Nuova Italia — Restaurant in St. Charles

(Short Version) Sat at our table for 30+ minutes on Valentine's Night and no one came and talked to us. They waited on 2 tables that sat down after us. Tried to get attention of wait staff. Got up and walked out. Will never return, will never recommend.

(Long Version)

First I should say that the decor of the place was very nice. Set in an old church. Large beams throughout. Very tasteful and a great first impression.

We had never been to this restaurant before. Our reservations were for 7pm on Valentine’s Day and we arrived around 6:45. Our table was not ready so we sat at the bar for a cocktail. It was the bartenders first day on the job and she seemed to be doing a good job of keeping up with everyone. We had just ordered our second cocktail when the hostess informed us that the table was ready about 7:10.

We received our second round of drinks (wine for me, martini for her) and I informed the bartender that I needed to close out so we could sit down. Since it was the bartenders first day she apparently was unable to do any type of closing out of bills. She took my credit card and set it by the cash register. The hostess informed my wife that she HAD to seat us so my wife followed her while I waited. It took about 10 minutes to finally close out at the bar.

I located my wife and upon sitting down she said that she hadn't been approached by anyone yet. I started trying to make eye contact with the wait staff and had no luck. We continued to work on our cocktails. After 5 more minutes of being unable to get anyone’s attention I gave up on the eye contact and we continued to finish our cocktails. By the time we finished our drinks 30+ minutes had passed since my wife was seated.

Our menus were sitting on the table closed. Water glasses were empty and no one ever approached us. I noticed other parties being seated after us and getting waited on.

As we were walking out I informed Hostess and Tall blond lady who seemed to be the manager. Manager seemed surprised. Hostess seemed to care less.

Over all a very...

I RARELY walk out of a place. But I would not dine here. Ever. I bolted and dodged a bullet. I REALLY do not enjoy giving negative reviews. Whoever is managing this place... you're fired. Go home. do not work in the restaurant industry.

I was looking for a tasty rather authentic Italian dinner, a descent glass of wine. Nope.

I took Lyft here, since I was from out of town. The Ouside of the building is absolutely magnificent. But there are two doors. Which one do I go in? I took a stab at one. It was REALLY cold outside. In the Foyer was a lady about to get on her phone. I asked her if this place had good food etc. She said "It used to, the lasagna was still good, but they have a bad staffing problem."

I entered. There were a darkened not used bar to the right, nothing like the photos. No one sitting there. More of a storage area now. A lady in the back corner too busy with Facebook to realize she was on the clock and someone was at the door. She asked me a few questions, without even listening to my answer, she picked up menus and headed off into the next room. This is in the entrance area where there are a few high top tables supposedly for the bar. But they are filthy. Used dirty glasses, stains crumbs all over the place. I looked in the back and the dining area, carpeted floors which emanated an evil smell. Almost appealing if I were in a musky barn. Im out. Fire the manager, they let this place be a very sad representation of St Charles.

So... I tried to call her back. She totally left me... WHAT? I even tried shouting to her. Another lady sitting down also at the entrance, doing nothing about the filthy entrance, said she would relay my message. I said I had an emergency phone call and had to leave. I needed an out. I bolted out into the super freezing cold evening. Walked around the corner to a sushi restaurant and had an awesome meal with staff that cared about the place...

IF only I could give a 0 review! First time we dined it, it was WONDERFUL, second time was absolutely horrible!! We ordered carry out and viewed the menu from their website and was overcharged $13. In the menu it stated soup OR salad and was told salad is extra $4.00 which is not noted on the menu. We received no salad dressing. The Pasta E Fagioli had a foreign object in it and that including the other two soups were 1/4 filled with content. The Veal did not come with any sauce, pasta, nothing. Just the breaded meat only for $26.95. I asked for cheese at pick up and was asked "do you want to pay for that", which if i would have dined it, it all would have been included. Attached is picture of what was in the soup-unknown. Attached is something that was in my daughter's pasta-again unknown. Also attached is the menu that is directly from their Nuovo Italia website. Also attached my receipt to show we were overcharged. It is not the fact that we were overcharged, but how we were spoken too. When we called to speak to a manager, we were hung up on 3x. He told us there was nothing he would do and not to be upset. Normally we would have dined in but due to my Italian's mother decrease in health, which was also her 78th birthday yesterday, we had to choose carry out, just to be disappointed, overcharged, and disrespected. We tried to work with this gentleman but he choose not to...