Enzo's on the Lake — Restaurant in Longwood

My family and I have been coming to Enzo’s ever since I was a kid. Our biggest tradition was going for Christmas Eve dinner, every single year. We did that for well over a decade. When the original family owned it, it was such a warm, friendly, inviting atmosphere. They were always smiling and cheerful. They even knew our names and gave us hugs upon seeing us.

Ever since it was bought out, Enzo’s has been completely different, mainly in regards to the new staff they hired. For the record, we obviously don’t expect the new staff to hug us or know our names. We do, however, expect friendly service. The first dinner we had there after the buy out, my mother asked our server who was new to Enzo’s- we joked that we’d never seen him before and he confirmed that he was new- about a mushroom appetizer we always previously ordered that was no longer on the menu. She asked if it was permanently gone and he snapped, “Yes, it’s gone, and it’s never coming back!” as though he’d had to answer this question previously and was irritated to be asked again. My mom then asked if he knew why it was taken off the menu and he replied, “I don’t own the restaurant, my name isn’t on the building, I have no idea.” I’ve worked in the past as a server and I can’t even begin to imagine speaking that way to any of my guests. He didn’t laugh when he said it or make a joke of it. He said it completely seriously. We’re well aware that he doesn’t own the restaurant. But sometimes management tells servers why menu items have been removed, so her question was innocent. None of us said anything after he said that, but it bothered me for the rest of the meal. And, also, for the rest of the time we were there, we basically had to search for him whenever we needed something. At one point he was leaning up against a wall, talking to someone he seemed to know at a table, showing them his phone. He stayed there just under 12 minutes. I timed it.

I try to give a lot of latitude to servers because I know what the job is like, but between his poor attitude and poor service, we were really frustrated. Nevertheless, it was Christmas Eve and we weren’t looking to get him in trouble. We even tipped him 30%, which he neither earned nor deserved, but it’s what we always tip. So we wrote that experience off as what we hoped was a fluke and left.

Then we returned last Christmas Eve and the experience wasn’t any better. This time the issue was with the hostesses. We walked in the front door and 3-4 late teen/early 20 something girls were huddled together at the hostess stand. Not one of them greeted us. A few kept talking amongst themselves and the one in the center kept scrolling on her phone. So I approached, said hi, and gave her our name. She didn’t smile, didn’t say hi, didn’t say Merry Christmas, nothing. She didn’t even make eye contact. She told me it would be a few minutes, then went back to her phone while the others chitchatted.

I’m not advocating for hostesses not to have fun at work, but when a guest enters, the least you can do is smile and greet them, especially during the holidays. We were always so warmly greeted by the original family, so it was a very stark contrast between that and the experience with these new girls.

Our meal was fine. The server could’ve checked on us more often but he was still 10 times better than the last one we had. We tipped him 30%, as always, and headed for the door. Unsurprisingly, the hostesses didn’t say good night or acknowledge us in any way.

So why am I writing this now? Because I was just talking to my family and I told them I don’t even want to go to Enzo’s this year for Christmas Eve. It just isn’t the same and I don’t want to be frustrated by staff that doesn’t seem to care about their guests. My family is easy-going. I don’t think it’s too much to ask for a smile and a greeting, or for our server to be attentive and not condescending when we ask a question. We’ve decided to stay in this year and it’s sad, because we’re breaking a very longstanding tradition. Customer service matters. Basic...

I set a early evening reservation here with my wife. Upon arrival, the valet was nice and professional. I felt comfortable giving him my keys. The hostess was kind and hospitable with her greeting, and our seat was not a bad view of the lake; however, we were suffocated by groups of other people and close seating. Couple this close quarters atmosphere with a table that had a few loud men and next thing you know, the wife and I can barely enjoy ourselves, let alone hear each other speak at certain points. The table got quieter once they received their food, but that didn’t last long.

