Angelo Elia Pizza, Bar, Tapas — Restaurant in Florida

I'd give it Zero star's if that was an option....now do yourself a favor and read why.

Let me first start off by giving my background as most reviews are given by your average everyday customer. I come from 22 years of being in the restaurant business working in every position imaginable. Now I am an special advisor to restaurants who are failing, in need of an evaluation and rescue. My professional evaluations cover both front and back of the house as well as management, financial, property and anything in between. That being said, I'll give you a summary of my last visit to D'Angelo's restaurant on Jog Rd in Delray Beach, FL. Also, I was not here on business, but with my family for dinner which we have enjoyed at this restaurant many times in the past.

On Sunday evening we arrived at the restaurant around 9pm, about 1 hour before closing. We arrived to find the restaurant almost empty with only three tables seated in the main dining room. We quickly sat and waited a few minutes to be greeted by our server. We ordered a few glasses of wine which the bartender never poured. We waited close to 10 minutes for our server to actually try to get the never poured glasses of wine from the service bar where she, our server needed to pour. My seat viewpoint allowed me see everything that was going on. This is surely not the way to run a service bar and the management is at fault for not watching for unnecessary delays when the restaurant was not anywhere near full. This is when the manager should be making sure that everything is being run 100% correctly.

Our appetizer came out about 15 minutes after ordering which is about average, but, the food quality was not anywhere near good.

We ordered to the table two orders of zucchini flowers which comes three large flowers to an order. When they arrived I knew they weren't looking the greatest but proceeded to eat them as we were really hungry. By the time the server came back to check up on us, we were almost finished with the two orders since the check back time took so long. I can blame this on both the kitchen manager/chef and the person who ran it to our table. The person who served it to our table should have protested that the dish looked on the skimpy side and the management allowing something to leave the kitchen like this. It is understandable that sometimes produce doesn't come in consistent with exact sizes, but when you are an upscale restaurant who makes this dish with large portions serves it with three very small portions, the adjustment must be made by the kitchen manager to either remove it from the menu or to increase the pieces to match the portion size of what is normally served.

Our server alerted the manager who came over to us, which I almost didn't know was the manager based on her appearance. She listened to the concern and took the dish to the kitchen. She returned in two minutes with the same piece of food that she walked through the dining room and kitchen with. She said that she was having more made and would have it out soon. She returned in a few minutes with only one piece on a small side plate, not garnished, and proceeded to tilt the plate until it fell off the plate onto our appetizer plate. These actions alone showed me that this person is not qualified to be running this restaurant, let alone managing any restaurant until she is trained on what service is how to ensure excellent service as well. She used no utensil to remove or scoop it over to our dish either. It looked like she was removing a dog turd that she found outside. This is something that you should expect in a bar that serves finger food, not an upscale restaurant where the D'Angelo reputation is the expected experience. Any good restaurant manager would have this dish re-platted, newly garnished with new sides of sauce, and being proud of what they are ready to serve the guest and with a smile; bring it out and make sure the guest is genuinely happy.

I'd also say that the entrees were not good either. ...

I came here with a friend from out of town. I have been on both sides of the table when it comes to restaurants. I have worked as a server and bartender for a very large busy restaurant chain as well as being an owner and chef of my own. First, bread came that had no flavor at all. Then we ordered an appetizer of fried calamari. The plate was served with fried red peppers, fried zucchini a couple of shrimp and a FEW calamari rings. Then came the ordered specialty pizza. The pizza was not as described and was oily, overcooked, tasted horrible and very dry. The informed server states he would call the manager. We explained the dissatisfaction and was offered another of the same. Ordered another kind which came with sausage. The sausage tasted like the same used in fast food pizza and was then not portioned properly. I would think a manager should have been the person redelivering our food and asking, after 5 minutes of we were satisfied. Unfortunately that was not the case. It was not until we finished were we asked. Upon requesting the bill our server had another table served before a second request for the bill which still took another 10 minutes. Very disappointed. Needless to say. I will not...

Horrible Service! Stay away during busy times... the Valet was overwhelmed and vehicles were blocking the way so I had to park myself down the lot. Wife and I walked in and the hostess said 20 min. Went to the bar to get a drink while waiting, the bartender was ignoring me I had to wave at her 3 times to get a drink. About 45 min later after a drink at the bar I asked about our spot, the manager said 5 more min. After another 30 min I asked the hostess who originally met us whats going on, she and the manager clearly forgot about us, had written our name on a piece of paper that must have disappeared. Tried to give us the worst table in the place up near the hostess station where 50 people were hovering around. I would have had asses in my face. Once we sat at a better two person table it took a while to get any bread and our wine took forever. The server was nice and the food was great but getting to the point of eating...