La Sorella di Francesca — Restaurant in Naperville

Our recent visit to La Sorella Di Francesca in Naperville left me and my dinner guests utterly disappointed and disheartened, thanks to its poor service and an insensitive general manager. In my opinion, giving one star is generous.

What was to be a joyous celebration on a surprise engagement turned into a bitter disappointment.

From the moment we walked in, it was clear that our assigned waiter was not going to be able to handle a large party. It took ages for our server to come take our drink orders. In addition, his method on taking our food orders concerned me as he hopped around the table jotting down orders un-sequentially. Which resulted in a shuffling of plates around the table playing a guessing game of who's dish is who's?

The troubles didn't end there. When our food arrived, I was given an incorrect dish and two of my guests never received their dish. One of those guests was a child who ordered a simple spaghetti and meatball. Unfortunately, this made him feel left out while watching others eat their meals. Which, ultimately brought him to tears. After waiting for a long time, my other guest finally received his food. He, in turn, sent his food back to the kitchen as appetites at that point were ruined and everyone was already done eating.

But perhaps the most infuriating part of the evening was the encounter with the general manager. When we voiced our concerns about the subpar service and food quality, instead of apologizing and offering to make things right, he dismissed our complaints, laughed and even joked about it. He seemed more concerned with preserving his ego than addressing our legitimate grievances, and his dismissive attitude only served to exacerbate our frustration. Only when he noticed how upset me and my guests were, is when he attempted to "make things right."

In addition to the appalling service and lackluster food, the general manager's insensitive demeanor left a bitter taste in my mouth. It's clear that customer satisfaction is not a priority at La Sorella Di Francesca, Naperville, and until they undergo a serious overhaul of their management and service standards, I'll be taking my business elsewhere. Save yourself the headache and...

Wow. I can’t believe this restaurant group also owns Fat Rosie’s, Vasili’s, and the newly opened Zade’s Lounge in Naperville. I can only hope this restaurant is their training ground for new staff or something because the quality of food here is so far from those other restaurants in the Group that it’s ruining my view of those other great restaurants.

The food is horrible, really horrible. There is nothing authentic about it unless you count dumping canned tomato sauce on everything as “authentic”. They even dumped tomato sauce on mushroom ravioli - yes, mushroom ravioli with “light cream sauce” on their special “ravioli menu” came out covered in red tomato sauce. When it came out, I asked two times to double check - are you sure this is the mushroom ravioli?? But since the service is also understaffed and ridiculously slow, you don’t want to question it TOO much because the risk is having to go another hour waiting for food.

Luckily our toddler isn’t picky at all about pasta so someone still ate it.

Salmon was so dry it was about to turn into jerky.

Partner’s pasta primavera made his stomach turn, and this guy is usually a garbage disposal whose stomach can tolerate almost anything.

I did feel bad for our waiter, cuz while he wasn’t attentive at all, he was clearly overwhelmed with tables. The runners did a good job picking up the slack and if not for them I don’t think we would have gotten any food, ever. No idea why, during a tough economic time post-Covid, all the other area restaurants can maintain staff but not this restaurant?

All I can think of is something is extra rotten about this restaurant despite being in the same group as so...

Great food, fresh, and tasty. Been coming here for years, staff is usually on their game. Last experience was a bit sub par, had a reservation, they were behind 15-20 min and no place to wait. I had my 85 yr old father out for his birthday and then they tried to seat us in a very cramped corner in the separate room upstairs. Other patrons would not make room for us to squeeze in very well and the room was 10 degrees hotter than the rest of the restaurant. When I asked to be seated at another table, just one of many still open, the host seemed as though I was being difficult. There were at least 6 open tables in the larger area. He moved us but not without irritation on his face. Good news is that John S, the bar tender was our server and he was great! I mention my dad’s birthday and he brought out a desert and a little something to go along with it. Table service was good, host/hostess staff inexperienced and not very accommodating. I’ve lived in this town for 49 years, I travel for work and review dozens of restaurants, I’ve always enjoyed myself at this one, but hospitality seemed off this night…until John S greeted us at our table. Go early or go late, don’t make the reservation via the internet, only reason I can come up with why they didn’t seem to care. The dining area downstairs is very crowded, telling us to stand outside or in the vestibule with no indication of how long is an amateur move for a nice place. $275 for 4 people isn’t cheap, all staff should behave like every patron is spending good money...