La Terrazza — Restaurant in Raleigh

La Terrazza, a new rooftop Italian restaurant in Raleigh, offers a fantastic setting and has great potential, but unfortunately, it missed the mark on service during our visit. As seasoned foodies who frequently explore the Raleigh food scene and travel extensively, we found the experience to be a mix of highs and lows. The ambiance and views are top-notch, but the service needs significant improvement.

Summary: Our date night at La Terrazza was enjoyable, largely due to its prime location and beautiful rooftop terrace. The restaurant has a lot of potential with its inviting atmosphere and decent food. However, the staff requires more training, and the management needs to ensure better communication among the team. The busser shouldn’t clear tables just because guests step away, and the food runners shouldn't deliver meals without ensuring silverware is available. Notably, we didn't see a manager at any point during our visit, which was disappointing. Overall, we would rate La Terrazza as follows: 3 out of 5 stars for service (with potential for improvement), 4 out of 5 stars for food (average but with potential), and 5 out of 5 stars for ambiance and views.

Detailed Review: My wife and I decided to visit La Terrazza for a date night after seeing it on social media. Despite not securing a reservation for 7 PM, we decided to go anyway, planning to have a cocktail and then find another place to eat. Fortunately, the maitre'd informed us of some cancellations and was able to seat us for dinner. We sat inside as the outdoor seating was booked. However, it was odd that only about half the tables inside were used.

Our waiter greeted us promptly with a wonderful attitude, despite a minor mishap with overfilling my water glass, which we laughed off. We started with cocktails; my wife chose a Campari Spritz from the "Spritz" section of the menu after asking the waiter about the difference between Aperol and Campari. Unfortunately, the waiter’s description wasn’t entirely accurate, and my wife did not enjoy her drink. The waiter also couldn't describe another type of Spritz, Cynar, nor did she offer to find out. I had a bourbon drink, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

We ordered our meals next: my wife had the beet salad and Bolognese, while I chose the Caesar salad and the rack of lamb. We mentioned to the waiter that we would step outside to enjoy the views briefly. The terrace offered amazing skyline views with a large open area to lounge, sit, and relax, along with an outside bar and plenty of dining spaces. Upon returning to our table, we found that the bussers had cleared our spot, leaving our table empty. We laughed it off and sat down just as our salads arrived. The food runner placed the salads down and left without providing us with any flatware. After standing around and looking for our waiter, we decided to take linen and flatware from another open table. The salads were tasty but nothing extraordinary.

Throughout the meal, salt and pepper were never offered, which seemed unusual. I also had to ask about the specials, as our waiter didn't mention them at all, indicating either a lack of training, experience, or motivation. When we finished our salads, our waiter cleared our plates and said she would bring new flatware. However, our entrees arrived without any flatware. We waited five minutes, timing it, before deciding to take flatware from another empty table again. The food runner who brought our entrees seemed indifferent to the fact that we didn't have silverware and didn't bother to ensure our meals were correctly placed.

In summary, La Terrazza has potential with its beautiful rooftop setting & decent food, but the service needs significant improvement. The inconsistencies and lack of attentiveness detracted from our overall experience. We hope management takes these observations to heart and makes the necessary changes, as we would love to return and see the restaurant thrive. For now, it's a place with promise but one that needs to fine-tune its service to match the quality of its ambiance...

