Tre Famiglia Ristorante BYOB — Restaurant in Haddonfield

DO NOT BOOK A PARTY HERE!

One star is probably generous, but the waitstaff, especially Anthony did their best to rectify the huge disappointment that was my sisters bridal shower.

Angela guaranteed us a specific private room which not only did I take the time to visit, but was provided pictures of via text for my sisters shower on 8/28. The reservation which I had placed a deposit down to hold the room/date was taken 7/1.

While planning we had a few hiccups with Angela's miscommunications as first we were told buffet was an option for the party, when we provided her with the menu options we chose (from the menu she provided) she stated it was not an option for our party size (she knew my party size when booking this room and offered the sit down plated and buffet menus to me, even discussed this with me via text). This was not a huge deal so we chose from the plated menu (the only hard part was getting a call back from Angela at this point). I was trying to make these adjustments while on my own honeymoon and she was very difficult to reach by phone.

Fast forward, menu is water under the bridge, we show up to setup for my sisters shower and are given a completely different room than promised. A much less attractive room with stained table clothes, mismatched tables, a poorly patched hole in the wall, and an abundance of chairs with no place to go.

Another party was setting up in the room we were supposed to have and multiple guests from their party entered our room as it seems everyone was confused. Our guests had seen photos of the room we put the deposit down for and also tried to enter the wrong party. The room we were given was dark and unattractive and Angela was nowhere to be found. The very stressed waitstaff could only do what they could to help rearrange the mismatched height/shape tables to seat the guests (pretty clear the waitstaff didn't expect us at all and one even threatened to quit on the spot).

A woman from another party came into our private room many times to get upset at the waitstaff (as if we didn't have our own problem).

Fighting back tears, as this room was a hot mess, we setup anyhow (because what else can you do when the bride is on her way?).

A quick call to Angela as recommended by waitstaff was made, but she could not have been less helpful or less caring of the huge mistake. She did not offer any reconciliation or apology (we still paid in full and tipped the staff). Angela went as far as to tell me what I was telling her about my reservation was false, I made her aware of our text thread and she said she was not interested in seeing them (what?!).

It was obvious many errors had been made this day...people kept walking into our party stating they had reservations at the restaurant for the day. I will note we had a welcome sign for our party, but it went unnoticed and we were disturbed many times. So, the people with the reservations were turned away because Angela clearly overbooked the restaurant. All of the rooms were being used for parties and I am pretty sure we got the room that is usually left for traditional guests. I do not think anyone would want their private party to be held here.

In the event you still want to go here and support this poorly run establishment, the food was good (salad was salty). I have eaten here before and the food was better during those visits, I recommend the gnocchi. I personally will not...

Really bummed to say I was extremely underwhelmed with our experience. The service was.. fine. Our waiter wasn't the most friendly and I felt kind of jealous of the other tables who clearly had much more personable waiters. He never even checked in on us to ask how the food was. The ambience/atmosphere was pretty lackluster. I was also surprised to be seated next to a big birthday party with a bunch of kids and people very dressed down. Husband and I got dressed up because we thought it was a more upscale restaurant but I think we were wrong.

The starter bread is low quality and the oil-and-whatever dip is very basic and forgettable. Husband got crab bisque. It was fine; mostly puréed and very small bits of crab but good flavor. Then we split the apple and grilled shrimp salad, and this was my favorite part of the meal. It was excellent. Great flavors and a decent portion size.

Husband got some seafood dish for his main, which he liked. The vegetables he received were laughable. Just steamed slices of what looked to be zucchini and peppers. So unbelievably bland for something so very expensive. I had a chicken dish with prosciutto and spinach. I asked to swap out the risotto for a side of plain pasta. The waiter seemed really hesitant about doing this and almost confused by my request. I did wind up getting a small bowl of (bland) pasta, no vegetable as advertised (although based on my husband's veggies, you can keep them), and a meh chicken dish in a very wine-heavy demi-glacé. I did not enjoy it.

Lots of dessert options and we decided on the "fried cheesecake", which we were both excited for it, only to again get disappointed when we see it's basically just a sweet fried eggroll with some cheesecake filling, cut in half. We had decided to order tartufo to go, since I was pretty bummed out about the entire thing, but our waiter immediately brought us the check; didn't ask if we needed anything else, more coffee, etc. It wasn't even busy! I didn't bother asking to add it.

I was also disappointed to see that I was significantly up charged to swap the risotto for a pasta side. It was not the size of a full side dish, and the waiter didn't care to let me know it would be any additional fee to swap risotto to pasta and additionally lose the veggies..? So I paid more for less food? Confusing. Really wish we had picked somewhere else for our wedding anniversary dinner. So many places in Philly where we would have spent the same ridiculous amount but had much more satisfying food and a...

Tre Famiglia Ristorante left us feeling more like undesirables rather than family. Let me count the ways… this establishment let me down: Short-staffed (service from 12pm to 3pm) Bad Service (David was impolite and inconsiderate to a guest with an allergy) Sub-par Food Service (Appetizers were off-putting, pasta was elementary and cold) We arrived on time for our 12pm reservation. After about 45 minutes, our server finally brought out water and introduced himself, David. At around 1pm, David announced that the restaurant was short-staffed. We ordered our appetizers and entrees—with the appetizers arriving rather quickly at 1:15pm (please keep in mind that this was supposed to be a lunch outing). About 30 minutes later, David approached a member of the party who requested a gluten free meal. –Sidebar—I will try to give David the benefit of the doubt that he was completely ignorant to the severity of a gluten allergy. The initial issue may have just been a matter of ignorance.—End Sidebar— David asks “Is it okay if just your pasta is gluten free? Because the sauce is not gluten-free”. Take into consideration that this restaurant has a page dedicated to gluten-free dishes. She replied, “I have an allergy and cannot have gluten”. Our meals arrived at around 2pm… well some of them. When her meal arrived, it was a mismatch of pasta. She politely asked if the pasta was gluten-free because it contained both linguini and penne. Mostly everyone at the table ordered penne, so it was not presumptuous to think there could have been a mix-up. David’s reply, “Yea, I think so. Did you try it?” She said “No, because I would get sick. Can you make sure?” AND THIS, my friends, is when our MISADVENTURE turned into TRAGEDY. He looked at her squarely and said, “Would you? Would you really get sick?” As you can imagine this is when the meal turned sour and we were all ready to collect the check, which took another 30 minutes, so we sat anxiously ready to exit la famiglia. The worst part, she picked this restaurant because of their gluten-free menu and past experience with good service. Personally, they will never get another dollar from me. On a day that intended to foster camaraderie among coworkers as they celebrated the end of an industrious year, this was a terrible experience. One good thing . . . the...