Biagio’s Ristorante — Restaurant in Paramus

Buffet event for a Celebration of Life (aka repast). The food and pricing overall was good. The venue (1) Its a party of 45-50 guests with only enough room for a max of 5-6 guests to be able to serve themselves at a time. If each guest takes only a few minutes you have 45 people for 1 round, how are you going to get them served, eating, and then have another round as is customary with a buffet within 1 hour? We are not trying to shovel the food down in silence so that we can get our fair amount that we paid for, per person. They did leave the food out past the hour, but we had to ask that to be done which again, I have never had a venue make me do that before. (2) The small amount of pastries served was a very limited amount per table and whisked away quite quickly. (3) Our room had a desk with phones, and it was quite annoying and rude for a member of the staff to be on the phone (I am thinking booking parties?) while our guests are all there. It was supposed to be move out for the event, and it wasn't. I have never had someone conducting venue calls in the room where my event was occurring AS it was occurring. (4) What seemed to be maybe a head server - very unpleasant demeanor, facial expression, attitude, etc. Not a good feeling when you are having an event. The other serving staff & especially the bartender were great though! (5) Regardless on how the venue plans to work their following events, if I pay until 4pm, I shouldn't feel forced out because the staff is setting up for the next event. Its ok to get started cleaning up, but removing food and drinks without checking to see if guests were finished when we still had like an hour to the room is unprofessional (6) Planning of the timing of everything that was discussed should have been handled better by the venue - it is hard for the widow to have to keep asking and answering questions during the event while she is trying to spend this time with her family. I had to jump in a few times to let her be with the family. (7) Path to the restaurant, not so clear. I personally had to direct at least 10 people where to go for a reunion on the 2nd floor, they were actually walking into our event. Sorry to repeat, but for the number of events that I have hosted in a venue and/or been a part of, none have gone this rough as far as the handling of the service and timing. But I would recommend that you still check this venue out, just be aware and aggressive with how you want your event to go. This review is connected to the same event as Tracy M reviewed on 9/25/24 so I did see some of the responses back and forth, which the venue may respond here similarly. This is not a complaint, we are not looking to get any $$ back or anything like that, it is a review hopefully to be true to other guests who are searching, and to the venue who may want to think about improving their reputation which had been quite good for many many years - I personally have been coming here for at least 8 years separate from this or any other event, just on my own with friends. Tracy M's information and review are accurate, I was a bit surprised at this experience vs all the other times I...

Final response, I'm not going back n forth. 1. The female manager did leave the room quite often. My sisters, my mother, my aunt, and I can all attest to that. We had to look for her more than a few times. That wasn't a big deal, but don't lie. 2. Maybe the food was left out a little longer, which is why I said 'about'. but we had to ask, no one told us it's only out for an hour. 3. I was there the entire time, start to finish. I did not hear a last call for food, neither did other guests. My uncle went to go up and get a plate and the food was gone. 4. Cleaning tables is good, but when someone is standing next to their drink or their food, they should be asked before it gets taken away. My cousin just bought her drink at the bar, put it down next to her and it was gone, as was her pastry. Planning our Celebration of Life event for my dad went smoothly with Eleni, she was very helpful. The food was good, everyone complimented that. My issue has to do with service - how we were rushed, and the BS my mother was told the next day when she called to discuss this. She and I booked the room from 12-4 and chose a buffet service. Food was put out at 12:30 and they were starting to clean it up at 1:30 (we had to stop them). My mother said to keep the food coming - not everyone arrived yet, people weren't done eating, and there were people who hadn't made their plates yet. They kept the food out for a little while longer, I think it was until just around 2pm. We had people who didn't get to eat, who we paid for. My mother was told the next day (when she called) that they only put the food out for an hour. That was NEVER told to us nor does it state it anywhere on the contract or on the menu options online. When it was time for coffee/dessert service, they came around so quickly, a lot of people didn't even know. Many who had wanted coffee didn't get any. We had some guests complain that they put their food or PAID drink down next to them for a moment, and it was scooped up and taken away - without asking if that person was done with it. We paid for the room until 4pm and they had it cleaned up and ready for their restaurant service by around 3:30. That is unreasonable. My mom was told (the next day) that most people leave shortly after dessert, which was served at around 2:00. What does that matter?!?!?! We paid for the room until 4! There is one server there who seems to be the "main" one who is very very unpleasant. He has a miserable look on his face, he seems to be annoyed if you ask him for something or if he just has to do his job. He should not be in that line of work. The day we booked the room, my mother and I stayed for lunch and he served us then, and I said the same exact thing about him back then. I would never recommend booking an event here based on how we were rushed, the unpleasant server, and the excuses my mother was given the next day. It's a shame because our room was beautiful and the...

THE ABSOLUTE WORST AND RUDEST MANAGEMENT. ALSO HAVE NO IDEA WHAT A MEDIUM RARE STEAK LOOKS LIKE WHICH IS CONCERNING GIVEN HOW MUCH THEY CHARGE. Spend your hard earned money somewhere else during this covid crisis.

Where to begin....first of all, we reserved quite a large table for a 30th birthday celebration. Now given the fact that Covid affected most businesses, we thought we would help out our local restaurants instead of throwing a small party at home. You would expect management to be pleased with the customer turnout, especially for a large party like ours, and that they would take special care to make sure their customers (who are also financially impacted by the covid crisis) are content. This management clearly lacks any sort of professional training or even human etiquette. First, they brought around bread to several tables, but none of ours. When we asked for bread, they seemed irritated (weird I know). Then we requested a vegetable substitute with the steak—the veggies for the steak that day were corn and potatoes—both high starch with a high glycemic load for several of our diabetic family members. Management made an issue out of it even though they had various other veggie options like broccoli, which we were finally able to get (after having to justify our request due to dietary issues). Then, When several of the overly priced steaks, which were ordered medium rare, came out overcooked, we pointed this out to management hoping to get better quality for our expensive steaks. Again, most of us have suffered financially due to covid and want our money to be worth what we spend it on. Instead of apologizing and asking if we would like new steaks, management effectively told us to be quiet, that we were wrong, and that we don’t know what properly cooked steak is (this after management told us a medium rare steak temp should be 150...my steak connoisseurs will understand why that’s laughable). I am very barely describing how rude the manager was and how insulting he was because I don’t care to disparage someone, but I think people ought to know that the experience is less than pleasant and management is not willing to accept responsibility for their mistakes nor are they willing to treat you like paying customers—they’re right, you’re wrong, pay your check and a forced tip, and deal with it. What an upset to a 30th birthday. Proceed...