Umberto's of Long Island Restaurant & Pizza — Restaurant in Fort Lauderdale

RESPONSE TO YOUR RESPONSE: Credit where it's due, like I said about the food... My description of events is 100% accurate, calling your former loyal recurrent customer "dramatic" says a lot about you, personally, whoever you may be, besides either being a liar or a fool for believing a lie someone told you without checking first. Your accusations are irresponsible. At ABSOLUTELY NO MOMENT did I ever say I was going to leave a bad review. I also never said I was unhappy with your policy, I was disappointed with YOUR decision to not open a simple exception to a regular customer like me. I must say, however, that not every manager has enough competence to identify and assess the possible loss of a regular customer (apparently customers don't mean anything, anyway). To end, for you to say you respect MY DECISION to no longer order from you, makes me sick in the stomach, since you guys were the ones who told me I was banned from ordering from there if I cancelled the order.

The food is AWESOME. THE CUSTOMER, APPARENTLY, IS WORTH LESS THAN NOTHING. I’ve been ordering from this place for about 2 years—mostly delivery and takeout. I’ve tried almost everything on the menu, sometimes ordering twice (for myself and someone else), often 3–4 times a week. A few times, I even got sick from the food but never complained because I figured things happen.

Today, however, changed everything. I placed my usual weekend order from work (bill was a little over $50) and intended to pay cash. I was told they don’t accept $50 or $100 bills. I only had $100 bills, so I hesitantly offered my card over the phone, even though I felt uncomfortable with people around me. I tried masking the numbers but something went wrong, and I asked if I could just give my card to the delivery guy instead. The person on the phone said that was fine.

About 30 mins later, the same guy called back saying the manager demanded I either pay by card immediately or pay cash—but not with $50s or $100s. I explained again: I couldn’t read my card out loud and couldn’t go out to get change. I asked for an exception—just this once.

Two years of loyalty, repeat double orders, generous tips, no complaints, and this is how I get treated? I figured they'd consider it. I was wrong. The food is great—though often overpriced—but the customer apparently means nothing. When I expressed concern about giving my card info out loud again, the manager responded with disbelief, as if I were being paranoid: “Are you saying your coworkers could steal your info?”

Then came the real kicker: “Either you pay now or the order gets canceled—and if you cancel, you’ll be banned from ordering here again.” Wow. That’s how loyal customers get treated?

So I canceled. Because at that point, how could I trust the food being delivered wouldn’t be tampered with?

Here’s the part that really got me: I live walking distance from the place. I work in a standalone building that’s not going anywhere for at least 24 years. I’m known by name by some of the staff. I’ve always paid in full, never asked for special treatment, always tipped well, and supported this business even when things went wrong—and now I’m treated like a potential thief or scammer?

Maybe they thought I’d run off with the food. Maybe my $100 bill would’ve been fake. Maybe asking the driver to take my card was such a disruptive favor that it outweighed 2 years of support. I don’t know. What I do know is I’ve paid by phone before with no issue, and this time I didn’t feel safe doing so. That should’ve mattered.

I get company policies. I respect them. But when it comes down to “pay up or shut up” with zero regard for who the customer is, that’s just bad business. I’m done ordering from here. I won’t trash the food—it’s great—but someone in management seriously needs to take a class on how to treat customers, especially the ones who helped build their success. TOTAL LACK...

