Via Locusta — Restaurant in Philadelphia

I used to adore this restaurant until an atrocious experience several weeks ago. A week prior, I had brought extended family to Via Locusta. We were some of the last patrons in the restaurant, when an un homed person came in and began heckling the staff. My cousin courageously stood up from our table and calmly and empathetically cooled the situation down, encouraging the unhomed person to leave and stop harassing the employees. The following week I brought friends into the restaurant who were visiting from out of state. I was so excited to show them Via Locusta. When we got there, we were immediately met with hostility by a waitress. She came to our table and we immediately recognized her seemingly inexplainable bad attitude. I asked if we could put some appetizers in quickly as we were very hungry and she asked if we’d been here before. I said “many times!” She retorted, “if you have been here before you’d know we put the order in all at once.” We said, “let’s put some drinks in then? “ she fired back: “we have soda, water and our nonalcoholic menu.” We were a bit flabbergasted. She said “I’ll give you a minute to think”. She came back and continued with the weird and perplexing malice: “have you thought about it?” We calmly asked her why she was inhibiting us from ordering any cocktails or alcoholic drinks— we are all in our mid twenties, and happy to provide ID, I added. She said in PA, I cannot legally serve alcohol to anyone who seems intoxicated. We had had 1-2 drinks at a happy hour prior. None of us were intoxicated nor appeared so. It was a flagrant and dehumanizing accusation. We felt unwelcome and decided to leave, going elsewhere in the city and having a lovely meal. Beforehand, I went to tell the manager our experience— ‘their hands were tied’ was essentially the sentiment that was relayed to me. I would expect better— especially given the situation my cousin put herself in the week prior to protect their staff. They knew I was connected to that previous altercation due to a note that had been left in their system, lauding my cousin for her expert mediation. I will add one other experience I had at Via Locusta, that only now after contextualizing it with what happened several weeks ago I recognize as problematic. I have eaten here with my dad several times at the bar and have not been asked to put a card down while dining. I came in alone a month or so ago, and was asked for my card to seemingly ensure I wouldn’t “dine and dash.” The differences in treatment by staff when dining with older adults such as my dad and my cousin versus myself and my friends is inscrutable. I have been a paying and respectful patron of this establishment for over two years. I intended to celebrate my graduate school graduation dinner here in May. This is no longer the case. I was appalled by our waitress’s treatment of us and strongly encourage Via Locusta to urge this staff member to reconsider her attitude towards customers— I doubt this is the first time someone has had to complain on behalf of her. Deeply...

Via Locusta has turned from a former 5/5 restaurant into a 2/5 restaurant. Which is disappointing. I use to rave about this place, to everyone, but now I do not know if I will be back. First, I have to say the service has been consistently good and our server Samantha was amazing. With that, I do not go out to eat for a restaurant's reputation of service, but for its food. This is my 4th time dinning here (I live in the neighborhood), and with every visit it has declined in food quality/taste. This will probably be my last time at the restaurant. Guiseppe & Sons (owned by the same group) is so good, so I do not know how this place has turned on its head and now is lack luster. The focaccia and farmers cheese is very tasty (an appetizer option), but I am not going to a restaurant for good bread and cheese (those are basics I can get anywhere). With that, the menu descriptions are "too" simplified. The Raviolini is in a brodo (which means broth) but that description is nowhere on the menu. My partner and I expecting a seafood pasta dish, which highlights shrimp and celery root (no mention of broth) on the menu, is basically a soup. My partner and I were not happily surprised, but decided to taste it regardless. It tasted bland and just bad (honestly it was not good) so we sent it back. The description on the menu is nothing like what the dish actually is, and should at least be translated by the server if it is a brodo (soup like dish). We also ordered the steak which was $38. I do not mind paying money for a nice steak, but the steak was not tender whatsoever (it actually tasted below average) and there are no sides or options to add a side to the dish. (At least add a simple vegetable like sun chokes or asparagus to the dish or a small serving of rissotto). I was advised to place a starter course as a side to the steak. But none of the starter courses honestly complement the steak either..... With that. I also ordered the Pappardelle pasta which is in a "pork ragu", which I have had before, and in the past this dish was good. Recently, it has fallen to below average quality with virtually no pork ragu whatsoever. It was basically fresh pasta with some olive oil and speckles of meat. The ragu was missing. I was so disappointed at that point though and hungry, so I just ate it, even though it was more than lackluster. Very disappointing all around. Drinks are pricey but its Rittenhouse so I expect that. But eh, there are so many Italian restaurants in Philadelphia this one is falling off the list fast and just getting lazy. I won't be back for a long time if ever. Which is shocking to me because I have always been a fan of this restaurant group and talked them "up". But I see the...

Food great, portions terrible! Felt like we got ripped off!

I always love trying a new place during restaurant week in Philly. The menu looked good here, so I decided to give it a try. It was $45pp and would be served family style, so me and my guest had to agree on each course to order. We placed our order and the waitress asked if we also wanted the foccacia bread. I asked if it was included, it wasn't, but we decided to try it out anyway. The bread was really good and the honey butter was a great pairing. After we ate that she starting bringing out our courses. The fried zucchini (a little salty) was a decent portion. Then she brought our side (Brussel sprouts) and pasta (agnolotti) courses. My guest and I looked at each other like "that's it?" I said something to our waitress and she admitted the portions are on the small side, but that was an understatement. The Brussels were cut in half, so in total we may have literally had 5 on the plate. The "manager" I guess heard my comment so he brought us out another smaller bowl of pasta to try and make up for it. BUT then we were served our main dish (branzino) and it was ONE filet. Like wouldn't one normal portion be one filet? Why are you serving us portions for one person and it's supposed to be family style? Then the icing on the cake was the dessert was advertised as an olive oil cake, but instead we were served this super small jar of caramel pudding...that we were supposed to share. They left two spoons on the table and we couldn't even fit two spoons in there at the same time. Absolutely ridiculous. The whole point of restaurant week is to market your business by offering a great deal and enticing people to come back. Instead, they tried to get away with charging for two people, but only serving enough for one person. If it wasn't for the bread (which was extra!) we would've still been hungry! The food itself was good, but the skimping on the portions and trying to get over on us really ruined the experience. And given the food was good, I'd be tempted to give it another chance but now I don't even know what the real portion sizes may be, so don't want to risk it. We spent $145 total to leave not even full....