Gabriele's Ristorante Italiano — Restaurant in Orange

Another customer lost for good. Tonight, our take home order of pasta and calamari was riddled with plastic bag pieces. I can almost excuse the incident given that most likely the calamari is frozen, and then thawed and put into the mix. Some clumsy cook could accidentally have this happen. BUT, I have no tolerance for poor customer service when a long time customer calls to cite the incident. The woman manager first said she could offer me a credit or remake the dish. I said I would really just like my charge card credited back for the meal. She said, "I can't do that over the phone, you would have to come back for me to refund you." (Strike 1 - Immediate denial with no empathy. They must believe no one will come back to get their refund). Well, I said I will then have to trek back in, and told her I would bring in the plastic remnants. Her reply, "okay, but it might just be "bones" from the fish". (Strike 2 - Deny the customer's allegation when he is sitting there with the plastic bag - and since when do squid have BONES?). When I arrived, I showed her the plastic, and her response..."okay" as she quickly tallied up just the amount of my order, and not the other items I placed on the order (Strike 3 - No apology YET!!! - and no offer). She started processing the credit, and I asked her "well, do you need to see my credit card since I had to come all the way back in to get my money back..?". She fiddled around with a calculation and told me the amount of the refund..$24.37. I rebutted back, "you aren't going to credit me for the whole order? I just spent $400 here this past weekend on my kid's celebration dinner, and no one at my house is eating their meals after seeing this one". Her reply..."I can't do that" (Strike 4...YOU ARE THE MANAGER. Who told you that you can't do that?) My reply..well in that case, you will not see me again in this establishment. To which, I received a count out of my money (they refunded cash), and a very quiet "sorry about that" after my back was turned and I was headed out the door. TO THE OWNER OF THIS ESTABLISHMENT, I SUGGEST YOU HAVE YOUR MANAGER TAKE A COURSE BY COMMUNICO NAMED "THE MAGIC OF CUSTOMER RELATIONS". It would be a game-changer for the many other negative reviews I see as it relates to simple CUSTOMER SERVICE. As it stands, my interaction with your manager is an EPIC TRAGIC FAIL in every sense of customer service, and I feel sorry for you that untrained individuals like this manager are representing your restaurant. You will not see my business back your way until this...

Very disappointed with Gabriele Ristorante last evening... Sat. Sept. 29 @ 7:00. Our waitress was terrible my order was wrong and there was no coffee available. I asked for coffee and also a diet cola to start and was told there was no coffee since the coffee maker was broken. If it were my place, I would have run to Walmart and picked up a coffee maker for $15.99 for my customers. Diet coke arrived in a cracked glass. For appetizer, I ordered the fried calamari with Fra diavolo sauce. The NY style calamari showed up tossed in the sauce with hot peppers and onions instead. I ate it anyway and did not complain. I asked the waitress for another soda. She forgot. I asked her again 10 minutes later and she brought me a flat soda and took off. To be fair, the Veal Parmigiana was very good. I just wish I had something to wash it down with! The bus boy brought the flat soda back to our waitress and told her I needed one with carbonation in it. She forgot again. She then said nobody had told her after we watched the bus boy holding up the drink to tell her and pointing right at me. Meanwhile, the guy at the next table was in the same boat... angrily waving his empty beer at her and asking what he has to do to get another. I actually stopped at the Mobil station on the corner to get a diet coke when we pulled out of the parking lot. Maybe the waitress was new. If that were the case, the Manager should have assigned one of the more experienced servers to watch her. I have always liked Gabriele, but we'll try somewhere...

We’re in Orange and have been coming here for decades. Two stars because food was what we remember. Service not so much. Went there for Father’s Day and got in with no wait - that should tell you something. Meals came out pretty fast. Server rarely checked on us and my older child wanted another menu item we never got a chance to order. She was so hungry she was eating the melted butter at the bottom of her pasta plate. By the time we found the server everyone else was finished eating. Ok fine she decided to wait for desert instead. Before wrapping server asked if we wanted our meatball dish and Zuppa di peshe in the same container. What????? When picking up the plates to wrap she tipped the plate and spilled butter sauce right down my leg and on the floor. She looked at it, then walked away. We had a puddle of buttery sauce next to our table and I kept telling people passing to be careful as they could’ve easily slipped She then brought out my crème brûlée five minutes before everyone else’s dessert. I have two young children so needless to say I never saw that crème brûlée they attacked it. The end was just her checking on us trying to collect her payment - it was very rushed. We have young children and rarely get out, so it’s really disappointing to have this kind...