Angelo's Taverna - Littleton — Restaurant in Littleton

Since August 23rd of this year, my husband and I have frequented Angelo's Taverna in Littleton, CO. Much to our disappointment two of the last three occasions have been sub par. I need to mention that my husband has celiac disease and becomes extremely ill with any amount of gluten. That's why we have chosen Angelo's since they guaranty a gluten free meal.,. On August 23rd, his 70rh birthday, our boys wanted to take us out for dinner. My husband wanted to order a gluten free pasta dish, and we were told by our waitress that they could not guarantee any cross-contamination. This was a surprise to us since we have been there previously without any issues. My husband wound up eating three dozen oysters, and came home and had dinner a couple of hours later.

Our next experience in September was very pleasurable. We had only stopped for cocktails, and upon talking to our waiter who was the manager, he explained to us that the waitress gave us the incorrect information, and that they had problems with her in the past. Today we went for an early dinner and ordered another pasta dish. We ordered the same pasta dish, and much to our surprise, the serving was more like an appetizer. Please see photo below. My husband spoke to the manager, and told us that the servings are measured, but would add more noodles, which did arrive 20 minutes later. If you look at the picture, you will notice the sausage had been cut in half, which then made sense that the chef had prepared one serving and decided to split the meal in half and pass our servings on. Our waiter, Jeff, was exceptional, and we gave him a 35% gratuity. We now are wondering if we have to negotiate how many noodles and servings of sausage we will receive on our next visit, which will most likely be never.

I have recommended this restaurant to many fellow celiacs. I will now tell them about our experiences.

Sadly,

Dee & Greg

These are the responses from the owner:

I hope to hear from you soon, I’d love To meet you in person. You have my contact info. Thank you Jason Hader

Hello Jason,

I appreciate your quick response regarding our experience last night. Since my husband has celiac disease, Angelo’s Taverna was one of our very few safe restaurants for us to enjoy a nice meal.

A fews years back, we had a very large gathering for our grandson’s christening in the private room. We appreciated the delicious food and the excellent service. This was our first time experiencing Angelo’s, and knew this was our kind of place to gather for a fun evening, or perhaps even lunch.

We would love to keep Angelo’s on our list of safe establishments. Thank you again, Jason, for contacting me.

Well, let me know when you are working, and we will come and have a chat with you.

Jason's response:

Haha, I basically live here so chances are I’ll be here next time you come in. My days off usually come in the beginning of the week, if you chose a day that I’m not here, I’ll make sure one of my other managers takes great care of you.

This is not the response we expected. We feel totally blown off.

Hi Jason,

This is her husband Greg. You would love to meet us sometime? Are you inviting us to your restaurant for a free dinner? No, just placating us in hopes that we might return. Forget it! Why did you even reach out? We both know why, because of your ratings on Google and the fear of lost business. Well guess what? This entire stream will be be on Google as well. People need to know about your commitment to right a...

I am compelled to put a mediocre review because of the business practices of this place. One thing the public must understand is that any type of deceptive practice creates an unpleasant experience for the client and leaves a bad aftertaste to the experience. First let me focus on the good things. The oysters are excellent. We tried their original version and one of the specials and the flavor and taste was excellent. However, there was too much salt and I think they can cut out the salt in their topping sauce that is used to bake the oysters because the oysters itself come with saline water in it. So there’s no reason to add any extra salt. Bison ravioli was excellent. Overall, the flavor of the food is good.

Now comes the most irritating part – adding a surcharge to the bill. Of course, I questioned what the surcharge is about. The waitress, who by the way did an excellent job came back and told us that this was added because of increasing prices and this is to compensate for the kitchen staff. This is clearly funny to me because it either gives me the impression that you’re not paying your kitchen staff well and you want the customer to pony up their salary. This is supposed to be baked into the price of your entrée or whatever you’re doing. This is like going to a gas station and after filling up your tank, you get a surcharge because you have to pay for the guy who minds the store because the prices went up. Typically, this type of surcharges only seen in restaurants where disgruntled owners want to just pass on their frustration to the customer, which is simply not how these kinds of hospitality businesses run. Anyways, I conducted a small experiment. I went online and ordered the same food items that we ordered at the restaurant. There was no surcharge there. So who’s cooking the food when you order it online, – the same kitchen staff. But then I don’t have to tip the waitress online either. To me this is a bogus charge. This is my opinion on the surcharge. Sorry I reduced the tip amount 18% to 14 1/2% for the waitress. They can fight it out with the owners on the surcharge. There are many other restaurants who do not add a surcharge in the area. So if there is a surcharge that I’m not clearly informed about verbally by the weight staff when I sit down to eat at the restaurant, the place will automatically get a mediocre review and I will automatically subtract it from the tip. I’m not in the habit of sitting at a restaurant and reading the stupid fine print at the bottom of their menus if there is any. I just want to order my dinner and have...

Everything was going great until ........ I was part of a large birthday party (6 couples) We arrived and were seated in a reasonable amount of time. Our server came to the table and we exchanged greetings. We said we had several different couples and asked if we could have separate checks. Our server let us know that it was "Policy" that they can not do separate checks. At best they could split it 4 EQUAL ways. I ordered a Bourbon and our server asked if I wanted a large ice cube with it - I said "sure that would be nice" (more on this later) The meal was good / the service was good.

When the check came it was as long as my arm (again we asked if they could split it up and were again told "No"). The process of splitting it up took close to 45 minutes. A 20% tip was added (Not unusual for large groups) Also discovered that they charged me $1 for that piece of ice in my drink - Seriously?!?!, you are charging for ICE???? So 1 person had to pay for the entire meal and 5 couples had to Venmo him what they thought they owed (he ended up short of course which prompted another round of analyzing the bill and more Venmos) On the way out, I saw what appeared to be a manager person standing behind the reception desk and so I mentioned that the "No separate checks" policy was a real hassle for large parties. He told me that they cant have their staff spend the time to separate items even if they are informed ahead of time. I told him we tied up those seats for 45 minutes while others were waiting in the lobby to be seated. He said it would have taken their server 45 minutes to do the same thing. I told him it wasn't that hard for the server if told ahead of time (which we tried) Denny's can do it .... but Angelo's cant?? And $1 for ice in my already expensive Bourbon ???

I would have given at least 4 stars or maybe 5 but the whole check hassle and charge for ice ruined the night for me.

Many of us from the party will NOT be back to Angelo's. On the drive home, the only thing I could think of was that Angelo's didn't want to pay the extra Fee that Visa charges its merchants for each transaction. (it cant be much .... and they are making up the difference charging for...