The Italian Grill — Restaurant in Siesta Key

I am giving this restaurant a five star review but I have a suggestion for the owner. This is meant to be helpful. This was our second visit to the Italian Grill. During our first visit we were pleasantly greeted by the owner. We had a lovely meal, bottle of wine, and a surprise dessert from the owner. Nice touch. The quality of the food was excellent and as a Sicilian, I can tell you the preparation was excellent and authentic. We couldn’t wait to return, so we made a reservation and were seated early. We are never in a hurry and like to enjoy the time we have out. Our waitress gave us the impression that she was new, but she was charming and engaging and we encouraged her by telling her everything is good. This is where I have some observations for improvement. The owner hovered over the waitstaff in the dining room. Obviously, he is looking for perfection, but I believe it made the staff nervous and stressed. At one point I saw him standing in the opening of the dining room with his hands on the side of his temples as if he was annoyed. That rippled down to me and my wife. We felt bad for them. At one point he directed someone to mop up a spill on the floor and our young waitress slipped and fell with the entries of another table as she was hurrying because I believe the boss was pushing them. To me, a pep talk before the shift and corrections with the staff should be made outside the view of the customers. The owner should have one job, meet and greet his guests, check in on their experience, and leave the managing behind doors. There was no doubt that his presence turned an otherwise happy wait staff into a band of nervous wrecks. Now that I have that out of my system, want to say that we will return because I have high hopes for this restaurant. The food and atmosphere are great! Our waitress Sandra was adorable and we hope we get her next time. Yes, we over-tipped because of her slip and fall and we happy to see a smile on her face by the time we left. The owner is really pleasant with the customers. This should be his primary focus and try to avoid hovering and managing in the dining room. His stress trickles down through the employees to the tables. For context, I am the former CEO of a large organization and all I can say is that you get more with sugar than you do with salt. Again, this is constructive criticism and hopefully taken the right way. Perhaps this one incident was an anomaly. ...

For 18 years Italian Grill was a staple in our lives. We were there at least once a week and sometimes twice. There was something for everyone and everything was good. The waitstaff was awesome and we had known them forever. It was like "home". We told everyone we could to go because they wouldn't be disappointed. We always said that the food was always really good and some days it was exceptional!

Imagine our surprise when we got there after not having had time to eat out for the last couple of months ... the menu was completely different, many of the basic Italian staples weren't even on the menu such as chicken parm or baked ziti, happy hour only applies if you eat at the bar, you can no longer get a carafe of chianti, salad or soup didn't come with every meal, half the salad dressing options were gone, prices increased not just a little but by several dollars per meal, the good chefs were gone, most of the waitstaff had left and our two remaining favorites have one foot out the door, the food was dry and inferior and definitely wasn't worthy of the price increases. We'd happily pay a few dollars more after all these years for the really good, reliable food that we always enjoyed. Everyone has the right to make a dollar and raise prices once in awhile.

Apparently the new restaurant manager has been given too much free reign and broke something that didn't need to be fixed. They used to pack the people in but unless this is an off season test and they plan to see how things go before season starts again, I can't see how they'll stay in business. Unless things go back to the old menu and the friendly staff that was part of the charm and experience, I presonally can't see going back and there surely won't be any more recommendations. We are not the type of people to give reviews nor complain but the disappointment is astounding. Wow! Just wow!

Please get back to the old Italian Grill menu and for crying out loud, beg the good old loyal waitstaff to come back. I'll even be glad to pay the new prices to get the old quality and friendly,...

The food was good, but the service was terrible.

As soon as my husband and I walked in to be seated, the waitstaff were yelling at each other, and the owner was yelling at the waitstaff in front of all of the customers. It was a very tense and unprofessional environment, which is too bad because once you go around the corner to where the booths and tables are, it's such a cute little place with great decor. Our waitress seemed annoyed to have customers, like she was having a really bad day.

The bread, the appetizer we got, and the soups we got were very tasty. I ordered the special of the night which was the lobster fettuccine, which the waitress told me had pieces of lobster in it with a lobster tail on top. It sounded delicious. My husband ordered the chicken parm.

When our waitress FINALLY brought the food out she gave my husband the plate of chicken parm, but she held the plate of fettuccine in front of me and informed me that they had no more lobster tails so they substituted it with shrimp. I don't eat shrimp. So she said she'd grab a menu for me to order something else. My husband told her to take his food back because he wanted to eat with me. We were on the verge of just leaving, but we already felt committed at this point. I couldn't help wondering why they thought it would be OK to bring me out shrimp instead of lobster, instead of informing me earlier. The owner came over and apologized which was nice, but she also made the excuse "it's just been such a crazy night" which I thought was irresponsible. We thought maybe they'd give us some kind of discount, but they didn't. I ended up getting baked ziti, which was very yummy (not as good as lobster!). My husband thought the chicken parm was just okay.

I was very disappointed because it's a really cute restaurant with good Italian food, but the people who work there should try to be more friendly, happy, and inviting to customers. And also don't knowingly bring out the wrong food, next...