Lazzari Italian Oven — Restaurant in Jonesboro

If you are a true Italian or know anything about Italian food this place is not it! Now from making the reservation to actually being seated everything was going really smoothly until we received our glasses of wine, which by the way was literally like a 4oz small wine glass, smaller than a normal size wine glass, then our FOOD! As someone who has been in the Culinary industry for over 16 years, I know my cuisine's and what dishes should represent and taste like. Most of us got the Caesar Salad, which the house made dressing needs to be revised, traditionally Caesar Dressing has anchovies in it, now, if they used anchovies in their dressing it was way too much. When it first arrived,the first comment someone made was this smells fishy. When I bit into my salad I IMMEDIATELY spit it out into a napkin, it was disgusting! The next person said that they didn't mind the taste but their lettuce was overly bitter tasting, as if the lettuce was on the way out and they served it anyway. As a food professional, it upsets me to see other food professionals not take food quality seriously ESPECIALLY when you are automatically adding a 20% gratuity for tip and charging a 3.5 fee for using a card for choice of payment! Not too mention, we ordered those small wines and was told they were no more than $3.50-$4.00, we were like cool because as small as they were, it being wine and cheap wine at that we were accepting but then,get the bill and we are charged $6.00 for them. Then when we ask her about it she said she didn't know the actual price and by that time it was too late cause she put the order in, well we asked the price way before taking a sip. Then we get our food, they bring it out, in a reasonable amount of time but that explains everything because three of the dishes just looked pilled on a plate with sauce and pasta and veggies which two dishes were eggplant Parmesan, yet it was overloaded with pasta that wasn't mentioned on the menu, another strike.....We expressed that we didn't like the food, as the only black people in the establishment and all the stares we were getting from customers just being there and although the waitress was nice enough she only came to our table to check on us if she really needed to meaning if we asked her something. For three meals on one bill and there highest priced food items I believe was no more than an average of $15. Why the hell my bill is almost $90 dollars! Not to mention, we had separate bills so for one person and one meal, with a glass of wine, and salad came to $27 for one person and $39 for the other and they both ordered the same dish! So how is that!?! I have travelled plenty of places and been and lived in plenty of different environments LAZZARI'S is a rip off and the food SUCKS! Never in history will I ever go back here and if you like this place.....I'm so sorry for your taste buds.

P.S There were more complaints but I already wrote a page I think ya get the hint!...

This was our first time visiting and will likely be our last. My husband wanted to take me somewhere new for Valentine’s Day so he chose this place. The restrooms look dirty due to the holes in the walls, the tile chipped all over, the faucet was dirty. It may not actually be dirty but the upkeep makes it look dirty. As I washed my hands my thoughts went straight to I hope I don’t catch hepatitis A from here. The restaurant from the entrance to where we sat carried the same theme of chipped flooring and not so clean looking. The menus are paper with a plastic film that’s peeling away and have been sharpied markered over what no longer applies such as certain menu items and the automatic gratuity that’s applied to parties 6 or more. I don’t know why they wouldn’t print new menus or replace the plastic film so it seemed cleaner. Overall the atmosphere was a 5/10–think early 2000’s Italian restaurant with dark lighting. On to the food!

The bread. The bread we were served had sesame seeds and what I assume to be a garlic butter baked on it as well as served alongside. It was so incredibly salty that we peeled the crust of the bread away to eat the inside only. The additional garlic butter was just as salty. 2/10. The appetizer. It was okay, it had lots of cheese which some people like. 6/10 Our entree’s. The grilled chicken cannolleni(sp) was interesting. I didn’t care for it but it makes me think they do make their sauce in house cause there was plenty of nutmeg in their Alfredo sauce. There were 4 tiny slices of mushroom on top. The waitress asked me if mushrooms were ok and I said yes but LOL, I mean there really wasn’t that many to warrant the question. Idk yall, I’ve lived in Atlanta, Orlando, Tampa and have tried many unique American Italian twists but this was something else. I ate half of the dish and the last bite I bit into straight herbs/spices and decided that was enough 5/10. Our waitress was nice but when it was time to pay she disappeared. My spouse went up to the older lady hostess who said with an attitude (that she really didn’t need to have) that he needed to pay at the table. All well and good but our waitress was MIA. Now, at this point our child was tired and crying so we wanted to leave without disrupting others but unfortunately we had to continue to wait. This review has nothing to do with our waitress at all. I get that she has other tables and responsibilities and she did apologize for being gone but someone could have assisted us with cashing out and definitely without the attitude because my husband only asked if he could pay there. It’s poor experiences like this that warrant a review because there’s no way I’ll spend $50 for 2 meals and an appetizer at this...

This place is going downhill at an accelerated rate. I used to love this place and thought it was the best in town, however based on the last three experiences over the past six months, I now feel it's the worst in town. I would rather go to Fazoli's now.

Me and my wife were there Saturday 10-10-2015 and service was horrible. To start things off when the waiter arrived to take our drink orders we informed him that we didn't need time to look at the menu and were ready to order. He unprofessionally told us "not right now, I'm only taking drink orders at this time and you'll have to wait until I make my rounds getting drink orders." What?? Really, You can't go ahead and write it down on your order pad with the drinks? Maybe not a big deal but I just found it rude and unprofessional and have never had a waiter deny taking my order with the drink order, anywhere.

Then when the lady brought out the bread and bread plates my plate was dirty so I sent it back with her and she returned with another dirty plate and then I noticed that the silverware was dirty also. The butter cup was half full of water which made me lose my appetite and ready to leave. My wife wanted to stay so I requested that the manage come to the table.

Once the manage arrive I informed him of my concerns and of course he made excuses that they were busy(which they were not) and shorthanded. Sorry, no excuse. If you can't provide your customers with clean dishes and clean silverware maybe you should have closed the doors and reopened when you had a full staff of competent employees. He also asked what we order and that he would take care of us. Not sure what that meant,(maybe it meant he was going to spit in my food) I assumed he was going to discount the meal but when we receive the bill it was clear that he did not. I wasn't looking for a discount but don't act like you are going to do something about the bill then not do anything.

Additionally several plates were chipped as well as my drinking glass. Looks as though they are not putting any money back into the business. At this rate I would be surprised to see them in business this...