D'Marcos Italian Restaurant and Wine Bar — Restaurant in Rochester

I chose this restaurant for my rehearsal dinner because the menu looked great, and working with Bridgette, the event coordinator, was easy. We spent over $2,300 for 28 guests, opting for an upgraded package that included salad, pasta, salmon, and chicken. Drinks were an add on to the overall price. Given the cost and the family-style setup, I expected my guests to be well-fed and satisfied, but unfortunately, that was far from the case.

Despite the meal being served family-style, we had to repeatedly ask for dishes because there wasn’t enough food circulating. Our group was split into two long tables—15 at one and 14 at the other. To make matters worse, some guests had their plates removed before they were finished, forcing one guest to request that the dish be kept on the table until she was done. Although I initially brushed off these issues, thinking the evening went well otherwise, I later discovered that half of the guests at the larger table—7 people—never received the chicken they were supposed to be served. With no menus, they had no idea they were missing an entire course. I was seated at the other table so I wasn't made aware of the issue while there.

When I called the restaurant a few days later to address the issue, my frustration only grew. Initially, I spoke with the event coordinator, who had been helpful and kind throughout the planning process. She relayed the information to the owner and the manager. However, once she consulted with the owner, the situation took a turn for the worse. The owner’s response was dismissive at best. He offered a $75 gift card that didn’t cover the cost of the missing main course, not to mention the tax and 20% gratuity we had already paid. I explained to the coordinator that we only received three out of the four courses we paid for and suggested that our card should be refunded $12 per person—a very reasonable request. We were not trying to receive more than what we paid -- just the exact amount that we felt we were rightfully owed for meals we did not receive.

In a deeply disappointing turn of events, when I finally spoke to the owner directly, he spoke over me, interrupted me repeatedly, and ultimately rescinded his initial offer of $75, reducing it to $50 as if he was playing a game. His attitude was condescending and dismissive, offering a "take it or leave it" ultimatum, showing no willingness to acknowledge that half a table was left without a key part of their meal. In fact, he all but directly stated that he did not want to hear what I had to say. This was deeply upsetting as I've never been in a situation where an owner of a store purposely rescinds an initial offer just because. I informed him that I was upset and would be leaving a review, to which he responded stating that he essentially did not care and would simply review ME when my review posted to counter whatever I had to say.

It’s incredibly disappointing that a restaurant could fail so completely in delivering what was paid for, and when given the opportunity to make things right, refused to do so. We weren't asking for a full or half refund, just the amount deducted for a portion of our meal not being served. We regret to say that we will never return, and I strongly advise others to avoid this place as the owner does not care if his customers have...

Very strange experience... You start off with bread and olive oil that they pour when you're sat, so much garlic in the mixture it ruins anything else you eat. And being a 'wine bar' this is not good as your wine now tastes like garlic. No matter off to apps!

The cheese and meat board... wow. The meats and cheese they pick do not mix. You get deli slices (whole slices) on the board which makes no sense in this app. Hard to share, the dijon mustard is the consistency of mortar. Weird taste on the dry salami, almost like it expires soon taste.

Also had the Margherita flatbread. Good presentation, good flavor, dough was surprisingly sweet. Never had sweet dough before, wasn't bad just unexpected. Off to dinner!

We had the Ziti with vodka sauce. This was a special and pasta was unremarkable and sauce was ok. Chicken was overcooked and overseasoned, very dry.

We also had the chicken parmesan. If you hate someone that loves chicken parmesan bring them here. This is $18 for 1 small chicken breast (pounded flat so it seems large) and a veg, nothing else. The dish had to be reheated it tasted odd. I flipped it over and the breading was beginning to burn, yet scraping it the breading was too thick and still gooey batter on the chicken. The total thickness of breading is thicker than the chicken. Which was dry, flaking and stringy. Not edible...

Wine list was the most extensive I've seen anywhere in the area. Cheapest cab was $13/glass. Skimming the prices you can find no shortage of several hundred dollar bottles here.

One of the few area restaurants you can seat a large party easy. Looking around it was mildly busy, a lot of couples here. Similarly to Chapman House when that was around, in a sort of 'let me take you out to a nice place' kind of date feel. 4 different tables came and went while we were there, oddly all 4 came just for a couple apps, glass of wine, and left, seemed interesting.

Staff was great 0 issues there, waitress saw me picking apart my dish and offered to remake or change it, she removed it from bill. I appreciated the offer but overall I couldn't do anymore.

Food 2/5 Wine selection 27/5 Wine prices -10/5 Service 4/5 Recommend to friends? No Visit again? No

I wish them luck, maybe it was an off...

The food was ok, but definitely not worth the amount of money they charge per plate, the chicken Alfredo my daughter got was dry. And we didn’t get much of it for $24. But the customer service was not at all ok. Our waitress was at our table a couple times and seemed kind of irritated to start, but when we paid and left the person I was with left a cash tip (I left mine on my card) she left three $5 bills and a $1 bill, well we walked out like normal made it to the corner getting ready to cross the street to get back to our hotel and the waitress ran out of the restaurant yelling excuse me, excuse me this said you left the tip on the table and it isn’t there! We had people outside all over staring at us and the bar tender standing at the half wall looking out the windows at us as if we just dine and dashed , had to go back inside and the lady I was with was so humiliated she just handed her another $20 and our waitress had the nerve to ask her if she even wanted change back. The woman I was with said well yea I already left you $16 but the waitress kept insisting it wasn’t there. We of course extremely embarrassed standing there with our blind children looking like we just tried to eat and run or something just wanted out of there so she wasn’t trying to argue with the waitress so needless to say she made off with a $32 tip on a $80 tab. I was a general manager of a restaurant for a long time and if any of my waitresses would of chased a customer out of my restaurant like that they would have been fired on the spot! Not to mention when I called after we got back to our room to report this I was told it was only a reservation line and they had to take my name and number and the manager would get back to me right away and they never did so I called again was told they were closed that it was now a after hours line, and that I had to fill out the complaint online but they would again take another message and have the manager get back to me. We are from out of state but we are here for leader dogs for the blind and will be back in state working towards a dog. But we will never step foot back into that place after the humiliation we went through! So if I could give the place a zero I...