La Tela Pizzeria — Restaurant in South Carolina

MAIN COMMENT IS AFTER MY KIND WORDS..READ ON: The food here is great and the waiting/cooking staff is amazing...let's get that out of the way. I love eating here and I will eat here again with my family over and over again.

However, I am writing this to talk about a situation that happened with a manager that I feel needs to be addressed. Tonight, as I was one of the last people to make a purchase for the evening, I was spoken to by whom I believe to be the manager in a manner that I thought was highly inappropriate. I hope she can learn from this. As I stood waiting for my take-out to come, the manager was at the front counter counting money and handing out tips to the eager wait and bus boy staff. I paid the extremely friendly and nice staff member at the register cash for my food. Since the night was coming to a close she needed change, but there was not enough in the register. She asked the woman (manager I am assuming) for some cash to give me change with. As the manager handed the woman the change, she said to her, "He may want singles to go to the strip club tonight." She then looked at me and I said back to her "i'm going to ignore that comment since I am bringing this food back to my hungry wife". The woman at the cash register looked a little uncomfortable for me but I laughed it off and repeated that Im going to "ignore that comment right now".

I am not sure why this member of the staff felt it was appropriate to make this sort of comment to a customer of a very nice restaurant on one of the most exclusive and conservative islands in the country. I felt embarrassed in front of the two other female staff members, as I walked out.

This is not appropriate conversation to a customer you don't even know. Do not judge a book by its cover, is all I can say. You made this comment to the wrong guy as you can tell.

To the Manager:

Dear Manager,

I am not sure what made you think that you can talk to me in such a manner. I suggest you leave your judgements at home and out of your workplace because you personally caused this review and the embarrassment of a customer and other staff members around you. Ask yourself tonight what made you think that you could make a comment like that to me. Was it the way I appeared to you? Was it just a slip of the tongue as you were counting your money? Were you thinking the same thing about the nice young man named Tavarius who you were giving his tip money to? Did you think that is where he was going to spend his money? By looking at him I could bet you all the money you had stacked there that he would never be taking his hard earned money to a strip club. I hope that is not what you thought of him and then just said it to me. That would be a disgrace to both of us.

If anything, I hope you curb your comments next time and possibly change your train of thought. We are not all the same and we are not all what you have jiggling around in your head. You never know who you are talking to!!!

Please show...

HEED MY ADVICE!! Take the extra 15 minutes and drive to Wild Olive for Italian food!

Our family owns a house on Kiawah and we have been spending the entire summer here every year for the past 15 years or so. La Tela, up until now, has been a BIG part of our summer "experience". When the restaurant was bought a few years ago we continued to go even though there has been a steady (and fairly precipitous) decline in service because it was part of our history and our children enjoyed the food. We've been talking about this for awhile due to the poor service and quality of food but tonight, sadly, will be our last time there, EVER. This was our third trip there this summer and each time we had high hopes they would redeem themselves. Each time we left more disappointed than the last.

We arrived tonight after our 9 year-old joked on the car ride there that he would bet they told us it would be an "hour and a half" to be seated. We asked him why he thought that and he said "that's what they said every other time we went there". Well, he was right. Upon arriving the rude hostess told us it would be an hour and a half wait and asked, "Do you still want to put your name in?" We should've taken the hint! We did wait only about 50 minutes and were seated. The waitress came fairly quickly to take our drink order and then soon after, our food order.

Here's where things went wrong. They brought my wife's salad first which was great and she enjoyed. About an HOUR later the rest of the entree's showed up, except for mine. Meanwhile the people at the table next who sat down AFTER my wife received her salad had already received the three appetizers they ordered. The servers from the kitchen brought our food out and then about 15 minutes later the waitress came over to check on the table. Conspicuously absent was one entree, mine. She literally asked "Are we missing something?" with a confused look on her face. I said, "Yes, my food" to which she replied "What did you order?" In my head I thought, we spoke, you wrote it down, what's the problem? However, I was so spent from this experience that I told her to cancel the order as everyone else was pretty much finished eating.

This is truly sad for us because this restaurant has been part of our Kiawah experience since my children were babies. However, I CAN NOT and WILL NOT go back to support the same bad service that we have experienced for the past few years (since they changed ownership) but specifically this summer. The interesting question to me is, will this place survive another winter as they have alienated most of the locals? Time will tell. It's easy to run a restaurant with poor service when you have a captive audience with limited options during the peak season. It's sure gotta get better before we will EVER...

We absolutely love La Tela! We have been coming here every time we visit and stay on Kiawah, and we will continue to come back. This place is always packed. They do not take reservations so you definitely need to plan to arrive early when they open (or plan to wait!). And I'm not kidding when I say you either need to arrive early and plan to wait in line before they open or plan to wait 45 min to 2 hours! The space inside is small and a bit crammed so keep that in mind. I hear they do a pretty large volume of take-out orders so that may be worth trying as well. Luckily if you do miss the mark and end up having to wait a bit for a table, there is plenty of shopping and things to do around Freshfields while you wait.

Everything is made homemade from scratch from their bread to their pizzas to pastas. The homemade bread they bring out to the table to start is so delicious! Nice and fluffy and hot. We like to dip it in olive oil with some salt, pepper, parmesan, and red pepper flakes. Yum! We love their basil pizza and most recently just tried their fig pizza which was amazing! Such a nice blend of sweet and salty. All of their salads are tasty. My dad and brother have also had the meatball grinder which they loved.

Whether you are staying in Kiawah or Seabrook or live in the area, La Tela Pizzeria is a must try spot for...