Della Notte — Restaurant in Maryland

This is possibly the most disappointing restaurant I’ve ever eaten at. We started with a buffalo trace old fashioned and a French 75. Unfortunately, the old fashioned was a waste of buffalo trace, and the French 75 tasted like cheap champagne and lemonade. We ordered the calamari appetizer which was good, and everyone at the table enjoyed it. We thought the appetizer would be a good indication of the quality of the food, we were wrong.

The kids spaghetti and meatballs came with warm spaghetti and cold meatballs. The six year old enjoyed it.

The adult spaghetti and meatballs also came with warm spaghetti and cold meatballs. The twelve year old was hungry and ate it.

The chicken Parmesan had hot spaghetti and burned, but still cold, chicken. Still not sure how that happened. The staving 16 year old refused to eat it.

The mushroom risotto was hot, but slightly undercooked. This was not risotto, but rice with sauce. My wife said it was reasonable.

My veal saltimobocca came with mashed potatoes and broccoli rabe. The veal was warm, the broccoli was hot, and the mashed potatoes were stone cold. My side Caesar salad came out on a hot plate.

We waited for dinner to arrive for over 30 minutes. Our glasses were left empty. And it took 10 minutes to get a manager to speak to us.

In the end, the manager comped much of our meal, but the experience was awful. We were offered replacement meals, but by that time we have already spent an hour and a half in the restaurant, we declined.

The one saving grace to our evening, was that there was a great live singer doing a great job with Frank Sinatra.

Avoid...

Looking for good Italian? GO ELSEWHERE. This is a heinous excuse for an Italian restaurant. Service is poor. Got a Loose Cannon on tap that tasted like a wheat beer, so I assume they don't clean their taps. I asked for another one since it didn't taste right, got the same result.

Tried a fried seafood appetizer (shrimp, calamari, and branzino). Didn't eat it all (see pic). Shrimp severely over cooked, and I couldn't even share the experience with my wife because there was only one. Branzino was disgusting so we stopped eating it. Calamari were edible, but definitely chewy and just not tasty. Good thing we had two huge vats of sauce that were served with it - guess they knew we needed to douse it in something in order to eat it. We mentioned the poor appetizer, which we didn't finish - it cost us about $18.

Our entrees were pretty standard, lobster ravioli and pappardelle Bolognese. The ravioli were smothered in a bland cream sauce and topped with what looked like canned crabmeat. The Bolognese was truly awful, tasted like nothing but fatty ground beef. It had cream in the sauce, which is different, but not a speck of onion or garlic or anything else. The pasta itself (handmade) was fine, good bite to it.

Glasses of low-level Chardonnay were $11. The whole meal cost two people $100, which is fine for a good Italian restaurant. But that is not this restaurant. This restaurant is awful. Go to Cafe Mezzanotte and pay the same amount, you'll be...

We visited on a Wednesday evening and it was less than half capacity. We were seated in a smaller area to the left of the hostess station, and were the only table in that section. We ordered an appetizer of calamari. It was barely warm, not at all hot, as if it had been sitting a long while. I mentioned this to the waitress, and she replied, with a giggle, that she would have to scold the kitchen. My fiance said his lasagna was served warm, not hot. Our friend ordered risotto with beef, and requested the beef well done. It arrived practically rare, but she ate it anyway to avoid a delay. The waitress said afterwards, with another giggle, that she noticed it wasn't cooked to order. When I walked through the main part of the dining room to use the restroom, I noticed the tables had a bread basket and olive oil; this was not offered to us, and we were done with our meals so we didn't request one. My chicken Marsala was a little bland, but improved with salt, pepper and parmesan. The in-house key lime cheesecake was the only bright point of the evening. It was disappointing to have voiced a legitimate complaint, but not have a manager speak to us about it, or be offered a discount or free item. With so many choices in the area, I can't recommend this...