La Dona Italian Cuisine & Pizzeria — Restaurant in Manalapan Township

I don’t do negative comments but I have been going to La Dona pizzeria in Manalapan for over a year now. The food is always really good but the past three times I realized the bill was significantly higher. Decided to take family there tonight and my chicken parm was disgusting rubbery and tough. Everyone else’s food was good so I let it go. The bill came and all 8 of us knew something wasn’t right but I said it was like this past three times for me (which was about 3 months ago, 6 months ago, and 9 months ago). I told everyone the menu prices were not the same as what they charge and everyone told me I was crazy and no one can do that. Well well well after finally questioning why my bills have been higher for 9 months we were told by the waitress “ohhhh yea they are allowed to charge more, they charge whatever they want. Personally I think they price are ridiculous to begin with but it’s not up to me.” I asked to speak to a manager and out comes the owner explaining ohhh we can up the prices whenever we feel to whatever we feel is right. So every single dish/entree was raised $6-8 because “it’s in the fine print at the bottom of the last page of the menu that menu prices are subjected to change.” So why didn’t you change your menus??? The owner proceeded to say that he can’t find anyone to change their menus....hmmm you can print out menus and stick them in the plastic?? Guess that was too much work?? Plus the fact it was 9 months ago when my bill was higher so you couldn’t have changed your menus in a year??? What happens if a person came with cash and didn’t have enough money because they were raised 30%? Don’t worry about that because we paid with a credit card on a bill of $200 so there is a 3% charge for that $7. I have never heard of anyone charging 3% to use a credit card unless it’s under $10. I have also never heard of the menu not being the actual prices. I feel the whole situation was disgusting and the way it was handled was even worse. Good luck to his business he...

Creepy Uncle Dave here. I visited this place with my nieces and nephew. These kids love this place. They have really good food and I like it too. My boss once said if your product was good and you give your customer a complimentary gift, in most cases you will obtain repeat business. Well, being the advantageous employee that I was, I took it upon myself to use the company card to buy my customers some complimentary gifts. $1500 later my boss got the the bill and didn’t quite see my logic and demanded that I return the gifts. Do you know what it’s like to try to return $1500 in fishing lures. Gee’s, he’s got no sense of humor. Anyway my littlest niece loves the fact that they will make her a personal pizza with no cheese (I know, I know) and offer you complimentary bread when we sit down. My oldest niece always orders the shrimp scampi. I’m not a big seafood fan so I can’t pass judgement on that but she never complains. My nephew ordered a cheeseburger. I have to say, it looked amazing. I had the Penne Vodka that came with a salad. My meal was very tasty and went down swiftly with beat of the music playing over the speakers in the dining room. Hey, it set the mood for an enjoyable evening with the kids and they got to see me break out and dance a little. I mean, I do a mean Elaine.(IFYKYK). My Mom once told me to dance like nobody was watching so I closed my eyes and promptly tripped over a vase and rolled down the stairs like a bag of wet hair. Anyway, check this place out. The people here are super friendly and don’t think it’s weird to order pizza without cheese. Tell them I sent...

Ok we loveeeeeeeeee their pizza! We especially loveeeee the sicilian!! But, we just ordered mashed potatoes and chicken savoy. We noticed right away the potatoes tasted like it was mixed with sour cream. Which would be ok if we both liked sour cream. But It's only potatoes, not a big deal. Let's move on to the chicken dish. Disclaimer: we're in our 40s, been to hundreds of restaurants, including venues because we're Italian. First and second generation. The roots are deep and the family is big. We celebrate everything with food and love. We know the difference between, fresh and not fresh chicken. This chicken was either frozen and quickly defrosted, cooked over the weekend or reheated at least once/twice before today. So we're like, "lets call", express our thoughts on the food, longgggggg story short they do not want the trouble of correcting this because then they would have to do it for others. Imagine?! You dont care about the food you give someone to nourish their body? You dont care what a repeat customer feels about your food? Replacing a dinner with something else or crediting back a meal is apparently unheard of at La Dona. I know what some of you will think but honestly, it's Monday, you work through lunch, you come home and spend good hard earned money on what you imagine to be a satisfying meal instead you get grief from your neighborhood pizzeria. For shame.

P.S. The potatoes were made with only butter & salt.

Persons involved Russ and Lina/Lena (although Lina/Lena was just the poor...