Caterina's — Restaurant in Fort Worth

My boyfriend and I cam to texas for the first time and yesterday we were at the Stockyards, and we saw the menu as we weere walking through everything, and we made a mental note to come back.

Tonight, we decided that we would try Caterina's and I wish we had made a better decision.

1. The service from our waitress, Erica, was amazing. She went through the entirety of the menu with us and she was attentive to all our needs.

2. The atmosphere is beautiful. I love that you have to turn in your cellphones and they lock them up in these little bags. It is really a cool idea.

Thats it. the positive review stops there.

The only food that we actually enjoyed was the piece of parmiggiano and prosciutto that they give at the very beginning of the meal. The appetizers were less than edible.

The meatballs were spongy and so overcooked. The tomato sauce was so salty and tomato pasty. Wasn't very good.

The caprese salad had "imported" buffalo mozzarello which was not good. And then it also had this local dallas mozzarella. Also not good - weird aftertaste.

Then we get onto the primi - which we ordered the spaghetti carbonara. 1) Spaghetti Carbonara is supposed to just have egg yolk and pecorino romano, and cracked black pepper. It is supposed to be creamy but it isn't supposed to be a soup - well that is what we receieved - inedible carbonara soup - it was so horrible, that we spoke to the manager and had another plate brought out to see if it would be any better. The second plate was worse than the first - way too salty that you needed to drink a whole bottle of water after each bite.

We also had our secondi on the table and we chose the pork chop piccata. It should be named "Pork Chop Limonata" as that is the only thing you taste. Lemons. Lemons. Lemons. Lemons. Lemons. You can't taste anything other than lemons.

From there, we decided that we just wanted to leave. As my boyfriend is from Italy and I have an italian background, we thought that at least we would have a somewhat decent experience.

My boyfriend at the last minute wanted to have espresso and gelato. He ordered the vaniglia gelato, which tasted extremely similar to the melts icecream across the street, coincidentally. Than when we ordered the espresso, the waitress came back and told us that the espresso machine was warming up, which alluded to they turned off the machine - you never turn the machine off. When the espresso arrived it looked like a cappucino.

Now, this restaurant atmospherically is off the chain. It is beautiful. But that is all it is. A pretty restaurant with horrible horrible food.

Also, the general manager is Serbian and the Executive Chef is Spanish...I doubt one Italian was in the kitchen. You cannot say that you are an Italian restaurant and this and that when you are not - extremely disappointed.

Side note: They also kept the carbonara on the bill - not the point - but I have worked in restaurants all my life, and my boyfriend is a chef that has been trained in pizza and pasta making in Rome and Naples, the carbonara should have been taken off the bill if a complaint was made, and both plates that came out had one spoonful taken out of it. All in all, not...

I'm confused how there are bad reviews? I travel for work and have the luxury of eating incredible meals all over the world... this is a top five dining experience for me, easily. The food, service, and ambiance were incredible. The friend I went with is a huge foodie and we ordered a lot... we were both thrilled and would highly recommend.

Our ticket was ~$220 I think? That was for two mixed drinks, one glass of wine, three appetizers, two pasta meals, one main meal, and a dessert. I didn't think anything was too overpriced. We just ordered a lot!

We kicked off with two mixed drinks, which to our delight were made in front of us table side with a lite bite to pair along with it. Strong drinks, delicious.

We started with meatballs, carpaccio, and zucchini fries. All three were great, but if you can only do one - meatballs. They were tender, filled with flavor, and the sauce was perfection.

We skipped salads and went straight for rigatoni and the veal ravioli. The veal was the only thing I would say was good but not great (slightly too thick/heavy) and the rigatoni was the star of the show. I would go back just for the rigatoni even if everything else wasn't as fabulous as it was. It also held well and reheated nicely the day after.

For the meat dish, we got the pork chop which was pounded down thin, covered in butter, garlic, lemon, and capers. It was delicious & moist as well. The waitress described it as light but we didn't agree with that. It was hearty (& delicious) even though it was thin. It also reheated really well and we enjoyed most of it the day after.

Then, we had the tiramisu. I wasn't excited about ordering it but my friend wanted it. I quickly ate my words because I ate my entire half. Best tiramisu I've had.

The ambiance is dimly lit, but not dark where it's tough to read a menu. It's sexy, and tables are small and close together so we ended up chatting with our neighbors which added to the experience. Everyone around us was raving about their dishes and suggesting what we should order.

If you're doing 4 courses & drinks, it will take 2.5-3 hours. It is an experience; this isn't a hop in and out restaurant and it's not meant to be! It's bizarre someone rated this a 1 because they have a no phone rule. (It stays with you physically in a locked case.) You have a choice, if you aren't okay with it, don't go in.

We loved everything about this place! Thanks for a...

A couple friends and I gave Caterina’s a try for the first time this weekend. While the wait staff, bar tenders and hostesses were all kind and knowledgeable, the General Manager, Milos, unfortunately ruined the experience for us.

It is well documented this restaurant enforces a no phone policy and your phone is locked in a magnetic pouch at the beginning of your evening. It is worth mentioning the reservation notes state their policy has been relaxed to allow phones in the bar and outdoor patio area now.

Unfortunately I blew out a tire down the road from the restaurant prior to arriving. Generally in these situations I would opt for cancelling the reservation, but this restaurant enforces a $50/person cancellation fee. I checked with the hostess before our phones were locked if I would be able to step outside and take phone calls during dinner in order to coordinate with a family member who was kind enough to drive in and help me get my tire fixed so I could get my car back home. She let me know this would not be a problem and I could step out as often as I needed to take calls.

I had to step out a total of four times to coordinate car location, pass off keys, etc. on a busy Saturday evening in the stockyards. Regardless of the ‘relaxed’ phone policy that allows phone use in the bar, I took each of these calls outside.

Unfortunately, despite following these rules, Milos took issue with me requesting access to my phone multiple times. He would take my phone and give it back without speaking a word, so I had already sensed tension. At my third request, he asked if he could ask me a question. When I said of course, he rudely asked ‘why I would choose a restaurant with a no phone policy if I was going to spend the entire evening on my phone.’ I found this incredibly condescending and judgmental. He could have easily opted to ask me if everything was okay when noticing I was frequently requesting access to my phone. I explained my circumstance and he did not speak another word to me. No apology either.

Food was okay, not horrible, but missing a lot of attention to detail. Appetizers, salad and pasta arrived in a timely fashion. Entrees and drinks were very slow to arrive. The Rigatoni was the only stand out dish. You can get the same food & drink for better prices elsewhere. The average food and condescending customer service experience do not live up to the high prices and...