North Italia — Restaurant in Huntersville

We dined at the Birkdale location one on 03/11 and it sucked! Why we wanted to try at this locations is because I personally love North Italia the moment I tried it for the first time in Charlotte uptown area. The food was really good and the portion size was perfect to eat and take back home. However at this place we had an extremely horrendous experience. Their reservation method is baseless and useless. We have been trying to book at this location since it opened up and the reservations are always full (as per open table booking slots), when called in to ask they say that are completely booked for the day / week. However yesterday I was lucky enough to get a reservation for 4 at 8:30pm. I called them at 6:15pm to ask if there is any possibility to have an earlier time due to it being a school week. The lady explicitly said no we don’t but I can check with the hostess. She returned after 10 seconds and mentioned sorry we are totally booked for tonight , you can however come in earlier and enjoy a drink at the bar or walk around birkdale. When we went in at 8:20pm, about 15 tables were empty (inside and patio seating combined). When I asked the lady she was rude and extremely defensive as if I am gone crazy. I spoke to the manager and he said we need to do this as we are in training mode - what a joke.

The food was delivered extremely mediocre. I ordered some ricotta cavatelli pasta as an entree with seafood (crab lump, tiger shrimp). When the order came in, I was shocked to see the portion size for $26! I literally had 2 tbsp of lump crab drizzled around, 2 halves of tiger shrimp (almost raw), lemon sauce , no ricotta sauce and the pasta was way too al-dente and looked like gnocchi instead of cavatelli. We have tried all types of pastas and know our pasta and sauces really well. The spaghetti with red sauce was pungent, very sour and I could literally taste the ones from store bought. The pasta lacked cheese all together , the sever didn’t even come hybasking if we would like some grated cheese , all Italian restaurants do that, even the red rocks next door to north italia does it!

The music was extremely loud. I couldn’t hear my daughter sitting right next to me. Forget about my husband who was screaming his throat out lol

The servers and manager has some weird and non-sense attitude as if this is the best restaurant out there.

I am NOT stepping stone or my foot in that restaurant. It is not worth the money,...

1st visit: i came with a few friends and they were out of EVERYTHING mind you this was week one or two of opening. It was ridiculous but my waitress Hailey did great at keeping us entertained through the madness and extremely high wait times. Waiter: 5 star food: 1 star (mostly bc I couldnt eat what i wanted/ came for)

2nd visit: I have to shout out our waitress jaz she was exceptional to have tableside. I almost didn't want to come back after coming a week ago that NOTHING WAS AVAILABLE. But my gf begged me and I'm glad we did. The food was much better. It was faster but still slow.. I give grace bc i mean they just opened but almost 30m-hour for an appetizer is crazy. Thanfully having jaz there made it worth the wait. She kept us laughing and she was just so genuine and sweet. I never noticed so much time went by and the way she put our orders in we didn't have to wait long for our entrees after the apps came out. I'll be asking for her when I come again. Yes... I'll come again. If they keep this up whatever they did with staff or kitchen I see the potential now. I didn't at first but I do now. Good job recovering. Waitress: 5 star food: 5star

3rd time: I give 4 stars because I did come back for a quick snack for lunch yesterday and the experience was good but not great. I forget my waitress name but she was friendly but not that personable and seemed kind of timid and unsure about things. If I remember her name or find my receipt I'll add it. there are still growing pains with the kitchen as it still took a undesirable amount of time for my food to arrive. Also, it's a bit awkward with wait staff standing around and I could overhear a few conversations about their grievances with other staff or customers Idk it just made me uncomfortable a bit when I went to the bathroom and overheard conversations. My waitress was in that group and I can tell she was upset so maybe that was why she was so cut dry at my table. Waitress: 2 star food: 4star

Overall: I'll be back but I do hope they are taking in account everyone's reviews and experiences and fix these things before they progressively get worse.

4th visit: Its been a few months since I've been back. Today July 22 was my 4th time back today and it was great!

The food got better, quicker, and hotter and the service was smooth! I had arianna this time and she was fantastic. We had everything we needed when we needed no...

I am really torn about this one. Service was EXCELLENT. Shout out to Jo C-she was on top of it and gave great recommendations. The restaurant has been open close to 5 months. It is beautiful & big, with lots of open space. Food was really good-especially the croutons in the burrata appetizer. I could have done without the snap peas & fava beans and had more of the croutons & burrata. I got the short rib Marsala and it was very good-rich and meaty-I could not eat it all. The stand out to me were the mushrooms & the risotto served with it. Husband got the lasagna, which also had short rib and he thought it was very good and rich as well. He also did not finish. Our friend did not eat any food. I got the raspberry sorbet for dessert and it was excellent-no seeds and very fresh tasting, no ice crystals or freezer burn which I find a lot when I get sorbets. I loved my Pina-Nolada mocktail, it was delicious & I drank two quickly, which is pricey at $10/per drink. It did not really taste like a Pina Colada but it was still tasty! We made a reservation about 2 weeks in advance and they sat us at a big, lovely 4 top table right next to the kitchen door and a table with 3 kids. It was very loud and "busy". We were catching up with a friend we had not seen in a while & sometimes we had to yell above the noise and had trouble hearing each other. So, more of a family type atmosphere than date night. Parking was a big, free public parking lot about a block & a half away. I was leaning towards 4 stars because of the food & service but asked my husband what he would give it and he said 3. I asked why and he said noise and cost for what you get. I said even with how good the food & service was & he nodded. For the record, I think I got a good amount of short rib and he got a good amount of lasagna, but since they were both so rich and filling-maybe it was more that then the amount. I got a good amount of sorbet (2 scoops). It was mainly the appetizer size and the cost of the mocktail & it's not just them, almost everyone charges close to the same prices as normal cocktails with alcohol for mocktails. I am giving them a 3 mainly because, although the food & service were good, I would not return, except maybe for takeout. We used to live in Charlotte and ordered takeout from the North Italia in SouthEnd often and it was always great and consistent-so I think for a chain they are doing...