The waiter was presentable, but that was merely surface level. As the evening went on, he surely progressed to show who he was. Things were great through the drinks and the appetizer. Yet, when we received the appetizer, which was a superbly delicious thinly shaved filet mignon, we were ready to place our food order. After the appetizer was long gone, we waited another 15 minutes before the waiter finally came to ask us if we were “finally ready to order” (words exactly) like he has been waiting for us.

Now we ordered the pappardelle pasta for my wife and the short ribs for me. The food never took long to arrive(this included the app) and when the waiter brought the plates I was personally surprised that my dish was tomato based. Now granted, the menu did say the ribs were slow braised in a Chianti ragu, but was served over pappardelle. (Me not being Italian, I thought pappardelle was the dish and not the noodles)

So, when the waiter asked if everything was fine, I stated, “well I was not under the impression that this plate would be mainly tomato based.” To which I was immediately snapped up with an outrageous attitude and a barrage of condescending retorts no matter what I was going to say. My wife and I both stared at each other, her mouth gaping wide, and I gently asked the waiter why was he being so hostile and informed him that I was being very nice and calm with him. He looked around, he looked at my wife’s dismay, and he instantly began to backpedal. “I’m so sorry. I should have never… what can I do? I’m sorry if I offended you. Etc.”

I was filled with anxiety, anger, embarrassment, maybe some other emotions? Idk.. it was a lot, very quickly. All I could do was cover my face and sit in silence. My wife spoke for me for a moment while I collected myself and after a few moments I told the waiter that I would ‘try to enjoy’ the food. This being near impossible for me as I have a weak stomach to tomato sauce, but it wasn’t going to stop me from trying to be a nice guy to the waiter.

Once I was finally able to try and eat the plate, I was sick on my stomach. Not sure if it was the food, or the interaction. Either way we were ready to go. I told the waiter I couldn’t eat it, they offered to make me another plate, I took it to go.

My wife got the tiramisu to go as well it was the best tiramisu we ever tried together.

All in all two stars,

The food was not too bad a price, but I never got to really sit down and even enjoy the plate I paid $50 for, that’s annoying.

The atmosphere was entirely too loud for an early morning on a Tuesday, music could have helped maybe? Idk.

The waiter snapped me up like a twig over a simple mistake I made with my menu choice. This is precisely NOT the service anyone should expect at such a fine establishment, and such a ticket price too? No thanks.

I feel like the two stars is maybe generous, I’m sure other people reading this review would give it less. I think personally the valet is the only reason this post...

My wife and I had an 8:30 reservation to celebrate her birthday. We arrived at 8:30 and were promptly seated by a very nice woman. Once we were seated a gentleman came up and poured us 2 waters and gave us menus. We recently moved back to the area for business purposes and have not been to Enzo's in 15 years so we were looking forward to the experience (without 3 kids for a night). We were sat in between 2 tables and there was a lot of action around us, unfortunately nobody acknowledged our presence and after twenty minutes of watching paint dry we said we would give it another 5 minutes otherwise we were out. Another 8 minutes went by and while we found it painfully comical we politely stood up, folded our napkins and began to walk out, now the nice woman was on the way out and my wife happened to briefly explain that we sat for 30 minutes without someone acknowledging our existence and that we would be leaving, she was very kind and apologized and explained that we were seated between 2 sections and it was her fault, she insisted on us staying and we really just wanted to leave without a scene as we were mentally gone, however she said she would comp the dinner, I said we will stay and no need to buy our dinner, we just wanted to have a cold drink and a warm meal. She said she was going to get another table ready for us and we said ok, now mind you we have been spinning our wheels for 40 minutes at this point when all of the sudden, shows up 2 seconds before the nice woman, our server who poured us water and left us, he says: "Where did you guys go? I've been looking for you." That was the straw, the right thing to say would have been many other things except a bold face slap. I turned to the nice lady and said we are definitely leaving. I run a local business in Winter Park and have 75 employees all of which are well to do. We got in the car, made a call and were at Christner's Prime Steak & Lobster 15 minutes later with a cold drink in hand shortly thereafter, oh and they gladly took my $500 at the end of what turned out to be a wonderful dinner. The story is almost comical that make no mistake I will share with all my employees,...