D's Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in North Carolina

Short version: Awful. Reheated slop full of bagged and frozen ingredients. The owners should be embarrassed. Stay away.

Longer version: Upon sitting, the menu looked impressive. Lots of classic pastas, chicken dishes, pizza, calzones.

As I was reading the menu, I ate a piece of bread the waitress had brought. I quickly realized the bread was terrible.

Chewy, stale, tasteless...the kind of bread you'd get in a bag at a low-end grocery store. Obviously not made fresh.

So I followed my one restaurant rule: if the most basic food falls short (bread, chips, water, etc.), then lower your expectations...because nothing else is going to be good.

So instead of ordering the parmigiana or the carbonara or a caprese salad...I decide to play it safe.

I decide to aim low and order mozzarella sticks and pizza. Those are impossible to mess up, even in an airport restaurant.

Turns out I was wrong. You can indeed mess it up.

My dinner guests decided to aim higher. They ordered calamari, muscles and lasagna. Disaster incoming.

It was all bad. All of it. Nothing fresh, nothing local, nothing of quality, nothing you couldn't get out of a microwave.

Not one person in our group ate more than 1/4th of any dish we ordered. I ate 2 of 6 mozzarella sticks and 1 of 8 slices of a pepperoni/sausage/bacon pizza.

Soggy, tasteless, rubbery. Not a single fresh ingredient anywhere.

My friends were similarly unhappy Muscles were overcooked (from previously frozen, obviously), and the calamari was rubber (also from frozen).

We are 3 miles from the ocean...and they are using frozen calamari and frozen muscles. Let that level of laziness sink in.

The lasagna was still partially frozen in the center...a dead giveaway that they are using pre-prepared food, and popping it in a microwave or oven before serving it.

To be honest: this is absolutely-trash-quality food.

Totally unacceptable for a restaurant at these prices. Heat up some Chef Boyardee in a can, it'll be better than this slop. Heck, prison food is probably as fresh.

We politely told them how disappointed we were. It was obvious most of the food on our table was untouched.

A courtesy cupcake might have been a nice peace offering. Maybe a discount on the pizza that was 80% untouched? But alas, no.

The truth is, they just don't care.

They don't care about the food they serve. And they certainly don't care about the customers they lose.

I imagine they won't care about this review, either.

I'm not blaming the staff, who were polite, if understandably numb to complaints. No, this kind of thing comes from the top...an owner or company who is wiling to order low-quality frozen meals and ingredients, warm them up, and then serve them to unsuspecting customers.

This isn't a restaurant. It's a joke, and a low-effort one at that.

This is the kind of crappy strip-mall reheated-Italian "food" that gives suburban restaurants everywhere a bad name.

And to add insult to injury, the prices are waaay too high for this kind of reheated Sysco slop.

A single glass of house wine, two starters and three (uneaten) mains...$98 before tip.

This type of restaurant, ones doing half-assed bag-boils of pre-mixed, pre-frozen lasagna and pizza without a single fresh ingredient...they deserve to go out of business, and fast.

This one will, soon enough.

We won't be back. And I suggest you...

Five stars for the food, the owners, and almost always, the service.

If I could give the server Amy, a rating for just herself, it would be a 1 star, but I will not reduce the number of stars for the restaurant due to one sorry server.

We came in for dinner the other night, and our server was Amy. She took our drink orders and an order for calamari and garlic knots. It took so long to get our drinks that both the owner, and the hostess asked if we had been waited on yet. After a while, we finally got our drinks. Calamari came out before the garlic knots. They Came out finally, but were cold. Had to send them back. She seemed flustered, and proceeded to tell us how she was called in bc they were short, and never got in her groove. Shortly after we ordered our entrees and finished our appetizers, she came back out and asked if we were ready for dessert, or of we wanted the check . My husband replied "we'd like to eat first, we haven't received our dinners". I don't know if the orders were never put in or what . We eventually got our dinner.. forgot the side of meatballs, and couldn't get a refill on tea.

We went back for lunch today. Amy was our server again. We gave her the benefit of the doubt, hoping she was just overwhelmed the other night, and it was just a fluke.

She took our drink orders, but again it took at least 8 minutes to get them. We ordered garlic knots and said we'd like to wait to order our entrees until after the garlic knots. After several more minutes passed, she came back to take our orders. We repeated that we'd like our garlic knots first. It was at least 10 minutes before we received them... Nearby, 2 other tables that had arrived after us, had their drinks and garlic knots. (Lucky then, they had a different server). We then ordered, as the nearby tables received their meals. Aha! We have received our meals. Mine is wrong. Completely different meal than I ordered. She came back almost immediately with the correct meal. Said she grabbed the wrong plate.

The man behind us had asked for more coffee at least twice now, still hasn't gotten it. She mentions she'll be right back with more tea for me (noticing mine is gone), and proceeds to take several detours before returning with my tea 4-5 minutes later.

I refuse not to tip a server unless they are outrightly rude or disrespectful or nasty. But I could only muster a 10% tip for this girl.

With such a small restaurant, I understand that only 2 servers are necessary for them to be able to make a reasonable amount in tips, but she needs a smaller section, or someone dedicated to assisting with her...

UNFORTUNATELY MULTIPLE TERRIBLY DISAPPOINTING EXPERIENCES!! I gave them Multiple chances but now that Falcones is in business and they are beyond amazing I will NEVER ago here again!! They once gave me a 45 min wait time on pickup order (which I was fine with knowing how busy things are and have been) but then once my husband arrived to pick up, they had NOT even started our order whatsoever!! Then we had to wait an additional 35 mins and the food was subpar! Another time I called to place and order. Verified verbally I had location at Midway and placed an order with a male. When we went to pick it up they said I NEVER ORDERED with them?!? Infuriating!! Even though I knew that the guy tossing the dough was the exact person I spoke with and told him about our convo.. yet.. they STILL DENIED I had ordered! D’s had messed up on my order not once but in two separate incidences after long waits…resulting in NO food.. I decided to leave there and never grace them with my presence again!! I then recalled that Falcones was open so, I placed an large order with them and had the VERY best pizza, Stromboli and pasta ever! Definitely better than D’s and the others In Southport and surrounding area!! REAL AUTHENTIC ITALIAN FOOD AT FALCONES!! PLUS the staff and owner were incredibly nice while at D’s the woman (and other staff) has been rude to me on multiple occasions! Infact, once the lady at D’s argued with me after a pickup order trying to convince me a Stromboli is not suppose to be long/rectangular shape, and instead is a half moon puffed up shape like a calzone! YES! She did that!! I ordered a Stromboli once from Ds and got a calzone (shape and internal fillings different) and she tried to tell me (after she literally asked me to send pics) that Stromboli’s are ALWAYS half moon shaped and she even went as far as the say that she has “always made them like that”, which I know to be a flat out lie as I have gotten plenty of Stromboli’s from D’s in the past and they HAD NEVER been shaped like a Calzone! I detest a liar.. especially If you are the owner! Just admit you gave me the wrong thing and apologize and I would be fine.. but to out and out lie to me?! Should have known then not to give you another chance but now.. you will never get another! I suggest others don’t waste their time either! Drive a few extra minutes to Falcones and you will NOT be disappointed!! It will be worth it!! TRUST ME! I honestly would give zero...