Divieto Ristorante - Estero — Restaurant in Florida

We had such a strange experience at Divieto's this weekend. We have dined here before, and the food has been consistently good. However, our service tonight and the pacing of the meal was just downright bizarre. I made a reservation a month in advance for our party of 10. When I made the reservation I was asked if there were any special occasions. I told them yes, we would have a birthday in our party. We arrived on time. Our table was not ready. We had to wait about another 10 minutes to be seated. The table we were seated at seemed out of place. It seemed as though a couple tables were put together in an area of the restaurant that does not normally house those tables. When our server arrived, she mentioned that she had another server that would be assisting her. She apologized if she was difficult to hear, because she was speaking quietly, and proceeded to say "I have a sore throat". Not exactly something you'd like to hear your server say as she is taking care of you for dinner. Perhaps her throat was sore due to a lot of talking, or being out late the night before celebrating, who knows. The point is, she did not elaborate; and for all we knew she was coming down with something. It was just an odd piece of information to give to your table of 10 guests dining that night. We are traveling in less than a week for summer vacation, so it was pretty unsettling to think that it was possible she was coming down with something. Anyway, we order drinks and appetizers. The appetizers were delivered by someone other than our server(s), drinks came out separately. She asked if we would like separate checks, we said that if she was fine with that we would love to split it into two checks. I had to repeat myself three times as to who would be on each of the two checks. We order dinner, three of us having the table side fettuccine. Dinner came out incredibly fast. Actually, the dinner was delivered to our table faster than the large party seated next to us that had arrived significantly earlier than we did. The table side fettuccine though was not delivered or plated until about 15 minutes after the rest of the table already had their meals. The rest of the table was at least halfway finished with their dinner before the three ordering the table side fettuccine had a meal. Not to mention, it was basically prepared behind us so nobody could really see what was going on. The cart was pulled up behind our table, and it was prepared off to the side. Team members refilling water were pretty quick to refill, almost too quick; but the rest of the drinks were ignored. We had to ask for refills on anything that was not water. When it came time to box up what was left of our meals, our server began boxing the rest of a margarita pizza. She was having trouble sliding the pizza off of the plate. She proceeded to take a USED fork from another member of our party's plates to push the pizza into the box. I was in complete disbelief. Not the back of the fork, not the side. She took a used fork off of someone's dinner plate and used the end that you eat with to push the remaining margarita pizza into a box for another member of our party. I've never seen anything like it. There was no mention of the birthday at our table, I don't even recall if dessert was offered to anyone. She sat down two bills and said "make sure you check them, I'm not perfect." Not in a light-hearted banter way, but a very odd, uncomfortable tone. All in all it was a very strange dining experience last night. The food was fine, really nothing wrong with our food other than the odd pacing of the meal. The service left a lot to be desired though. I don't know if it was an off night, or our server was just improperly trained. I still can't get past the dirty fork being used to package someone else's meal from the table. For just over $200 per check the experience left a lot to be desired. Three stars simply for the fact that the food is usually very consistent. However, I will give it a second thought before we go back...

Overall a disappointing experience.

The Octopus appetizer had good flavor but the octopus itself was overcooked and had a pencil eraser rubber texture. The entrees, however, were very good.

The service was actually very disappointing. The restaurant was empty yet we were immediately ushered into the the overflow room where there is no ambiance. The room itself was very echoey and sparse. If you are ever brought into this room simply walk out of the restaurant. The experience we had in this room, which was separated from the rest of the restaurant with a heavy fabric divider, was poor. There was no discount for the food in this room. I guess this is where they put the steerage. I will say that we were dressed appropriately for a fine dining experience so this baffled us.

The wait staff was not attentive, brought the wrong drinks out on the first try, did not clear dirty plates away, and brought food to the table without regard to timing of the dining experience. For instance, the soup was brought out immediately and well before the appetizer, the rubbery octopus mentioned above, was finished. The wait staff did not operate as a team and did not help the clear plates. Helping to clear plates is something that is standard in restaurants that provide actual fine dining experiences.

Poor ambiance, poor service, rubbery octopus, but very tasty and well cooked entrees earns this Divieto's a 2/5 star rating which is 40% or a solid "D". I am sure management will write something about how they are sorry the experience was not up to their usual standards of excellence. Fine dining experience means, however, nevery having to say you are sorry.

This was our first experience with Divieto's but I feel as if we have been there twice. First time and last time. There are just too many choices for actual fine dining experiences to risk being subject to such a poor...

UPDATE! Received a voicemail on 12/24 from the General Manager which sounded like he said his name was Victor Janice and wanted me to call him back, but I called the restaurant 3x and Victor the GM at the restaurant said he never called me and left a message. Apparently no one knows who called me but yet I have a voicemail. SMH

We experienced our first racist experience since being here in Florida. Went to have dinner at your restaurant with my husband and children. When we walked in they took us to a room that had a red curtain and like 6 tables. They took us to our table and closed the curtain right behind us Mind you, they had a huge open dining room but I didn't think anything of it We walk in and there's another Hispanic family with kids sitting at a table. Approximately 10 minutes later a Hispanic couple comes and then another Hispanic family with 2 little girls. I still didn't even think anything of it as we were enjoying our drinks and appetizers. Suddenly these two Caucasian couple come in, and you can immediately see they weren't happy. They sit down and immediately ask that they be moved to the main dining room which the waiter immediately complied. Another Hispanic family comes and sits at their table then like 15 min later, a young Caucasian couple comes in and they walk to their table but don't even sit and asked to be moved. We all look at each other and start laughing and shaking our heads in disbelief. When we were done we went to the washroom and had to cross the main dining area and noticed not ONE Hispanic was seated there. Apparently they were all in the room with the red curtain. My husband and I just looked at each other and said "wow this is so obvious". Food was delicious and waiter was amazing but I'll...