Castelli's Ristorante — Restaurant in Palm Desert

Just awful. Disgusting experience. Seriously uncomfortable wooden chair seating to begin with. We ordered the Cannelloni and it arrived barely room temperature/cold but it was on a hot plate. They obviously make their cannelloni hours ahead, but they made no effort to even warm it up again before serving it to us. I ate a few bites and when one of the servers arrived I told him it was cold. Before I could say anything more he just said "okay", took the plate away, turned his back and disappeared never to return. No offer to have the chef warm it up or ask if I wanted something else. Just nothing. Just a fast "okay" and left!! I ordered the Crab and it arrived so extremely salty it was inedible. I said nothing as I was a guest of family members and I didn't feel comfortable complaining. I ate none of it. It was just horrible how unbearably doused in salt it was. I didn't touch the plate after that and let it sit there. Another server arrived and asked me about the crab. I told him. He took the plate back to the kitchen whereupon the owner of the restaurant tasted it and agreed and she said it was completely inedible, unthinkably salty, and yelled at the chef for it. I didn't want all this drama, I just wanted a decent meal which is apparently too much to ask at this poor establishment. Their prices are cheap so I guess it's true you get what you pay for. I have neighbors who have had really bad experiences here in the past. There are plenty of fine restaurant choices in the area so a person doesn't need this inconsistent, awful place. We will never be back. Why on earth...

My husband and I went to Castelli's for Easter Sunday. We were greeted and then put at a table in the front of the restaurant, which was fine. The waiter was friendly. When we ordered our first course, we decided to wait to order our dinner, as we had told the waiter we were not in a hurry and asked if it was an issue to have a slow quiet dinner. He responded that there was no rush. So we then ordered our dinners. Much to my surprise our dinner came out within 7 minutes of ordering. I had ordered the seafood risotto. This looked like it just came out of the frig. Ice cold, hard, and unable to eat. There was red sauce on all on the sides of my dish, which my dish was with a white sauce. My risotto had been in the frig and tasted like it. I figured that we would receive fresh food not something leftover from nights before. When I told our server, he apologized and offered to wrap it for me to take home. Wow! For $90 for our 2 dinners, I would have expected fresh food. I do not recommend this place, and we have vowed never to return. I had also written into the management and never received an answer till this day. How sad that a restaurant in our neighborhood would treat us locals so poorly when it's up to us to support them. Just goes to show that they really don't care about their customer service. I give this place a...

Visited Palm Desert, decided to get Italian takeout for dinner with kids. Got 2 pastas (Fettuccini Alfredo with chicken and linguini bolognese) and a risotto con funghi.

Portion: 5/5. was generous. Boxes were quite big, food was more than enough for 2 adults and 2 kids.

Taste: 3/5. The taste ain't bad, just was not impressed consider these are 20/30 dollar pastas. The Fettuccini Alfredo was supposed to be the house speciality, but even my 5 yo knew the taste wasn't anything to brag about. The $8 chicken was good portion as well, but was not very tender, pretty dry, more like cold chicken breast microwaved type of texture. The bolognese sauce was decent, but seemed to lack depth. The risotto was slightly bland. Would expect a lot more mushroom umami.

Price: $82 for 2 pastas and a risotto. Not what I'd pay for day to day for pastas, not horrible either.

Takeout parking was available, so that's a plus. Phone ordering took slightly longer than expected. But nothing to complaint about overall.

Bottom line: For the same price, I compare this with Lilian's in Santa Cruz, and the taste were miles apart... I guess the other food were supposed to be the stable for this restaurant. But for a 4.6 star restaurant that costs $82, I'd expect not to be disappointed with...