Avola Kitchen + Bar — Restaurant in East Whiteland Township

This was a hard restaurant to rate. The positives: excellent food! We ordered the grilled octopus appetizer and the shrimp ceviche. The octopus was seasoned well and cooked perfectly. A real treat that is not on many menus in this area. The ceviche was a little thin. The Avocado should have been thicker versus kind of runny. My wife and I each ordered a wood fired pizza. They were the best wood fired (not NY style) pizzas we have had in years! We both ate more than we intended to because we had a hard time stopping. The drinks were good and while I don't drink alcohol, they made me a virgin version of one of their specialty cocktails and only charged half of the loaded version. Nice to see. Now the negatives. The service was terrible. We were seated quickly and given paper menus that were both dirty and torn. The restaurant only had a few seatings but there were 3 empty tables with dirty dishes still on them. One of our water glasses was dirty too and had to be replaced. The drinks were slow to come out. The appetizers came out on time but we still hadn't ordered our mains yet and had to ask to do so. After that we didn't see our server again and had to ask a busser for new side plates and water. Our food was brought by some other staff. During all the time we were waiting and eating there was a group of 3 servers standing by the bar talking. The WHOLE TIME! While this was going on, one busser was working his tail off clearing and cleaning tables, bringing us water and doing what our server should have been doing. Even some of the other servers noted how hard he was working while they were slacking off. We didn't blame our server either because she was in a leg cast and had multiple tables assigned to her. Before we left we asked the bussers name. It was Drew. I hope his management is reading this as he was an amazing and caring worker. The bottom line: this place is pretty loud inside, especially when there is live music. The service is terrible, but the food is amazing. This place will likely fail due to horrible management of a group of teenage servers with zero direction. If they were trained properly, this place could do much better. This place has coupons available on a lot of websites, so I recommend grabbing one and going in for some good food if you have time and can be patient with the poorly trained staff. Other notes for management - the restaurant gets dark at night. Only half the tables had candles on them but none were lit. It would be worth getting all the tables lit for...

Absolutely wonderful! We did not plan our evening at Avola. We happen to stop there looking for something new as we have dined at many of the other restaurants along the Main Line. Every single part of this dining experience seem to have been more and more perfect. From the moment we sat down I immediately observed how comfortable the padded seats were. The lighting and general ambience of the room was very warm and relaxing. Even the gorgeous Lenox silverware was beautifully weighted and clearly high end. The food was absolutely delightful. It was well prepared and breathtakingly delicious. But the true gem of our evening was our outstanding server Madelena. My wife and I enjoy dining out more nights a week then we probably should. It’s not often we encounter a server with such an excellent disposition for making you feel welcomed and tended to us with 5 star customer service all evening. Madelena seemed familiar and very comfortable answering every question we had about meals and other items on the menu including details on how they are prepared. She made fantastic appetizer and dessert recommendations based on what she hears her past guest enjoyed most. Her pleasant sense of service was not directed solely at us. We could hear her addressing guest at other tables in the very same manner. I hope the management team is aware of how much this young server brings to the dining experience at an already amazing restaurant. If you’re looking for a fantastic restaurant for a nice evening with great seating, impressive lighting, wonderful food, amazing drinks and desserts, try Avola like we did. Maybe you’ll get super lucky and have Madelena...

We went for lunch. We were standing there for 5 minutes but no one came to greet or seat us. There was one server, ANNA, who was working at the time. She saw us standing at the front but she walked away instead of seating us. So I had to walk all the way to the back to ask her where we should sit. She told me wherever I wanted. And when I asked for a high chair. She ignored me. I raised my voice a bit and asked again. She IGNORED me again.

So we sat ourselves at a booth. She came to take our orders. After my husband ordered, she walked away immediately without asking if I needed anything. I kept saying “hello” “excuse me”, trying to ask her to come back because I needed to order as well but she pretended she did not hear me but I was 100% sure that she heard me. When she retuned, I asked her “why did you keep ignoring me?” She said “Oh. I thought he ordered for you.” Is this a proper reason for a server to keep ignoring her customers? In the end, we tipped her 25% just because this is the way how we treat the servers but doesn’t mean she deserved it.

We came to spend the money and support the business. I don’t think we deserve this kind of rude and bad service. Such a shame to this beautifully decorated restaurant as I can tell how much efforts the owner has put into this place. But it has been all ruined by undertrained staff as I see so many bad reviews on their...