La Cipollina — Restaurant in Freehold

One of my waiters was really polite, but even his professionalism was not enough to offset the events that were about to transpire. To start off, my party was informed that the food was going to take a while to get out, and even though we were offered as much bread appetizers as we wanted, my first request for a refill (which was submitted to a different waiter about 30 minutes into the wait) was met with this nasty attitude that caught me off guard considering how gracious my experience has been thus far. I gave her the benefit of the doubt and just attributed the rudeness as joking around. 15 more minutes into the wait, we were given a small platter of homemade mozzarella cheese and other appetizers, on the house, while being warned that the food is still going to be a while until it comes out. Although delighted at first from the gift, I had my delight quickly overturned to suspicion when I noticed multiple other parties, who were seated after us, being served their food already. When the food finally arrived, after literally at least an hour and a half, our verdict on the food was at best mediocre with laughably tiny portions, despite a menu that boasted a fancy, authentic, and, of course, pricey selection. Lastly (and I really really really do hate to make these assumptions, but I'm left with no choice from what I ended up seeing), I recommend anyone who is not Caucasian to stay away from this restaurant. My party and another, which both comprised of non-Caucasians, were the only ones who ended up having to wait such an absurd amount of time, despite having arrived the same time with the same amount of people as the other Caucasian parties. The gap in wait times wasn't a small one, mind you - when our orders arrived, literally almost everyone (who was Caucasian) had already left the restaurant. I am usually pretty forgiving with my dining experiences, but these small subtleties I noticed throughout my stay left a bad taste. Nevertheless, I am making the rating 2 stars instead of 1 because the setting was decent, they did give us that platter on the house, and that first waiter knew what...

Extremely disappointing experience. Came in as a group of 4 on a Sat night to celebrate a birthday. The restaurant is advertised as being open until 11pm and so we made a reso for 9pm. This restaurant fancies itself as fine dining, however, they miss the mark on all necessary qualities other than the server wearing a suit. To begin, the underaged back server could not answer any of our questions and did not have the ability to open the spring water that we ordered, so I opened it for her. We then had to ask for bread, or it would not have been served. We attempted to order appetizers first but were told by the 16-year-old waiter that we had to put in our entire order, so we did. Minutes later, everything other than the entrees was brought to the table. We asked for the kitchen to slow down the pace, and we were told no. We had so many dishes on the table there was no room for anything else. We were forced to utilize the unoccupied tables next to us. I personally ordered a pasta course, prior to my entrée and of course they were both brought out simultaneously. The entrees were unpalatable. The chicken Milanese tasted like it was deep fried in the same oil that McDonalds cooks their French fries in. The seafood over parm risotto dish was swimming in so much water that it should have been advertised as a soup. The rigatoni was just bad, and the filet was flavorless and they were sure to top it with extra mushrooms after it was asked to have no mushrooms! We brought our dissatisfaction to the attention of the waiter who then admitted to us that the staff had purposely rushed our service because they were tired from working a party at 9 am. We offered our constructive criticism to the young boy who seemed to be the only staff member left in the restaurant. There was no supervisor or adult present. I paid the nearly $500 tab, the surprise 4% credit card fee, left 20% for the server, and did not even bother to order dessert. This restaurant is an embarrassment to fine dining. Overpriced, unpalatable food, and they have 16-year-olds running the place. How embarrassing. Will...

Where do I begin....we were a group of 5. We had a reservation for 6:30. When we walked in there was only 1 table of two having dinner. I waited 5 minutes for someone to come out to seat us. Now we sit and were handed paper menus. The waiter, who was also the person who sat us, told us that this was their Valentines Day menu and they were still using it because they were preparing new menus. I thought that was strange and felt I should have been told that we would have a limited menu. Next....the waiter tells us there are 2 items on the menu that were not available. I guess they were too busy since Valentines Day to replenish their food. Next.....there was a salad with kale on the menu and we asked if they would substitute romaine for the kale. We knew romaine was available because someone else ordered it. His response was we can add something but cannot substitute or take it off. What a ridiculous statement. Next.......I asked for bread. The butter came out but the bread came out later. KEEP IN MIND WE ARE THE ONLY PEOPLE IN THE RESTAURANT. THE OTHER COUPLE LEFT. Next.....after the entrees were served the waiter came out while we were still eating and asked if we were going to order dessert because the pastry chef wanted leave. Now at this point I am furious but still kept my cool. We went ahead and ordered dessert. NOW FOR THE BEST PART..... while having our dessert the waiter comes out and says......I just want you to know that we are closing soon because a snowstorm is predicted for tomorrow. YES PEOPLE.....YOU HEARD ME RIGHT. I looked up at him and said “let understand if I heard you correctly. You want us to hurry up because you want to close early because snow is coming tomorrow?” He said yes! KEEP IN MIND EVERYONE THAT WE WERE THE ONLY PEOPLE IN THE DINING ROOM AND IT WAS 8:20. I paid my bill and told that waiter he would never see me again and would pass this on and that is precisely what I am doing. So beware!!! I eat out very often and have never experienced...