Italian Villa — Restaurant in Plumsted Township

No bene to put it succinctly. When we went here previously, it was great. Fredo must have taken over operations of this restaurant, because it has betrayed all the values of a good dining experience. Where do I begin?

We were here for a major birthday dinner, and it took an hour and a half to get the entrees for seven people. Their excuse was because our party was larger. What does that have to do with it when you're bringing every other group their food in a third as much time?

But fear not, in the meantime we had some delightful stale bread to feast on. In the interests of fairness, the pasta e fagioli was fine, but that was the only silver lining.

When we finally did get our entrees, everyone was very disappointed. Portion sized have been DRAMATICALLY reduced to perhaps half of what it was just last year. A few members of the party thought we would try the "homemade spicy rigatoni".... They apparently don't know what al dente is. This pasta was very undercooked, and highly disappointing. Most of us did not like our entire main dishes as well. My two small pieces of chicken sorrentino were okay, but that was the exception. I heard highly negative feedback about the veal parmigiana and other dishes that we had.

When we wrote in to the restaurant, after SEVERAL messages they responded blaming this on "new staff"... The waitress was the same one as last year, and the owners were there. This is a small place, and there can't be that many people, asking us to come back without even offering anything other than a hollow apology.

The server also didn't seem to much care to check in on us for the insane time we were waiting, and had to be prodded to know something was wrong, and still didn't seem to care.

You have lost hundreds of dollars of future business. We'll be dining at other Italian restaurants in the future.

Ignore the other reviews. Again, this place USED to be good. It no longer is. Take your business elsewhere, and hope they take this place back to the old country.

EDIT - In response to the comment... There were SEVEN of us, yes, not that large of a party, which is why parties of 4 getting their food in a fraction of the time made no sense. I paid for poor service and food. My opinion that pasta should be cooked al dente and not hard? Rarely do I have complaints about pasta. So yes, it was underdone significantly. When a customer pays for a meal, they expect to have a good experience and get quality food.

The longest wait time I have EVER waited at any restaurant, plus many issues with service and food do not equal a good experience. So yes, some sort of compensation would be right for a situation like this as we regret not dining at another restaurant after this. Way to ruin someone's 90th birthday dinner. Sad. Yes, the staff sure should've let the owners know, or the owners could've checked in and known what was going on since this is a small place if they cared about the experience of their patrons, but that was too much to...

My Eggplant parm had very good flavor. I also had a taste of a meatball...not very good. Tasted like a diet-meatball! Not rich in flavor. Not much flavor at all and light in texture, not hearty.

Cannoli flavor was ok. Light in texture also. Filling is a cheese (generally, Ricotta). This didn't have that traditional cannoli richness.

The customers were regulars and the waitress hugged most of them, which was nice to see. Meanwhile, we sat first seat Upon entering and remained there for duration.

The reason I bring mention to our seating was that we weren't asked NOT ONCE how everything was, if we needed a refill. Can I take your plate?

I had to stand up and get back online, which was 3 feet from the counter because the waitress said, let me know when you're ready for the cannolis and I'll take them out for you. Ok, sounded good.

Regardless if you're busy with phone orders or customers, I'm sitting RIGHT THERE turning my attention to the counter, even tried to signal her.

Fine, I'll stand up and ask. Other front desk girl finally addresses me🙄 I asked for cannolis. Orginal waitress brings to me in a box.... thanks for asking.. But Im eating this here.

Still....no 'can I take your plate? Can I get you a refill? Until I paid for the meal... Then I was asked, 'how was everything'? I didn't want to make my company feel uncomfortable or I would've said otherwise.

I left it with fine...and left. No intention of returning. They obviously have their clientele, no...

Ordered a pizza and salad. Pizza dough was super chewy and dry. Salad lettuce and onions were not fully chopped so had to use a knife to chop it up. The icing on the cake....green olives in the salad had rock hard pits! I bit into one and almost broke a tooth! I'm soooo glad I ate one before any of the children got to them. So dangerous. I have never gotten an olive in a salad at any place I've ever eaten with a pit in it.They looked just like pimento stuffed green olives that typically come okn a salad. The ranch dressing tasted bad too. Thin and sour. I may have considered ordering there again since the other pizza in the area is either expensive or not so good. Very disappointed in spending over $30 and not liking it enough to finish one slice or two bites of salad. I don't know why the pizza in this area is no good. I will stick to the more expensive place since their food is actually good and they arent trying to break our teeth or choke my...