Italia Mia Restaurant & Pizzeria — Restaurant in New Milford

My wife and I came here for lunch a while back and had a pleasant experience and good food. So we decided to bring my family here to celebrate my mother in law's birthday. We had a table of 12 people and the waiter, while very nice, was clearly overwhelmed.

This was the most ridiculous disaster I have ever experienced in food service.

First, the drink order was wrong. And we waited for a glass of ice that never came. Sadly, the waiter was so busy with other tables, that it was a VERY long time before he came to take our appetizer order. So we gave him our complete order of appetizers and dinner. Appetizers were thankfully uneventful. Then the salads came out. For half the table. He proceeded to ask the other half of the table what dressings they had asked for. Ok - mistakes happen and it's just salad. Eventually, dinner showed up. For 8 of us. And there were 2 pork dinners, instead of 2 chicken bruchetta dinners. So they took the extra pork dinner back, and we figured the rest of the dinners were on their way. After at least 5 minutes, the waiter showed up and said there was some kind of computer error and they were making the missing dinners - 3 short rib specials and the chicken bruchetta that they accidentally entered as a pork dinner. 15 minutes later, they showed up with the chicken dinner, and 2 of the 3 missing short rib dinners. Apparently, someone miscounted AGAIN. Also, my in laws asked for glasses of wine with dinner and they never showed up.

They sent the manager over, who apologized, but was clearly not offering anything other than apologies. By this point my mother in law is crying, and my brother in law asked the manager what she will do. She said she will figure something out.

After a while, the waiter came back and told us they would comp us some of the drinks, and the short ribs that didn't come out. Then he offered to bring a slice of cake for my mother in law. By this point, we were done. We asked for boxes and the bill.

A while later, they came out with the bill and the last short rib. And some boxes. We checked the bill, and they comped us the drinks and the short ribs and even the chicken dinner.

I appreciate that they tried to accommodate forn the mistake. But I don't know how I could ever eat here again, at least not for dinner with anyone else. Not unless they get someone there who knows how to manage...

I've been living in Europe for more than a decade, and we chose Italia Mia as the meeting place to reconnect with my teachers from soooooo long ago: Joseph Sardone (my 5th grade teacher at Pettibone 33 years ago) and Terry Lucente (my permanent substitute teacher 29 years ago from Freshman year at NMHS Class of 96 oh geeez I feel old) 🙂

Ordered a stuffed pepper for an appetizer = very tasty, moist, and tender; ordered Penne alla Vodka for dinner = plenty of delicious pink sauce, pasta was perfectly soft, and chicken was tender; and had a glass of sweet Moscato! Our waitress was wonderful... super busy yet found a way to be attentive without being intrusive (great balance). Atmosphere was a bit loud at other tables, so I suggest playing Classical music in the background in the dining hall instead of loud, energetic music that raises the overall volume of the ambience 🙂

About my awesome former New Milford teachers:

33 years ago, Joseph Sardone was the reason why I pursued success in music; he told me when I was 11 as he leaned into my ear, "These kids who are laughing at you? They don't know music. Use that." Those words sent me on a path of music to overcome the challenges the world threw at me.

29 years ago, Terry Lucente saw that I was struggling in my freshman year of high school - and she pulled me aside and said, "You obviously have examples at home of how to behave which will do much for you and take...

My first visit, a Monday evening, I ordered a large pizza to take home. When I went to pay, I asked for 2 small condiment containers (like you would put ketchup in) of grated cheese and 1 of red pepper flakes. The cashier started ringing up my order and added $2 to the total. She hadn't mentioned there was a $2 charge for what amounted to 3 tablespoons of grated parmesan. I heard someone behind her saying, "we don't charge for that." But it was too late, I'd already paid. Do they charge dine-in customers for using the grated cheese? I doubt it. I've never had any pizza place charge for that, in 40 years of ordering pizzas. The pizza was blah, nothing to write home about. The cheese was the kind that turns like glue when it cools - not very appetizing. My husband mentioned the cheese was "weird" and I agree. It's low-quality mozzarella. There are much, much better pizza places to choose from, like Brickhouse or John's. Our dog liked it, though. That was my first visit to Italia Mia,...