Cafe Italia | Grapevine, Tx — Restaurant in Grapevine

I won't give this location a poor rating because overall it was a great experience. Allow me to explain. We planned to visit this location for a birthday. There was going to be 5 of us in our party so I called to make a reservation. 6pm, mid week, probably didn't need one, but I didn't want to take a chance. First off, I call and the only greeting I got was a "Hello?" As if I was calling a stranger, not a business. Made the reservation, he did say something that didn't seem to make sense at the time, but would later. He said "Now this is on Ira Woods right?" I responded "yes?" Call ends. Very quick. Ok.

Went to the restaurant for our reserved time. It was just 2 of us at tis moment. We were waiting on the other 3. I don't think anything was written down or documented we had a reservation. We walked in and said I had a reservation for 5 at 6pm. They tried to sit us with another group at first. Odd. Then we got seated at another table with 6 place settings. Host took one away. Ok. There were 2 menus on the table. Never received anymore menus than that. 15 minutes of waiting for our party, they call and say they are here, but can't find us. Remember that weird thing mentioned in the reservation call? "Ira Woods". That is because there is another location .6mi away! Anyway, the rest of our party shows up. It's BYOB. One member had a 6pk beer, but they had no ice buckets to keep beer cold. Still only had the 2 menus. Placed an order for apps. They brought bread too. Then they gave us plate of Bruschetta on the house. That was nice. There was about an hour in between placing the app order and taking our dinner order. It was fine because they got very busy for a Tuesday night I thought. BUT, during that hour, a waiter dropped more bread off for us, but then quickly realized it was meant for another table. This happened again when a plate of calamari was dropped off but then taken away. Then when we were nearing the end of our dinner, I had asked for a couple of to-go boxes, but the waiter just took my plate and the others to the back and boxed up. I felt I was in one of those funny TikTok pranks where they take Dad's plate while he is still eating.

Overall, the food was good. The atmosphere was good. The service was good, but quirky. The restaurant got very busy so it's understandable. I will go back for sure and I recommend...

I usually go to the location of north west highway, but I’ve heard (through the grapevine) this location off Ira is superior. So one day when my husband and I had some free time we decided to go there for a “day date” we walked in, to restaurant that was mildly lively with one big top table and a couple of others here and there. We were told to sit wherever we want. We chose our table and very patiently waited for someone to approach us with our drink order. Finally an older gentleman approached us (after 20 minutes) and took our drink order. Remember, this was not a busy hour or dinner time. My husband was feeling reluctant that we would receive good service here, but I really wanted us to have a good experience and asked him to shrug off the poor service we had received up to that point and give them another chance. We wait and wait for someone to approach us to take our orders. During this time another older couple entered the restaurant long after we had already been there. We sit there waiting for someone to approach us, making eye contact, putting our menus to the side, doing all the social cues short of standing up and saying “Hey can someone help us?” Still nobody responds to us and we watch this other couple who arrived long after we did, get drinks right away and food served to them before anyone had even come to take our orders! This was our first experience at this location and we were so excited to try it after hearing such great things….We tried to give them the benefit of the doubt but after sitting there and watching patrons arrive after us getting served before anyone had even taken our order, standing at their table and giving award winning service to them while we were treated so poorly was truly the last straw so after sitting there for 30 minutes without our order being taken and nobody bothering to check on us , and witnessing the kind of service they are clearly capable of providing to others my husband and I decided to walk out and we’ve never done anything like that before we are truly some of the most patient and understanding people but we were treated so poorly and for that I will never recommend going to...

Whatever you do, do not come to this restaurant! This was the worst experience I’ve ever had in my entire life. We booked a room for a private party of 18 for a wedding rehearsal and were assured it would be available at 8:15pm, they even told us they would print special menus to accommodate our group’s food allergies and price range, and foods they could get out quickly for a large group. We arrived at 8:10 to discover the room filled with people already dining. The owner assured us they would be gone within 5 minutes but they had full plates of food! I don’t know if the owner here is completely stupid and incapable of running a restaurant or if he’s a scumbag liar. Regardless they clearly were not done in 5 minutes and our group asked to sit outside on the patio. At 8:45 I noticed the about half the group in the room leave. While we were upset the manager yelled at the mother of the groom and said “what are y’all gonna spend $400? I don’t care about that.” Also they forgot to make the food for the mother of the Bride so her food came out about 15 minutes after the rest of the food. If you look at my profile you’ll see that I’ve only left positive reviews in the past, but this was completely inexcusable. Oh they also never printed any menus for our group, so that was another lie. The food was honestly really good, shout out to the chef. The wait staff did a great job, and clearly tried their best given the horrible circumstance that management and ownership put them in. The problem is strictly with management and ownership and their blatant lies or incompetence, because it has to be one or the other. If you want to walk in here on a random night, you’ll probably have a fine time. But if you want any sort of special occasion, avoid this place like the plague.

Oh also at the end of the meal they asked if anyone wanted coffee with their dessert. I asked if they served espresso and was told that they do not. What kind of Italian place offers coffee but not...