La Strada Restaurant — Restaurant in Randolph Township

My girlfriend and I decided to have dinner before going to an event. We were looking for a local restaurant that would seat us quickly in the direction we were traveling. Being the holiday season, we were happy to find a place with a seating in 15 minutes. We booked the table on OpenTable. We got to the restaurant and were greeted and seated immediately. I noticed there were plenty of empty tables in the main dining room. There was no need to book on OpenTable. The tables that were occupied had both families and couples at them. The décor of the establishment is dated and, in my opinion, is in need of a significant refresh. Our waitress was an older blond-haired woman. She greeted us after a bit of a wait. She took our drink order and I noticed she was acting dazed and frazzled. She did not offer any specials (which we later found out there were from an adjacent table) and took our orders. We then waited 20 plus minutes (drinks arrived promptly). An Asian waiter stopped by our table to ask if we were okay, and we mentioned the time we were sitting and no food. He got a look on his face and rushed to the kitchen and our salads immediately appeared with an apology from him and an offer for a free desert course (much appreciated). The waitress, then came by and said she had forgotten the salads and dinner was on its way. Another 20 or so minutes passed, and dinner finally appeared. It seemed our dishes were rushed and thrown together. I’m guessing the salads were not the only thing that was forgotten in the order. To say the food was marginal at best, is being honest. While not terrible, both dishes were bland, forgettable, and mostly tasteless. The highlight of the meal, if there was one, were the free desserts. We both agreed the meal and the trip to this restaurant was not worth the trouble. If that was the only issue, I would have chalked it up to an off night, but what followed was truly surprising and dishonest if not criminal. Days later, (we visited on the 17th of Dec.) at 12AM on the 22nd I was charged exactly, $100.00 for the dinner (image attached). I found the charge posted on my account the next morning when I awoke. I became suspicious as we were at the restaurant several days before and the amount seemed very strange. After finding the original printed receipt, I saw that the amount charged was off by $11.10. I asked my girlfriend to contact the restaurant and I notified CapitalOne of the fraudulent charge. The bank opened an investigation and refund the $11.10. The restaurant said they would investigate the issue and my girlfriend reported that they sounded surprised/annoyed when they were told CapitalOne had already been notified of the issue. The person on the phone took my contact information. A few days after the call, I received a badly worded text message from someone at the restaurant (image attached) apologizing and wishing me a happy holiday. I also received a letter from CapitalOne stating the issue had been resolved in my favor (image attached). In my opinion, this was not a mistake or oversight. It was a blatant action to over charge for the meal. The fact that the owner could not take the time to call and had a nameless person send a text message speaks volumes as to the type of business people they are. I can only assume that they were not expecting someone to find/notice, let alone, take the time to challenge a $11.10 overage. Patrons beware and keep your receipts. PS. Please forgive the amount of time it has taken to post this review. I have recalled to the best of my knowledge the...

My family had dinner at La Strada on December 27 to celebrate my father’s 95th birthday. After we made reservations, we did have a friend tell us that we might want to reconsider due to his personal experience there. I do not recall what the reasons were, but we decided not to change our plans. When we arrived, it was clear that they were short on wait staff however our waitress and other staff really pulled together and while service was slow, it was good and those who helped us were very polite. We were impressed that everyone was pitching and making it happen with a full dining room. On top of that, the food was outstanding! A few of us ordered a bottle of wine from the wine list that was presented to us. When the bottle arrived, it was not the bottle we ordered. Our waitress went to sort it out and came back saying that the wine we ordered is no longer available, but that this wine was the substitute. We asked if the price was the same as what we ordered. She went to go check and came back to tell us that yes, it was the same price. During the meal, we ordered a second bottle of the same wine. Up until the last 15 minutes of our experience, we were prepared to leave a 5 star review because everything was great and the staff teamwork was impressive. As we were settling the bill, our waitress informed us that we were only charged for one bottle of wine and that the second bottle (same wine) was left off by accident. Not a problem for us, but we wanted to be sure that we were charged the same amount for the second bottle since it was a “substitute” for what we ordered. That’s when things when our enthusiasm came to a screeching halt. The manager came over to inform us that the wine we ordered was actually $20 more per bottle. We explained that we asked about that before we agreed to open the wine and were assured that it was an equal swap for what we originally ordered. (This was his first chance to make it right). He said that wasn’t the case and the wine list we ordered from was an old wine list and no longer being used. (How is this our concern?... Second chance to make things right) Then he asked if we would split the difference! (What? Third chance to make things right) Lastly, he said that if we did not pay the extra $40, it would come out of our waitress’ pay! (Now making it even worse!) This went on for at least 15 minutes while the rest of our family waited for us at home to finish our Dad’s birthday celebration. This manager should have been congratulating his staff for pulling together to serve a full dining room not threatening our waitress with loss of income! He also should have OWNED the error instead of trying to pass it on to the customer and staff. In addition, we all know wine mark up is 200 to 300% of retail cost. Our food and service was amazing and the manager single handedly ruined our experience. Yes, we made sure the waitress...

The worst experience ever!! I needed to wait a few days to write this review, so I could calm down a bit. I was there on New Year's Eve, and it was the worst dining experience you can imagine. First off, I could not get into the parking lot. Literally, the entrance was closed off, as there were so many cars parked everywhere, along Rt 10, on the grass, everywhere. I had to go down Rt 10 & circle back. The entrance was still closed, but this time the very nice & polite parking valet, let me come in through the exit. I was late for my reservation, but I soon discovered that having a reservation meant nothing anyway! I walked into the foyer to be greeted buy hundreds of people, some waiting an hour already for their reservation. I eventually made my way up to the very rude, clearly stressed out host to be informed that there were at least 20 people ahead of me. I mentioned my reservation & he only snickered. There was no one there to give assistance, no one to help me & the many others that were clearly facing a two hour wait. The owner was no where to be found & the over all rudeness from every staff member, except the valet, was amazing. It was like they had a team meeting to make certain they had alignment on bad attitudes! Fortunately, we left & were able to get into a local place with far less atmosphere, but with equally good food & better service. All I can say is I will not go back, as they obviously couldn't care less about their customers or their reputations. Given the many equally good places in Morris County, why risk your evening...