Caragiulos Italian American — Restaurant in Sarasota

A couple weeks ago we ate at Caragiulo's and promptly after received this email.

It was a pleasure to have you dine with us yesterday!

We hope you enjoyed your time with us as much as we enjoyed having you. If there is anything we can adjust prior to your next reservation, please let us know.

And to make sure you will be extra well taken care of, please use this dedicated reservation page: Caragiulos's Reservation Link.

We can’t wait to see you again.

Caragiulos , Management Team In reply, I sent this email.

I am afraid our experience at your restaurant last night was a disappointment. Our visit involved a personal commemoration and we hoped for it to be special. To play it safe I used your reservation link and was pleased to see the provision for indicating a special event and for leaving a message which I did, requesting a specific table (for memory reasons).

We arrived at 4:30 and entered an empty restaurant, expecting we could easily get our desired table, but imagine our disappointment at being given no choice whatsoever as to where to sit in spite of two requests for a different table.

Our food arrived quite promptly but, unfortunately, my friend got the wrong order - it happens. Now my expectation in such a situation is that the waiter would say: I am very sorry, what did you order, I will bring that. That is not what happened. Rather, the waiter, when informed of the mistake, put us on hold while he went to check what had been ordered to suggest he thought my friend might be making things up. The waiter returned, apologized and then suggested my friend should keep what she was served. (Which she did - that is what a kind and gentle person she is.)

Then the bill came with a minor problem: I was charged for a ginger ale instead of a coffee. When I pointed this out to the waiter, he casually dismissed it: oh, they're the same price. Now they probably are the same price, but he dismissed as though checks at your restaurant can be wrung up willy-nilly as long as the total comes out right.

I am writing all this due to your request for feedback. I am still waiting...

I have been eating at Caragiulos for 10+ years. I also have worked in the service industry on and off for 20+ years. I have NEVER had such an unsettling dining experience like last weekend. I will preface by saying the food is always top notch and service is usually as well. Unfortunately dining this past weekend with Andi as our server ruined the amazing meal. We sat for close to 15 minutes without being greeted although she walked by our table close to a dozen times. No hello, eye contact- nothing. When she did come to our table, she seemed scattered and we felt rushed. We didn’t get bread for almost 20 minutes after ordering and she kept blaming the “pizza guy” for not giving her any. When our drinks took a long time, she blamed the bar for being backed up but we also saw her tending to a few different tables before even ringing them up. Our food orders came out totally wrong and she then proceeded to blame her postpartum depression and trauma for her current state of mind. She then went into divulging many personal details of her life which we were extremely uncomfortable with. All in all- the experience was strange and uncomfortable. I totally understand that restaurants get busy, mistakes happen and we all have off nights. But I have never seen a server blame everyone else but themselves and relay intimate, personal, uncomfortable details of their life to their paying customers. I would have said something that night to management- but the entire experience was just too uncomfortable. We will be back- asking for a...

Absolutely horrible. Incredibly disappointed. I moved here in 2004, and coming here ever since. This is always been my automatic go to for comfort food and espresso martinis. Being in the service industry , I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I have recommended this place. That stopped today. The gentleman that greeted us at the door was rude, but then again he has been there for years and it always appears that way, but somehow always manages to win me over with his horrible jokes. I cannot say the same for the smug brunette bartender. I understand that she was unwilling to accommodate, however not once did she even try to get us a drink. I stood there for a while hoping that maybe I could get some sort of service. When she finally returned, she appeared annoyed and didn’t seem to want to deal with us. We were not dressed normally how we dress, we had spent the day running errands and doing physical labor. However, your restaurant has always been one where I felt comfortable and was a judgment free zone. seriously i was so taken aback by the level of disrespect and rudeness I received. It’s a shame that it takes one person of your establishment to ruin a lifetime of great experiences. I wish I could say I was angry. But unfortunately I am just sad and disappointed that I have to remove this from my list as favorites, or even a place I will ever go to again. And of course a place I will...