Stino Da Napoli — Restaurant in Rocky River

Average Experience gone VERY VERY BAD!!

Horrible experience with customer service. I’ll start with the unfathomable. 5 diners order 4 desserts. My mom is eating her Cake with Lemon Curd (don’t believe it was on menu), she said it was pretty tasteless, I asked for a bite. I take a forkful and see something GREEN in the filling. I poked around at it, and it appeared to be MOLD. So when the waiter comes by I say there is something GREEN in the cake that I’m sure is not supposed to be there. He takes it away. Doesn’t apologize or ask if we would like something else. I got to bathroom and while I am gone waiter comes back, offers no apology and states, the cake wasn’t made in house and that was how it came to them. Are you kidding me!! He hands my dad the check and has not even taken the moldy cake off the bill. Are you kidding me!! My dad, being the overly nice guy that he is pays the bill. When I find out later this happened I am totally appalled.

Now to make it even worse, I encouraged my father to email the restaurant and let them know about his horrible experience, he did and after more than a week did not hear back from anyone. So a supposedly nice restaurant serves moldy food, does not apologize, charges your for it and then doesn’t even respond when brought to the attention of someone besides the waiter. Decide for yourself if you want to eat here!!

Additional comments • Everyone liked the pasta and veal, but it’s not solely the food that makes a successful dinner or restaurant. • We were not welcomed when we arrived for our reservation • Waiter acted like he was doing us a service by waiting on us • Had to ask for bread…twice • Four pasta entrees and they never came by to ask if we’d like any parmesan cheese, got tired of waiting to get attention of anyone, so ate without • Very limited selection of appetizers all priced $14 + • Salad consisted of mix greens…that’s it, my teenage son stated the salad at the retirement center was better, and...

My main complaint is with my order of meatballs. The menu said serves two….. well, for 8 dollars I got two golf ball sized meatballs that were clearly not made in house, and could tell they were microwaved. The centers were lukewarm at best and mushy. The shape and size were far too uniform to have been made in house (tasted and looked like they came out of a large Costco bag)and far too soggy to have been fried up in a made to order fashion. They weren’t even cooked in the sauce! My lasagna was just ok, again judging by the temperature of the inside of it, it was microwaved (and not long enough) I’ve been to many Italian restaurants around town and can tell when they are actually COOKING the food. The bread they brought out was stale ciabatta bread you could get from Marc’s (and the same could be said about the penne pasta, cheap box pasta!). No refills on water, soda, or wine were asked about. It was hard to get the servers attention. At one point when attempting to pay the bill, he informed me they don’t accept cards. So I said, oh ok I have cash, one second, and he just walked away to assist another table, and completely ignored us For another ten minutes even though the cash had been procured .5 seconds after he informed me. Over all it was a terrible experience. I could have gone to peppers in Lakewood, Bruno’s on Lorain, or Buccis right down the road and had a five star FRESHLY COOKED meal for considerably less money. I hope Stino da Napoli reaches out to Gordon Ramsey so they can get back on track so the food reflects the prices they are charging! I rarely have an experience where I feel it’s necessary to write a review, but this was definitely one of those times. Please do better stinos. I work hard for my money, and I feel like I just threw mine...

Stino Da Napoli has been a favorite restaurant for my family since it opened with just a few tables almost 30 years ago. I'm sure that I have given it 5 * s in the past, but I was very disappointed last evening. Our waitress was excellent and the main course was wonderful as always.but there were some slip ups. We had to send our appetizer, fried calamari, back to the kitchen to be crisped. When we got it initially it was a little tough, soggy and cold. It is not a very large portion to begin with and, when it was returned to the table, it was on a very tiny plate, making it look quite skimpy. More is expected for a $15+ appetizer. We also had to ask for a replacement on rolls which were very stale. Those that we got back were warm, fresh and very good, though not outstanding (pretty ordinary ciabatta served with foil wrapped very cold pats of butter, which I have never thought complemented the meal). The rest of the meal was up to 5* standard (maybe 4* on the salad itself with a 5* dressing). However, when I received the check, I noticed that a 20% gratuity had been added without notifying me of this when I made the reservation. We did have a party of seven, but two were very young children. I really don't understand the reason for including the gratuity. It's never happened before. Stino, we love the restaurant and of course will back. Just want you to know that we noticed, and know you can do better. We all buy your sauce and salad dressing at the grocery store but it doesn't substitute for a wonderful meal at the restaurant,...