Terilli's Restaurant — Restaurant in Dallas

If you're going to call a restaurant a certain cuisine style, in this case Italian, then it is expected that you'd know and offer at least the basics of that cuisine but unfortunately this restaurant was anything but Italian. Yes they serve wine and pasta but they lack flavor, personality and could not be considered Italian one bit.

Our server was very uneducated about wine and noted that Italians don't really have a lot of Cabernet Sauvignon options (that's when I realized I couldn't trust anything this guy recommended). Most of their wines on the menu were from California and they only had a handful of red blends from Italy. At an Italian restaurant! Our server was generous with giving us wine samples prior to choosing but his recommendations were extremely off from what I explained him I was in the mood for. The red blend wine I ended up with was not good and my glass smelled fishy and bad.

Their bread and olive complimentary appetizer was extremely poor in quality and taste. It was basically some old bad bread with some average $6/bottle olive oil and very very bad balsamic. My pasta dish was supposed to have lemon capers sauce and I could taste the heavy milk and anything else but lemon, capers or garlic. The cream (that I didn't know was part of the sauce) overwhelmed all the other flavors. My pasta was very overcooked and extremely under seasoned despite adding some more ground pepper to it.

I think the biggest insult was their coffee. If you've ever been to Italy you'd know that even the most basic and random restaurants have amazing coffee. Their coffee was cold, brought to me right the second I ordered (so not fresh) and it was instant coffee! It was undrinkable. Everything was olive garden quality (not even taste) at triple the price.

I liked the atmosphere but our server interrupted us more than 8 times (yes I counted it because I was very annoyed). He saw my friend and I were talking and he kept interrupting my friend and asking about her perfume and commented how amazing she smelled- 3 TIMES. And he asked her to show him the name and photo of the perfume. Number 1 rule, perfume is very intimate and you don't ask strangers about it. He would come to our table when my friend and I were in the middle of a conversation, interrupt us and say to my friend "God, you smell amazing" and then he would leave.

Their idea of customer service was to ask you many many times how everything was. As soon as we had our first bite of the food, a guy who appeared to be the manager came to our table and asked how the food was. Like give me one second and I'd tell you! And your answer is your food was horrible.

I'm writing this lengthy review because I was looking for a good Italian restaurant to go to and based on the reviews this place seemed decent but I was very disappointed and so was my bank account. I wouldn't go back here and I would say it's not even worth...

This was THE LAST time we go to Terilli's!! I've been going here since 1985 & did Love the atmosphere & food as well as the service. Tonight was Terilli's last chance to show us that they've upheld their dress code (post covid). Before the fire, they were more of a 2.5-3 star Bistro allowing a more relaxed & casual dress code.... But after the fire, they seemed to have stepped up their atmosphere & overall service/presentation! This was a good thing! They changed their dress code to more upscale, along w/ their prices & atmosphere! They really made the place Nice, along w/ the food quality!! But since covid, they've been letting in people looking like they shop at Walmart or a Redneck beer bar, are welcome there! Tonight, most of the people were dressed nicely, but there was a guy who sat at the table next to us in sweat pants & a hoodie sweathsirt! Another guy was wearing ripped jeans & a t-shirt! WTHell!! Another guy wearing dirty jeans, boots, t-shirt & a cowboy hat!! Are y'all a Sports Bar or a fine dining establishment?! Choose!! Either be one or the other....NOT both!! Either have a dress code or lower your prices & let every random person in.....No matter what they look like!! Tonight, we had wonderful/excellent service w/ Yolanda as our waiteess!! Unfortunately, the kitchen overly salted my order as well as my wife's...& both of our meals were cold & the ravioli tasted rubbery, like it was overcooked or microwaved. We were given a gift card to try & win back out business & loyalty.....& to give management a chance to proove that they were trying to uphold a dress code again & get back to pre-covid expectations!! Well, that didn't happen tonight!!! What started out as a wonderful evening, & might I say, looking forward to this night for quite a long time, ended POORLY!! We had a Wonderful appetizer, but that's where it all ended!! We didn't even drink half of our bottle of wine, much less, finish our first glass of wine.....I personally was VERY Disappointed!! This Was my FAVORITE restaurant & place to bring friends for atmosphere & great food!! Terilli's....I am hurt & sad to say....my wife & I will be looking for a New Italian restaurant to call our Regular home!!

Sincerely...

Alright...so this might be somewhat of a lengthy review but it is a MUST READ in order to fully understand the huge difference between a Family Owned Restaurant to a Big Franchise.

Although an unfortunate incident occurred please know that this review is 100 PERCENT a Positive 5 Star Rating. So on to the incident, not to go into so much detail, there was an unfortunate miscommunication with the kitchen that led to my wife's food to come later than the rest of our party's causing a little of an awkward situation.

Now when you think of a situation like this in a normal big franchise restaurant, you think of just getting a sorry, won't do it again, type of response. This being our first visit, I guess I assumed it would be somewhat of a similar scenario. MAN WAS I WRONG. This is where I truly got to appreciate the standards of a family owned restaurant like Terilli's. Apart from our waiter being fully attentive and apologetic, the Manager was the same and made sure we were swiftly taken care. He did not leave our side attempting to right the wrong every step of the way.

Even before the incident our party was already having amazing food and excellent service. The food was fresh and tasteful, our waiters were attentive and never even let our drinks and water glasses even get to the bottom of our glass. One of the best experiences I had had. You know when visit your parents when they make home cooked meals and feeling totally pampered? This is exactly how our whole party felt. That is the key difference in the feeling at dining at a family owned business like Terilli's.

I absolutely will be coming back again with my family soon! I hope to have the pleasure of crossing paths with our waiter and with the Manager that attended us today just to get to know him better. I forgot to get his name before we left so if you know it, please leave it in the reply section so I know it for next...