Gemelli Italian Deli & Bagelry — Restaurant in New Bern

My wife had arrived at Gemelli Italian Deli yesterday at 7:40PM and ordered garlic pasta, a Gemelli salad, and a half sausage pepperoni pizza. The woman taking her order told her it would take about 15 minutes. True to her word, the salad and pasta came out on time but no pizza.

After waiting about five more minutes, a staff member asked if she was still waiting on something. She told them she was waiting for the pizza, and they went to check, only to return with, "It's almost ready." That same response was repeated multiple times by multiple staff members for another 30 minutes. Meanwhile, the deli had closed at 8:00 PM, and we waited until almost 8:30 PM (nearly an hour after placing the order). When we finally got the pizza, my wife had to lift it shoulder high to navigate through the maze of chairs and tables staff had stacked everywhere just to get to the door.

Once we got home, we immediately realized that the pizza wasn't even fully cooked.. Looking at it appeared that this wasn’t even a fresh pizza. Judging by how the pizza was partially folded, awkwardly crammed into the box, it seems likely they just reheated an unsold pizza that was meant to be sold by the slice, throwing some sausages on the half that was cheese only. Complete waste of $26+ tip. Total between all the food and desserts bought, we spent around $100.

Between the excessive wait, the dismissive service, and the inedible pizza, this was an incredibly disappointing experience. Admittedly, the pasta and salad were good but it was hard to enjoy due to the poor experience. This is the 4th time we have been to Gemelli’s and 3 of the 4 visits we have had different issues which we looked past knowing that this is a new business but last night was absolutely...

I paid $27 for hard gluten-free pasta loaded in oil and garlic with overcooked, broccoli and overcooked chicken. my husband got the Mediterranean pasta and it tasted like oil soap. We paid a total of $67 for two meals and one beer and Italian soda. RIP OFF!!! Our family ordered back to back but it was staggered in time who got what. Ours took 25 minutes for pasta dishes and that was after finally saying something. We were told by the girl that something happened and didn’t know what but they were having to make our food again in reality they just forgot our food because a few seconds later the bar tender came out with our food. I worked in Italian restaurant and it does not take long to cook pasta…and it was a family owned restaurant where the food was made fresh too. One of our family members got the eggplant Parmesan and it looked like it had been sitting in the refrigerator for days and plopped on top of thick spaghetti that supposedly homemade but as an Italian it didn’t look homemade. The first time we went there I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt and come back with my husband but we will not be going back. Also clean your bathrooms they are disgusting so it makes me wonder how clean the kitchen is and don’t get me started on their almost $11 tiny piece of desserts. I was really hopeful and excited for something like this, but you all just do not have the quality control under control.

P.S. Do something about the flies like get a bug sapper on your patio because no one wants to sit outside getting attacked by biting...

I have been to Gemelli's a few times so far. The service is okay, although they don't typically greet you as you enter, even when it's not busy which makes the walk through to the counter a bit awkward. They're new, so I definitely appreciate that it takes some time to work out the kinks, and I hope they do. The food is pretty good (bagels are great!), but when I ordered the bruschetta pizza it was soggy (again, hopefully just a kink to work out). Additionally, the pricing is a bit much. I ordered a single slice of orange ricotta cake, which I retrieved from the dessert fridge across from the counter where you order, and the price was $10.55. I checked with another employee who confirmed that the single--thin--slice of cake was charged correctly. I know food is expensive, but the given the size of the slice, it feels as though they could have easily gotten 10 slices from the whole cake, meaning they're charging ~$100 for the cake. While the slice was delicious, that doesn't seem reasonable to me. They have every right to charge whatever they want, but I would have appreciated if they displayed the prices of the baked goods so I could have either opted for something more reasonably priced or skipped...