LaScala's Birra

I have been to all la scalas, down town, passyunk Ave, marlton, even the pronto in mt laurel. Today was my first experience in pennsauken. This was probably my all time worst dining experience ever or at least top 3. I literally felt like I was in the twilight zone. My husband and I along with our 2 young kids popped in today to eat. After being greeted 8 mins later by a young inexperienced hostess she told my husband only outside was available. It just started to rain and we’re expecting thunderstorms so I asked if the outside was covered. She told me no. So we left and took the kids to the playground. seeing there were about 6 available tables inside I went on OpenTable just out of curiosity and was able to reserve an INDOOR table for 3:30 ( it was 3:22) We went back inside a few mins late- about 3:34 I entered. As I did the hostess made eye contact and literally walked away from the podium. Could have been a coincidence but felt awkward. I then stood there another 8 mins until a hostess arrived at the desk. This girl was the same semi rude hostess at the initial visit that wasn’t aware the patio was indeed covered. The reason I call her rude now is bc I said hi to her kindly as she was walking towards me and she said nothing. So I said I have a reservation for 3:30 even tho it was now almost 3:45. She sat us at our table where we waited for almost 20 mins until a server (who was also the bartender)came over who had to grab us our silverware setups that the hostess neglected. She brought them back pretty quickly but then left us for another extended period of time. You can imagine what this was like with a 5 yr old and 3 yr old ( at a high top)

Now at this point I was wondering if maybe they’re short handed…. But looking around there was still about one side of the restaurant with open seating and at least 8 servers. A baby shower had cleared out about the time we were originally walking in so the entire back was empty too. My husband who is also in the service industry even asked the bartender nicely if they were short handed. She nonchalantly says “no we just had an event “ like she had no clue what was going on. Mind you the event (babyshower) ended an hour ago.

I understand that patience are appreciated more than ever right now in the service industry. I typically don’t complain or write reviews like this. But I’m just astonished at todays experience. I feel like the hostesses need better training or more experience. They’re the first person and sets the tone for the business and honestly that’s my real reason for this review. If we were seated and had all of that waiting going on with our swrver and slow service I would have never even thought about a review. Our server was nice enough. Food was good as expected. But I’ll never return to this location. I’ll continue to go to passyunk Ave ( which is different ownership now) This location needs to get their shut together. Those hostesses are costing the business money.