La Fiamma Italian Kitchen — Restaurant in Franconia

**UPDATE: AVOID. This restaurant not only serves food that isn’t even considered authentic Italian, overloaded with grease, and lacking any freshness, it is also straight up racist to Asians, and possibly other minorities.

When we first walked in, we noticed we were the only Asian patrons here, and were stared at and immediately felt that the vibe was a bit off. Service was slow for us, took over two hours from start to finish and we had to wave down servers multiple times because they were ignoring us a few times.

Contrary to their lying response, we did alert the manager (Gonzalo) about the ant in my food who did not even seem to BELIEVE us nor APOLOGIZE and instead said “if you dined on the restaurant side you would not have had this issue as we do not have this problem.” Really? When there was clearly an ant that my friend had to squish on my plate? We were gaslit instead of given a proper decent apology after waiting 30 minutes for the manager to come see us. Any other decent restaurant would have come immediately to apologize. We did not appreciate how we were treated differently from the moment we walked in (stared at). Maybe you should have clearer signage of where your entrance is because that’s where Google takes us, if you’re so concerned about patrons sitting on the “wrong side.” You should be servicing your customers either way, but we were ignored for 10 minutes despite being on the side where all the TABLES and diners were sitting. Someone said they don’t treat minorities the same here and I echo that wholeheartedly.

Original review: My experience was like something out of an episode of kitchen nightmares. How this place is still running the way it is, is beyond me. I came here with my friend at 5ish pm. When we entered, it was a bit of a strange vibe as the entrance led into a bar area with awkward table arrangements. We got seated but noticed that no one came to our table until we had to wave someone down. We noticed people (some patrons) staring at us, as we were the only minorities there, which made us feel unwelcome. We considered still giving it a try because I was hungry and craving Italian. The lady who served us was the bartender and she could have been friendlier, it seemed like she didn’t really want to serve us (again this place felt a bit weird as minority patrons here we didn’t feel quite welcome and it was a bit uncomfortable to be honest). I ordered a calamari as an app cause I was craving this. It was decent, well cooked but they use darker flour rather than the light versions some Italian places use. I ordered an eggplant Parmesan and my friend ordered the lasagna. While eating I noticed something disturbing. We saw an ant crawling up the wall! I figured I’d finish up my food then noticed quickly that now the ant was IN MY FOOD. I quickly told a separate server about the issue (it was really hard getting anyone’s attention here?). He didn’t even apologize. He just went to the back and didn’t give us an update for over 15 MINUTES. At this point it had been over an hour we had been here and I already lost my appetite and couldn’t believe there were bugs crawling in the food here. When I went to the back, where it appears they send to go orders out, the manager came out and I told him there was a bug in my food. Rather than apologize and be professional, he was rude and said “if you had dined in this dining room it would not have happened.” Excuse me? How in the WORLD am I supposed to know we needed to dine on the other side when your entrance is out back by the bar? Also…way to completely be rude and not take accountability for BUGS in your food. My friend actually had to squish the ant and it was disgusting. They never offered to comp my meal and continued to act like we weren’t even there the whole time. This place needs an inspection if they have ants crawling around.

Please go literally ANYWHERE else, Olive Garden at least has food without critters in it. I have literally never eaten anywhere where a manager responded this way. The worst $30...

Made a reservation using their online system Friday afternoon for dinner tomorrow after seeing their ad for Christmas specials & received a CONFIRMATION email by 8pm that night. Out at church tonight & get a cancelled notification a mere 24 hours before our reservations. Immediately reply to both the text & email but unable to call until just before midnight. No answer. And now no where to go for Christmas Day dinner with family in town. I'm so upset, there was NO indication of being closed on Christmas on their special listing, their website, nor their Facebook page. AND they CONFIRMED my reservation!!! If they didn't on Friday & just cancelled it, I wouldn't be so upset, but I have to waste my Christmas Day panicking about where to eat now as I have nothing.

Don't allow bookings on days you're closed, CONFIRM it, then cancel 24 hours before, especially with ZERO indication anywhere that you're closed Christmas Day!!! I finally found a restaurant everyone agreed on & it's a disaster now... I haven't had the heart to tell them either as it will ruin their holiday like mine already is!!

UPDATE (to respond to reply): LF said: We had indicated that we were closed on all our social media platforms... . Did you make the reservation shortly before the cancellation?

Me: No, I checked Facebook and your website, as indicated, and both stated regular hours. Facebook hours, as of today, haven't been updated in 2 years, and a Christmas special flyer had ZERO indication that you weren't open on, well Christmas. Why post that and not mention alternate hours on it?!? I shouldn't need to check anything beyond a flyer like that, the restaurant website, and the online reservation system (which you can also alter closed days on it like thousands of other restaurants did for Christmas Day since they'd be closed). Facebook did not have a post about being closed when I checked Friday evening when I made the reservation. You, the restaurant, had ALL weekend to cancel but instead waited 4 days after I made the reservation to cancel it, on Christmas Eve a mere 24 hours before we were planning to come eat.

So while I have been there in the past, I will not be returning with a response by the restaurant that doesn't take the blame for this distaster, instead they somewhat tried to blame...

I came here from Mgm near the Harbor, so I had a little bit of a drive.

We were visiting from our of town and my family loves Italian. I made reservations, not knowing if they would be packed.

We came in and were greeted. The gentleman host stated they would check on a table for us. Only maybe 5 other parties for this restaurant and from what I can see 4 to 5 servers (1 large party of about 8) if that and they were finishing up as we were seated). You will see why this is important.

We are seated and given menus about 5 min passes before the waitress comes to take our drink order. Another 5 min to get our drinks. The server apologizes and stated they are out of bread but would bring some out as soon as they are ready.

We order an appetizer fried mozzarella with marinara. About 12 min passes, she comes back, and she's like, "How was the appetizer?" and we are like, "What appetizer?"Our table is empty only our drinks. She likes oh let me go see where it's at. Still no bread. She brings it out and and it's a square block of fried mozzarella, not sticks. Our bad on that for assuming it was mozzarella sticks. Not even 1 min our food comes out by someone else. So which means our app. Was sitting up there because it wasn't hot warm at best. She comes back around, and my husband asks if that bread is still baking. And she goes, "Oh my god, I'm being horrible today." I'm sorry. I'll give you all the bread. About 6 rolls. So we are eating. My son said his Alfredo is a watery, tasteless mess. He had to add salt. My carbonara had thick chunky pieces of prosciutto, not my cup of tea, but ok. I just ate around it. My husband dish was like tortellini or something baked in a dish. He got something hard and sharp in it. It looked like a toothpick. I called the server over, and she looked at it, and she's like no "we don't give out toothpicks." Umm, ok. So she takes it back and says it's a parsley stem. I'm sorry. At this point, I'm ready to go. I asked for the bill, and she goes, " I gave you a discount for all these mishaps today. I'm sorry." The discount was $1.80 it was almost comical at this point, like what is that on a $100 bill. So overall, I would skip this place. I would have been better off going to...