D'Amico's The Continental — Restaurant in Naples

I really hate doing this but I feel we got scammed into coming back. Rewind to New Year's Eve this past year, and my wife and I had made reservations for 9:15 that night. I really wanted to surprise my wife and take her out for a wonderful evening. We have a special needs son and and are very busy people (like most of us) so it was nice to have a night to ourselves. I am always early so we got to the Continental at about 8:45. I had no expectations of getting seated early but just let the hostess know we were there for our 9:15.

9:15, came and went, so did 9:30, 9;45, and 10pm. It was coming up on 10:15, an hour after our reservations and I went to the front desk to ask how much longer. All the hostesses and one manager said they really could not tell me. I said if we cannot get a table within the next 15 minutes I'd have to cancel our reservations and would really be upset since it is New Years Eve and not sure where we could now go last minute. The manager said, sorry that is up to you. So we cancelled. Thankfully Campiello's had a one table and really took care of us that night.

Fast-forward a week later, I receive a voicemail from a manager (who I will not name) who was sincerely apologetic on my voicemail stating that The Continental does not do business like that and that they wanted to 'make it right' for us. I then proceeded to have a text communication with the manager stating that we actually would be back in Naples in March with our brother-in-law and sister-in-law and would consider coming back to The Continental for dinner. he had said that they would love to have us, would make our reservations and looking forward to making this right.

So this past Thursday we had reservations at The Continental. Driving to the place I said, "Look, I do not know what 'Make this Right' means, but we will have to see". Maybe it will be a free dessert, a free drink, maybe a face-to-face apology from management, not sure.

We had a lovely dinner, food was fabulous, service was great, however, I must say I felt taken advantage of. No one acknowledged us as the people they were trying to 'make it right' for. Nothing. After our $500.00 experience I felt like we were shammed into coming back to spend the money we were supposed to spend on NYE. My wife said she feels like she was taken advantage of.

I guess I should have asked what 'make this right' meant. If it meant, we will honor your reservation time this time, well congrats, you did it.

Finally to add, I know it has only been 4 days but I texted the manager again afterwards to say how upset we were that we did not even get an acknowledgement from any manager there regarding the previous situation we had and I have not received a response. I will take into account that maybe he is unable to respond, but I did end my message by saying that we visit Naples about 3-4 times a year, always loved stopping at the restaurant for meals, desserts or just drinks, but The Continental has unfortunately just lost some patrons. It's a shame y'all are in the food business and not the...

AVOID the PERILS of a 6pm reservation!!!!! Risk being seated in the UNDESIREABLE tables. Out of 35+ patio seating there are 4 UNDESIREABLE tables. We are early diners and have dined here 8 times in the last 6 weeks and twice experienced this. We were NOT walk ins, we had long standing reservations. Our tabs for two are always $400+. I can only attribute this to our 6pm reservations and everyone seated at 5pm leaves the 6pm reservations relegated to the worst 4 tables. BTW, this never happens at Campiellos and they have far less tables. The first time this happened was unfortunately very unpleasent because we were hosting birthday celebration for 6 people and despite checking weeks in advance to ensure a nice table we were relegated to the WORST table tucked behind the bar next to a Busser's station. The area was so off putting that even my guests reacted; not to mention having them trapse back and forth twice. In this case we did ask to be seated elsewhere because there were clearly other tables available even for a party of 6. So they walked our party back up to the front and had us stand there for another 10 mins before reseating us at a table we passed that was already set up for 8 in the main part of the patio. This happened despite me stressing in person a week prior (while having lunch at The Continental) to the HOSTESS that it was a special occasion and asking if we could bring a cake. A table by the way on numerous occasions we witnessed other patrons also declining to sit at. So, extremely off putting and unnecessary but we did not complain nor write a negative review. It wasn't until this happened again last night and it somewhat spoiled our experience. The area they sat us in last night was just off the hostess stand has zero air flow, no white table cloths/lamps, rags/cleaning supplies hanging on the decorative metal, view of the restroom and poor lighting. It almost feels like it was once a table Busser's station or a hallway. Our server Adam made up for it best he could with excellent service. I witnessed every other person who was seated after us smile just fade off their faces as they were seated in this area. One such couple broke my heart because it was a young man on a date, both nicely dressed but DISCARDED in the UNDESIREABLE area. I suspect this young man's hope of treating his lady to a special evening were somewhat LESS than expected. Hopefully upper management reads this message and turns a Lemon into Lemonade and converts these areas to a more pleasant experience for all or just avoids using them for dining patrons all together. we come for the atmosphere and the FOOD; last night Continental failed on...

1st the good. When I made my reservation for 3 I mentioned it was my wife’s birthday and very nicely there was a card on the table good for a complimentary dessert for her birthday. Now for the bad. We never got to use it nor enjoy the warm cinnamon donuts that came with our 3 course meal because we were not allowed to put a 5th chair at our 4 top table for 10 minutes when our son joined us to celebrate mom’s birthday. This even though the table next to us was an only a couple with 2 empty chairs and they had just begun their entree. I specifically informed our server it would be for no more than 15 minutes and we would not hold up his ability to turn over the table. After standing for no exaggeration, 5-8 minutes waiting for a chair Brian ( a manager ) came over to inform me that we could not move a chair to the table. I informed of the occasion and that he would be pissing ( exact language) 5 people off and totally ruining a special occasion for 10 minutes of a 5th chair. He informed me he was sorry for this but that was the case and basically too bad. Hospitality 101 is to accommodate guests at any cost within reason of course. I mentioned this on my way out to a 2nd manager ( Greg or Craig ) who basically stood there with a condescending smirk on his face saying it was a lFire Marshall rule. When I pointed out that at the bar there many people standing behind seated people at the bar clearly obstructing the walking pathway he seriously said that area was not the same. So pathetic that a restaurant of this caliber allows these 2 wanna be managers to make any decisions. I guess that’s what you get on a Sunday night when actual decision makers are home. So to Brian and Greg (?) ask yourself how you would have felt if this happened to your family? $240 for 3 mediocre meals, no dessert and no chance of a happy birthday moment. You both would do much better at a fast food restaurant that does not require actual customer satisfaction and does not require common sense. Take some classes or read some books on...