Formaggio Grill — Restaurant in Hawaii

Our children's one and only wedding night New Years Eve, 5pm straight over there from the wedding. No one acknowledged that at all with them. Our daughter in her beautiful gown, fresh flowers in her hair, her groom wearing a fresh floral lei. Surely someone could have at least asked them or commented a congratulations message.

Wait staff didn't even acknowledge 6 of us being there as we came in 15-20 minutes later. When she did she could only take and carry 2 drink orders at a time for the whole party. They make these things called drink trays - invest in some.

Our orders were messed up.

Not sure why the tables weren't set up with the length of the room. Would have made a nicer flow for everyone, guests, and wait staff.

Our drinks were never filled, sodas that we were told we could get 2 refills.

Nobody checked on us as we were eating to see how our meal was.

Expresso machine was down as 1 in our party wanted a drink.

Although they don't allow kids the manager knew when we made the reservation that we had a small child - whom was the last served and his noodles were not cooked thoroughly.

Some of the food was undercooked to how we asked it to be while 1 in our party his lobster was overcooked and he was not given a lobster fork to get the meat out of its shell.

Wait staff was SO VERY unprofessional - never in my life have I seen such atrocity.

When all were upset over lack of service and the 18% tip they all thought they earned - the staff had the nerve to apologize to the other 2 tables with guests in the room for our behavior.

Had they been professional and respectful this never would have happened. We were supposed to have a private room to begin with.

Wait staff was rude in addition to lacking proper handling of people and food. Stating our waitress was nice to the little boy didn't help anything but your terrible waitress.

Our bride and groom were to have a dessert for their big day that dessert we had to ask for when it was planned at reservation time weeks before.

Other employees were gaulking at us through the door - again it was the lack of customer service from the get go that started the freak show for them.

Above all this experience made my baby girl cry on her wedding day and for that I'll never forgive this establishment!!!

We're not from Hawaii but everyone else on the island of Oahu and Kailua was so very nice. Everyone except Formaggios!

Young waitress at Teddy's Burgers down the street could teach your staff a lot!

Worst 150$ I ever spent, had high class hopes for this rather overpriced restaurant. Should have been treated like royalty and not crap of a dog.

No...

We had made reservations for a party of 20. We were told we'd get an L set up, instead we got 2 tables next to each other, so half the party had their backs to each other. We waited over 1.5 hours for our food to be served. In that time, no drinks were refilled, except water, the waitress never came around to see if there was anything she could do, except when she had a question about an order or to tell someone that she had told them incorrectly what their food would be / soup of the day, etc. When the food was finally brought, one plate at a time, the only child in our party, a 2yr old, was served very last and only after I asked for his food. Which was a very small $9 portion of just butter noodles. My husband's lobster was way overcooked and we asked to have it removed from the plate and bill, as he could eat none. The waitress wanted to bring another, I told her we could NOT wait another 90 minutes for another and we'd just like it removed. She sent in the ?manager? her husband? that told me I was rude to her. WHAT?? When our checks came after another hour of not being checked on, except by the water refiller, and leftovers were being boxed up... 10 mins per plate, one at a time, there was the 18% tip included. I asked for the manager, I wanted it removed, as I felt she did not deserve an 18% tip, for never checking on us, not apologizing for long waits, not refilling soft drinks, not offering desserts or to box up my leftovers and telling the manager we were rude. The manager came back again and told me, she deserved the tip because she was nice to my son. WHAT?? he's 2, he didn't talk to her, all she did was bring him a to go container as a milk cup and serve him overpriced noodles. Other than that she had no interaction with him. The manager was very upset and didn't want to do it and when a couple others in our party asked the same thing, he got very upset. He said their mistake was to offer to do separate checks for a big party. Which we did appreciate, since that is not the norm. However, how did that cause the food delay, no drink refills and just horrible service?? I can see where that caused the check delay, but other than that, nothing. I will say some in our party thought their food was very good, very expensive, but good. Most thought it was mediocre at best. I would NEVER recommend this restaurant. I seriously could not believe the attitude of both waitress...

Short version: If you are a fan of fine dining, this is the best spot (at least the I've found) on the island. Period. If you like wine, this place is for you.

Long version: One thing that this island isn't known for is fine dining. That's fine, but as someone who enjoys good wine, atmosphere, and entrees worth the $30 price tag, I've been feeling incomplete. Enter Formaggio Grill. This place is truly spectacular. I honestly got a kick out of reading all of these reviews mentioning how expensive it was. Do they also review sushi places and complain about the raw fish? Formaggio isn't expensive for no reason. My wife and I shared the calamari starter and it was some of the best calamari we've ever had. They had jalapenos, fried squash, fried mushrooms, and delicious sauce unlike I've ever seen for calamari. It was delicious, well cooked, and worth the price (which honestly is a good descriptor for my whole night at Formaggio). I've included a picture of the Garlic Ahi which was my entree (medium rare). I can't even describe how good it was. Just do yourself a favor, go there and order for yourself. You may also notice the 8 wine glasses in the shot. Formaggio Grill has wine by the bottle, 6 oz glass, or 2 oz glass. Our server chose two flights of 4 glasses (2 oz), one flight for me and one for my wife. The wines were numbered and we were given a paper to look at after with the names of the wines. I had more fun trying mine and my wife's blind wine flights than I have had at any other dining experience on the island. If you are even considering getting into wine, expanding your tastes or trying something new, this is your place. I found some new wine I didn't know I liked last night. The 2 oz glasses are fairly reasonable, just over 1/3 the price of the 6 oz glass. Let's talk about the atmosphere. I'm used to places like this being much more dressed up on the mainland. Here, patrons were in a wider variety of clothing. I saw a woman with a wrap over her bathing suit and a guy with a backwards hat. I saw women in dresses and guys in button ups. It seems more like anything goes dress wise but that probably has more to do with the island than the restaurant.

Overall, this was an amazing experience. My food and wine were phenomenal and I will be coming back. Definitely for a special occasion or just when I feel like having...