Cucina Calandra — Restaurant in Fairfield

I’m sorry to have to write such a disappointing review, as we have dined here in the past and never had a problem. Until yesterday.

We were a table of 3 adults at 1pm, so the dining room was empty aside from 2 other small tables. The gentleman that seated us first bought us to a table all the way in the back corner, which I could not understand, so I had to ask for a table closer to the center island. As we were sitting, another gentleman came over to fill our water glasses. He walked away for a moment, I guess to put the water away, and he quickly returned to ask if we wanted something to drink. We didn't even have a minute to look at the drink menu, and we also had no idea if he was our server or just a staff member, as he never introduced himself. When we finally each ordered a glass of wine, he immediately asked if we were ready to place our dinner orders. We had not even opened the menus yet, as we were not sitting for more than 2 minutes. He already set a very uncomfortable tone with his unprofessional manner, and we weren’t even there for 5 minutes.

After he served the wine, we flagged him over maybe 10 minutes later to take our dinner orders. We were 2 ladies and 1 gentleman. Normally, a seasoned staff would take care of the ladies first, and then the man. Not here, he took my order, then my husband’s order and then the other women's order.

While we were enjoying our appetizers (Rice Balls and Fried Calamari), Rainer reached onto our table to take the dish that the Rice Balls were in, yet the sauce was still there, and we were enjoying it with the bread. We had to tell him to put the dish down because we were still enjoying the sauce. That was very rude for him to reach into the center of our table to take a dish without asking first. As the poor service continued, when the entrees were served, the server had to ask who ordered what, instead of knowing ahead of time which item to place in front of which guest.

The entire time that we were eating our entrees, Rainer never came to check on us at all. Unfortunately for me, my Gamberi Tuscana were completely undercooked, as the 3 Jumbo Shrimp were served translucent and grey. In fact, no one checked on us at all during our dinner, so we never ordered a 2nd round of drinks. I have no idea where Rainer was while we were eating, but he certainly wasn't checking on us. And throughout our visit, I never saw anyone that appeared to be a manager either.

Two times during our visit we had to flag a young lady over to refill our water glasses, as apparently that isn't something that they do automatically. The same young lady came by later in our meal to clear our plates. I told her that I wanted to speak to our Server, so Rainer finally came over. I showed him the undercooked Shrimp and expressed my dissatisfaction with the dish, being the Shrimp were inedible. I told him that I wanted to take the dish home with me, and he said something that I did not understand. When he bought my to-go dish back to the table, apparently, he asked the Chef to finish cooking the Shrimp, because the aluminum to-go container was extremely hot and there were nice grill marks on the Shrimp. It's too bad that the Chef could not cook them to perfection before originally serving them.

No sooner did Rainer bring out our to-go's, when he then placed the billfold on the corner of the table! We told him that we were still planning on ordering coffee and dessert. For a business that is known for their desserts, it was just shocking that he would give us our bill without offering us coffee or dessert. We ended up just ordering 3 Cappucino's because by this time we were quite disgusted with the service, and decided to go elsewhere for an after dinner cocktail and dessert.

As pretty as the new renovations are, the service was just terrible and sadly the food was mediocre. We certainly expected better for $265.00 for 3 people who simply wanted to enjoy a relaxing Sunday dinner out. For this reason, I can't see us coming back anytime soon or ever raving about Calandra's as we've done...

If I could rate this restaurant zero stars, I would. The only reason I'm giving any stars at all is because Henry the pizza guy is fantastic.

My family and I have been going to Calandra's (all three restaurants and bakeries) for years. We went to Cucina Calandra for Christmas Eve dinner last year 12/24/18 and had a decent experience, so we decided to return on 12/24/19.

Our reservation was at 7pm. We (the whole party) arrived prior to 7pm and were not seated until 8pm. The waiter was inattentive and didn't bring bread/water or take our drink order for at least 30 minutes after we were seated. Our food order was not taken until almost 9pm. We slowly received some of the group's appetizers after 9pm (which were clearly thrown together - potatoes undercooked) and the main dishes did not arrive until close to 10pm, THREE HOURS after our reservation time.

We had a 2.5 year old in our party as well as two elderly people - 89 and 95, who had to wait an extraordinarily long time to eat. In addition, I had been awake since 4:30am as I had to work on Christmas Eve, and by this point in the night, I was hungry and in pain from a migraine that only got worse the longer we waited for our food.

Icing on the cake - my scallops were overcooked, two dishes were missing ingredients, and the artichoke we ordered but never received (We were told it fell on the ground and was the last one in stock.) was added to the bill.

We asked to speak with a manager several times. The assistant manager finally came over and said she would get the head manager to speak with us, but we'd have to wait because he was the chef. ??? Many moments later she returned and said he left to go home. ???

The bill was greatly reduced at our insistence, however, that did not make up for the fact that many of us left without being fed. No one tried at any point to improve our experience. We weren't offered more bread or a round of drinks or even an appetizer that they could deliver quickly.

Unfortunately for Cucina Calandra, North Jersey is heavily saturated with Italian restaurants - ones which have better service and food. There is no reason to ever return to this location when we have a plethora of options elsewhere. (We will, however, return to Calandra's Italian Village in Caldwell which consistently offers good food and service.)

The only redeeming thing about Cucina Calandra is Henry, the pizza guy who made my nephew a pizza in the shape of a snowman. He is always lovely to interact with and we appreciate his kindness and work ethic. Perhaps we should have asked him to make us a few extra kids pizzas. At least we all...

It was our 33 anniversary! I was so excited about going to Calandras Mediterranean grill because they have blown up igloos for us to dine in all to yourself! We first made the mistake of pulling into Cucina Calandra, they politely told us that this happens a lot and the other restaurant (Calandra mediterranean grill) was right down the road even though this place looked wonderful we got back in our car to eat at the place that I made reservations for a month prior... As luck would have it... it was a very windy night so the power went out at the Calandra mediterranean grill, we thought is was pretty dark there but got out of the car anyway ... A man with a flashlight came out told us that the power went out a half hour ago, and said that they are affiliated with Cucina Calandra and he has been sending diners there...so off we go into our car again and back to Cucina Calandra, they recognize us and gave us seating in the beautifully decorated tent... The atmosphere was great...and there were other people eating and having a good time... Our server did a awesome job, very personable and on hand when ever we needed something! Then we ordered our wine and food everything was presented with flare. (opened bottle of wine in front for us... served our food in a rolling cart very nice) BUT... The food was not good 😳 we were very disappointed to say the least the calamari was rubbery,and odd taste to them that my husband only tried 2 and spit one out into his napkin I had 3 and we pushed the plate away 🥴the Muscles had a weird texture/taste... Hot antipasto the only thing in there I kinda thought was ok was the stuffed mushroom and I only had the one . We told our server that we didn't like the food and could he recommend something? Which he did and it was good not over the top good but we liked it.We then ordered a tiramisu which was delicious. I feel bad about giving a bad review because the place was really beautiful and the service was great ( they even comped us for the calamari) I got to say we have a great tale to tell of our 33rd anniversary! we live a hour away and enjoyed getting out for the night... Just wish the food was as good as...