Mesa Italiana Restaurant — Restaurant in Holbrook

My girlfriend and I have about 40 years of combined experience in the restaurant industry. We know how things work and are generally compassionate to things a lot of people wouldn't be.

However, downright rude treatment isn't one of them.

We walked into the lounge part for our first time there and saw two signs and a host stand next to a door that led to the restaurant side of the building.

One sign said join us in the restaurant and pointed that direction, one said wait to be seated. So we stood at the host stand, clearly waiting to be seated. One server looked directly at us just feet away, ducked his head, and walked away. I thought cool he's just busy but'll probably just swing right back by or tell someone else. Nope.

He again made eye contact multiple times, but said and did nothing. We began chatting with another couple that came in and was waiting also.

Finally my girlfriend walked over to the bartender and asked if we were supposed to seat ourselves, and was met with a condescending attitude, like we were just supposed to know that. Most servers hate it when people just seat themselves so we thought we were actually doing them a kindness.

So we finally sat down, in what looked to be that same servers section. Again he walked right past us, twice, without saying a word. 8 month old still in our arms; we looked over and the couple that came in behind us was being greeted and their water glasses filled or rearranged.

We slowly got up, collected our children, said goodbye to the other couple right in front of the other server, and casually walked out the door without a single word being said to us.

We went down the road to the american restaurant with a spanish name. We were greeted instantly with a genuine smile, had a better than expected meal with impeccable service and warmth, and then...

Two words, dumpster fire. The service is horrible, the staff is polite but not keeping up with their guests needs. You park and don't know which door to go in as they ask look like bedroom doors. Then the one that's actually open goes into a dark and dimly lit sports bar. And if you find the sign to enter the next room you walk into the resturant dining room. We were seated, and waited roughly 10 minutes until another table was set next to us. The waitress took their order for drinks & appetizers first. Annoying but whatever. Then she gets to is. Were brought or drinks. We ordered bruschetta as our app. It took well over 30 minutes for sliced bread with tomatoes, & cheese. We waived our server down and when she came over we politely explained that if our meal was coming out at the exact same time as our app please just cancel the app. She says she understood. Another 30 min went by and our app was served after it was brought to two other tables and wasn't the right one. Only seconds later our dinner was served. Again annoying but fine, I got veal parm & my wife ordered chicken parm with Alfredo sauce. Her chicken was dry but massive and she had a decent serving of pasta. I got a chewy, rubbery piece of veal about the size of a cell phone with what looked like whatever pasta was left that didn't make it into my wife's plate. The sauce was tart & bitter. Our waitress came over to explain the poor service & food quality was due to a massive to go order that "just came in" we were told the pasta was home made. I could guarantee it was microwaved from yesterday's left overs. Once again avoid resturants...

Appetizers (stuffed mushrooms and calamari) was delicious. Our dinner (Jerusalem Chicken, Lasagna, Pasta Combo) was good although one of the entrees was warm not hot and it was the last entree brought to the table. We ordered dessert to go (2 tiramisu and 2 cannoli). The reason I am giving 3 stars at best is because service was insanely slow. Over 2 hours for dinner for a 4 people that had dessert to go. Dirty dishes wasn't cleared from our table for a long time. Beverage refills left a lot to be desired. The icing on the cake was when we got home with our dessert... the cannoli was stale and the portion size for tiramisu was a joke. The food was good but be prepared to sit and wait and DO NOT order dessert. This restaurant is still a gem to find in a small community. If they add a another server or 2. 2 well trained servers should be able to handle the restaurant. Also a hard working busser. We noticed the busser was talking to a friend and looking at a cell phone... also needing to be told what to do vs. being observant and proactive. As far as desserts... the tiramisu was good but the serving size was a joke. The cannoli needs to be freshly made... serving stale cannoli is unforgivable at an Italian restaurant. The server was nice, just overwhelmed and slow. I hope the restaurant takes my constructive criticism and will make the necessary changes. I would return in a heartbeat if I don't have to spend over 2 hours at the restaurant not including dessert or look at dirty dishes for a long time or chase down drink refills or receive dishes that aren't hot and...