Di Pescara — Restaurant in Northfield Township

We hadn't been to Di Pescara in years, so when we were looking for a nice night out, we decided to go here again. And...we should have gone elsewhere. As soon as we sat down, we were ignored for about 15 minutes. Someone came by and asked if we wanted something to drink My wife got a Blue Moon and asked for an orange slice with it (which is normal for a Blue Moon). The helper exclaimed, "an orange?!" rather loudly which was embarrassing. And I asked for a Diet Coke. They brought the drinks (btw no orange) and some bread which is normally brought with olive oil and grated parmesan cheese. We asked for some oil and cheese. They brought oil, but no cheese. We asked again for cheese and this fell on deaf ears.

Finally our waiter brought some and made some lame excuse about forgetting every time he walked by. Well, thank you for the oil and cheese (finally) but now we're out of bread. Which was brought immediately.

We ordered a small Caesar salad to split. They brought it already split with individual dressings. The salad was really fresh with sliced thin parmesan cheese, To say anything short of delicious wouldn't do them justice.

Next came our meals. I got the chicken milanese and my wife got the chicken giardiniera. Hers was buried in giardiniera. Almost too much so all you tasted was the garnish and not the chicken. Mine came with a side of pasta which I wanted with the milanese sauce. I asked four times for that. It took the waiter a while to realize I wanted the same flavor profile on the chicken and the pasta. The chicken was drowning in the sauce, but the sauce was a bit bland; which rendered the pasta a bit bland as well.

The waiter never came by to check on us and getting refills on soda and water were very few and far between.

When we were finished, he brought the check and didn't ask if we wanted dessert. We said we were interested, but I think it lost its appeal when he didn't ask and just brought the check.

He came back to our table three times to see if we had added cash or card to the check billfold and a runner even checked. It wasn't busy when we were done eating and the restaurant was open for another hour or so. We felt rushed after the service was slow and practically non-existent the entire meal.

It was a few years since we had come back and it will be even longer before we return. And I booked a reservation online and in the area asking if were were celebrating anything, I wrote my wife's new job. No mention at all. I wasn't expecting free food (I never do), but no mention at all. Why ask in the online reservation program if you aren't even going...

The place looks upscale greeting at the door was nice, the menu looked great but that is all what we got and I guess the waiter was just hired from some low end restaurant ( even he tried to look professional, his behavior was saying otherwise). After we got our water and bread from other staff he took his time ( obviously not busy because he was chatting with other waiters) to come to our table. Me and my friends ordered the appetizers, one was not prepared the way it was ordered, when my friend complained he was hesitant to take it back and correct the order ( no apology at that as well), as he brought back the appetizer he “accidentally “ knocked over a glass of water on my friend, there was an apology other waitress came to help and bring fresh towels. When the main dishes came ( unusual long time to arrive) one of them was supposed to have sauce on the side (it didn’t) and the bottom was soaked , as my friend pointed that out they took the meal away to fix , and brought it back in couple minutes on poorly cleaned plate of the same sauce that the dish was in with the same sogginess as before, my dish came about 5 minutes later (“the menu favorite “) pasta in marinara sauce ( you could see the pasta was good at one point ) but this one was waiting for a long time to be served, tough on the top ( like some new dish “pasta crust”) , in my life I have eaten a lot of pasta but this one you have to fight the pasta to separate, better way to say maybe it was a clump of pasta. I didn’t complain because of my friends (and we had those other issues with the food ), also they praised highly this restaurant inviting me there. The waiter showed only once during the meal filling up my glass of water and asking do I want more wine. Very disappointing experience with higher expectations, giving my friends always ( at least once a month ) pick a different restaurant, and the experience is always great ( except this). With this I’m not saying the restaurant is bad ( I have observed other tables and they had good time with different waiters) Whoever is reading this, I hope you have better time there than we ( unfortunately I don’t have the waiters name, my friend payed and he got...

This is our 3rd time here and was very disappointed this time.

The largest dissapointment was the service. The waiter was young man but not very attentive at all and we have to ask multiple times for same item and he repeatedly didnt being out items we ordered. Never said hi or welcome, never said thank you. Just a lot to be desired from a server at a nicer restaurant.

We were party of 4 and when they brought the meal, one of the fish was wrong order. Sounded like the waiters mistake. So 3 of us ate while the 4th waited for the correct meal. Finally brought it out 10 mins later. Then 5 mins later they brought out another meal same fish for our table, by mistake. Some serious miscommunication between staff and kitchen.

Want a hamburger? Order the chopped steak. We expected real steak just cut or chopped into smaller pieces. This was ground beef and looked and tasted just like a burger with no bun. Sorry, but not what we expected.

Waiter again screwed up dessert order. Shame.

Our table was first one right when entering dining room. However we were belated with cold breeze every time the front door of restaurant opened. Would never sit at that table again.

When bill came, it of course had this sneaky 3% surcharge. Not for credit card use, just for extra revenue for the restaurant. Why don’t they just raise me I priced? We asked and they agreed to remove the surcharge.

I worked at restaurants for years and appreciate what servers do and how they do their jobs. Most times I tip more that 15%. Don’t recall last time I tipped less than 15%. This nite due to our poor service it was an EASY DECISION TO TOP JUST OVER 10%.

On a positive note, our glazed salmon and the chicken Milanese was very good. And the great friends that we were with made the evening enjoyable despite the ridiculous service.

We likely will not go back again as there are many other places in the area to choose from. Curious to see if restaurant management provides any reassuring reply to...