I would rate this place a negative 10 if i could. The Service was rude and unprofessional from the door. In regards to the group of 20 with a registered psychiatric dog that belonged to my 12 year old granddaughter who suffers from severe anxiety attacks. My party was already sitting. Yes, we did not have a reservation but the establishment was called before arriving to make sure they would be able to accommodate us all and we were advised yes, so we did not just show up. I was outside and came in with the service dog carry bag, in which she was not in. I then came in after my party was already seated. Upon entering in and getting to my partys table I was approached by a woman who i assumed was a manager, don't know because she never introduced herself, she immediately in an unprofessional and rude manner proceeded to tell me that they did not allow pets due to health code, that we were told 5 times already and i had to leave. (FYI. I DO NOT KNOW WHO SHE TOLD 5X'S THIS TOO BUT THIS WAS THE FIRST TIME SHE SPOKE TO ME, unless she told it to my 12 year old granddaughter who apparently is a minor and if so SHAME ON YOU TO BE ADDRESSING A MINOR IN THAT OBNOXIOUS CONDENSATING ATTITUDE OF YOURS)I advised her that she was a service dog and she cut me off to tell me that i was lying and the dog was not a service animal because if it was i would not be carrying her and she knew the law and proceeded to tell me about the four on the floor law. She never asked me for the task she is trained for and kept insisting i had to leave. I tried to explain and even offered to show her the documentation and she kept cutting me off and being rude and didnt want to see my documentation. She again told me i had to leave and if I wanted to take them to court to go ahead but I would lose because I would not be able to prove she was a service dog. She came to the assumption that i was lying and i fraudulently had service animal documentation. HOWEVER, AGAIN SHE IS A FULL GROWN BREED NOT A PUPPY AND A SERVICE DOG!! IS A PSYCIATRIC SERVICE DOG!!! NOT AN EMOTIONAL SUPPORT ANIMAL!! If she knew the complete law, she would know that a service dog is ALLOWED TO BE CARRIED OR IN A BAG IT ALLOWS THE DOG TO PERFORM THEIR TASK DUTIES MORE EFFICIENTLY. Again we were never asked what task she was trained to preform nor did she care to hear them. As a result i was very angry and told her i would leave because i did not want to ruin the rest of the party's day due to the unprofessionalism of this individual and after i made a rude statement due to the anger and frustration i proceeded to leave. FYI, the service dog was never a disturbance, nor did she bark or made a noice, so no law was broken on my end. After leaving, apparently she went back to my party and told them in the rudest manner that she will not be able to serve them due to the abuse and told tgem they had to leave. THE AUDACITY. SHE WAS THE ONE WHO CAME OFF RUDE AND UNPROFESSIONAL OFF THE BACK. This issue caused my 12 year old gradaughter to have a severe anxiety attack that caused her service dog a while to help her recover from. I definitely would NOT recommend this place to anyone due to the rude obnoxious behavior, condensating attitude of this manager and her unprofessionalism. I will let everyone know about this experience...

HORRIBLE SERVICE ALERT! It pains me to write this review because my family and I have been coming to this restaurant for over 15 years as we are locals in Fort Lauderdale! However last night we had the worst dining experience ever at Umberto's Fort Lauderdale. It was a special occasion, my mother's birthday, and we could not have had poorer service. It took about 15 mins to even get someone to the table. As we waiting I noticed the other tables around us were annoyed and had been waiting a long time as well. Once she did come to the table, she couldn't have been more disengaged and rude. She never once looked anyone in the eye and was more concerned with what was going on around her than listening to us when we were ordering. While waiting for a drink order we were then solicited by an outside party asking us to buy chocolate and donate money. After we politely declined, she turned away and she became angry and uttered some choice words under breath. We thought it was odd but it was early and we brushed it off. We ordered a bottle of wine and the waitress just threw it on the table without bottle service. After I had to ask her to open the wine and pour it for everyone, she spilled the red wine on my sister as she was pouring it without any acknowledgement. She then proceeded to take orders and took everyone's but almost ran from the table without taking my fathers order. After the food came we were never checked on once to see how the meal was, let alone hardly checked on ever during the whole dinner. She slammed plates on the table and was very rude snatching plates out of the hands of my sister and friend when we asked to have food boxed up. At one point she was walking away from me when I was asking her for more boxes, and I said excuse I'm talking to you and she kept walking and literally couldn't be bothered. When I attempted to talk to someone about it I first encountered the snarky hostess who I asked if she was a manager, to which she replied, "why is there a complaint?" basically saying I don't want to deal with your issue. I was floored and very upset at this point. I explained to her what had been happening to which she then went and found the so called manager. I then told him everything that had gone on, and he did apologize and said he would do something for the table but the whole time I was talking to him he could care less, just like all the other staff. I returned to the table at that point to pay the bill. The waitress brought the bill which was over $150.00 and said the manager took $15.00 off your check. I was appalled! He then came over and basically put his hand up in my face and walked away when I was speaking to him again. The entire staff was rude-hostess, waitress, bus boy, and management- all rude and extremely disappointing. As someone who has been in the service industry for 23 years I RARELY complain about anything and am usually very understanding, but this was like nothing I had ever dealt with before. I am very sad that one of our favorite restaurants has taken a turn for the worst and we will not be going back, EVER! Do not give these people your money or business, there are plenty of other amazing italian restaurants in this town like Franco and Vinnie's, Il Mulino, and...