Four of us visited for what was supposed to be a nice last dinner before my girlfriend's parents went back home up north and ended up being a mediocre and disappointing experience. Girlfriend's mom had the only decent meal, the lasagna. It wasn't amazing but it also wasn't sub par unlike the tagliatelle (gf and gf dad ordered) with meat reminiscent of Chef Boyardee or Spaghetti-Os. I ordered the "amatrice" (as spelt and listed on the menu) which tasted like jarred Prego with overly cooked pasta that was supposed to be spaghettone but was more like bucatini. Just because it says the pasta is made in house doesn't mean it's good. Give me Barilla and Raos over this any day. We ordered the Greek salad which was poorly dressed with huge and sparse chunks of feta. The composition wasn't very well executed. Apparently Michelin is coming to NC, I'm pretty sure this won't be a contender. Besides the mid food, the service and other facets about this restaurant were extremely underwhelming. From the cheap flimsy menus (my girlfriend's resume has more paper weight than these) with oddly out of place market prices for things like chicken to the dim lighting, this place could improve so much. The waiter who also seemed to be a bartender was not readily available, wasn't very well spoken, and did the bare minimum. We ordered antipasti and the main issue with the tagliere was the fact that there was rind on the entirety of some of the bottom pieces of the cheese. We take photos outside at the rooftop and return to see three entrees and one salad. I thought well they are probably bringing out the amatrice dish I ordered out shortly. It didn't come and I realized the waiter must have mistakenly thought when I ordered the salad after I ordered the entree that I intended on replacing the entree with the salad order somehow. But that didn't add up since he asked if I wanted the salad to come out before the entree. So now everyone else has their entrees and I have the salad that I was also supposed to have in addition to my entree. The waiter was at the bar so we actually relayed this info to the first server we saw nearby and our waiter later came to apologize and let us know my entree would be expedited. He offered to give us complimentary desserts but after we all ate our entrees we decided that dessert wasn't in the cards because honestly it probably would have also been a waste of calories. For a dinner that cost $200+, we all had higher expectations. I believe they comped a minuscule amount off the bill but nothing significant or reflective of the poor experience. I'm honestly glad my girlfriend's dad footed the bill because I get depressed when I have to spend money on mediocre food. Not to mention the terrible feeling of being full from food that just isn't up to par. We tried a new place and had reasonable expectations but sometimes you get let down. In today's society and economy where restaurants are closing left and right and people are eating out less, you really need to have value or something worth visiting for whether it's an amazing culinary masterpiece or average food with amazing service and a place that makes you feel welcomed. This place has nothing other than a rooftop view and feels like one of many restaurants that are soul less and just a part of another corporate restaurant chain. The hostess who initially seated us told us that La Terrazza recently celebrated their one year anniversary last month. Congrats but honestly, I don't foresee many more anniversaries for this...

I am writing to express my extreme disappointment with the service I received during my reservation on June 5th at 7:15pm. The service was, without a doubt, the worst I have ever experienced, and it completely ruined a special occasion I had been planning for a month. From the very beginning, our server was absent and inattentive. It took 30 minutes to receive our drinks and another 20 minutes before our order was taken. We were not informed of any specials, and when I inquired about certain entrées, I was rudely told to "look online." My drink was empty for an extended period, which I estimated to be around 40 minutes. I became so bored with the lack of service that I began counting how many times the server at a nearby table checked on her guests; she visited their table nine times in the time I waited for a refill. When our server finally returned, he asked if I wanted another drink, but by that time, our food had already arrived. The experience was deeply upsetting, especially since I had been excited to take my fiancée to what I believed was a classy restaurant. It was disheartening to see her disappointment. The final insult came when we tried to order three tiramisus to go, only to be told rudely that the dessert is not served on weekdays. While the food was good, no meal is worth the level of service we received. My fiancée, being the kind person she is, left a $20 tip on our $165 bill, but I would have preferred to leave nothing at all. Normally I leave 50% of the bill for the tip. So this gentleman missed our on a $75 dollar tip. I am very generous but told my fiancée i did not want to leave a penny. This was not the experience I had planned, and it weighed on me for the entire ride home. Here's a photoof my drink that was left unfilled the entire experience except for 40 minutes I waited for 1st refill. The said part is my fiancée makes beautiful tic toc videos of our experiences on date night. I did not even want to like the video sue posted. Completely and utterly left flabbergasted by this experience.

Final notes. If I would have e recieved a fraction of the service the table across fron us with a doffrebt server. I would given possibly 5 stars because of the good food, nice presentation amd beautiful views. But i spent my whole time hoping my server would...