My meal was extremely disappointing and after two bites, I just couldn't eat it anymore. After 10 minutes of waiting to see if our server would check on us, I took it upon myself to track someone down.

I found someone, who happened to be the owner, and explained the service issues we were experiencing and my disappointment in my dish. They reassured me we were sitting with their “best server” and that there must be some miscommunication. Considering he had only been to our table a handful of times since we arrived, I’d say yeah, the opportunity for communication was minimal at best.

The manager came to our table shortly after to refill our waters and take my dish away. He offered me a menu so I could select something new and I honestly should’ve just declined. My second dish wasn’t really anything to write home about either, but I was hungry and didn’t really want to stop on the way home when the whole point was to have a nice dinner out.

The manager and owner were extremely nice and apologetic but I feel like nothing was really done to salvage our experience. Other tables around us had service issues with our server as well. A table next to us complained because they were seated without menus and they were annoyed that their meal came out before they had finished their starter. The manager went above and beyond comping parts of their meal, gave them a free bottle of wine, free dessert etc.. A table that arrived when we were about half way through our experience was also sat without menus and took a while to be greeted as well. The owner offered them a free bottle of Prosecco, and when they hesitated he turned to us and said “wouldn’t yall like some Prosecco” clearly in an attempt to get that table to change their mind. However, it very was clear they did not care to create a better experience for us specifically.

I know servers can have off nights, and become overwhelmed, but he could have at least asked for someone else to check on us or even refill our waters if he was truly too busy to be attentive. If that’s the case, the restaurant should also reevaluate how many tables they are giving in a servers section to ensure the proper steps of service are followed.

We also missed out on multiple steps of service. While waiting for our entrees we noticed all the tables around us were receiving a trio of spread with bread and I asked a table what they ordered because it looked good and was obviously popular. They informed me that it was complimentary, which became clear as we watched this item be delivered to every single table but ours during the duration of our meal. The owner mentioned over and over that they offer limoncello that his father makes at the end of the meal. And we could see our server dropping it at every table around us, again saying it was complimentary. But it was never offered to us, and as we were leaving the owner said “we have limoncello at the bar!” but we shouldn’t have to go to the bar whenever it’s clearly meant to be brought to our table.

Based on our experience, I would never return. The quality, service, and overall experience is severely lacking compared...

Don't miss out on a date at La Stella! Some of the best prepared authentic Italian food I've ever had. Service is 5 star as is the meticiouls detail paid to the drinks, food and atmosphere of this gem of a resturant. We sat at the bar on father's day evening and had the joy of having Alex as our server / bartender. Let me first say the drinks Alex whipped up were next level. Don't miss out on the "Pocket Coffee" which is the best espresso martini this guy has ever had. The wife equally enjoyed her "penolope". Other drinks on the menu did not disappoint.

The atmosphere here is upscale Metro Italian. I felt like I was transported to a posh resturant in Milan or Lazio with the decor and Italian Pop Music. The atmosphere was amazing to go with everything else.

The Wagyu Bruschetta app is fantastic, next level. A perfect app for this perfectly melt in your mouth peice of steak. The artichoke app was equally delicious. Bother prepared to perfection.

Father's day had a Friarelli with Hot Salsiccia special. Had to add this as a 3rd app. As a 1st generation Italian from Frosinone, this was a must have. Just the relief to not see the words "Broccoli Rabe" printed on a menu made this a must order. It was perfect on all levels. Delicious Salsiccia with perfectly cooked Friarelli. So good.

Next the GIANT bone in Veal Cutlet Parm. A spectacular show and delicious to boot. Perfectly crispy with a delicious light breading. Non greasy and something that will make the doggy bag. I ate until I was stuffed. Was the best Veal Chop Cutlet I've ever had. Would love to see this prepared with vinager cherry peppers, that would be amazing. The arugala and greens accompanying the cutlet was a perfect balance to the delicious fresh veal. 10/1

Next the Veal Osaobucco 💫💫💫💫💫. Amazing. I've had veal Osaobucco all over the country and this one is a show stopper. Perfectly prepared. Tender. Delicious Jous. AND so much marrow. Just a show stopper of a plate. The perfectly prepared risotto gets lost ONLY because how good the veal is. This is a must order dish. You will never have better. Ever.

Desert consisted of Tiramisu. Taste was, again, as good as tiramisu gets. Actually prepared correctly with lady fingers that were perfectly soaked. Not dry. Only wish it was a big portion like the rest of the food on the menu. Really was too small to share and that is my only ding in this amazing 5 star resturant. As good as the presentation looks, I would prefer to have it served not in a martini glass.

Following the meal a perfect Limoncello aperitif. As authentic as it gets.

Richard who runs the front of the house also deserves a 10/10 making our evening even more authentic and special.

This hands down, was one of the best resturants I've ever eaten in. And that's saying a lot. Not only best Italian but a actually best resturant. Beats anything we have had in hells kitchen NY aka Broadway.

Don't pass this place up. I would find it hard to belive there's a better resturant in Dallas. We...