Casa Bella Restaurant — Restaurant in Stuart

Last night was the worst dining experience I have had in my life. As someone with some experience in the food service industry, I was appalled at the service we received at Casa Bella restaurant.

We arrived 15 minutes early to our 7pm reservation which had been made on Wednesday. We were celebrating my daughter and her fiance who had just gotten engaged at Shepard's Park down the street. When we arrived early, we were prepared to have to wait for 7pm but instead were surprised to have our table ready and we were sat swiftly.

Unfortunately, that was the only positive surprise of the night. It took our server 15 minutes to greet our table, 30 minutes for our drink order to be taken and then another 15 minutes for water which we had to request... It was only after we asked for bread (because we saw that the table next to us had gotten bread) and almost an hour after we sat down that bread reached our table.

Our server was clearly overwhelmed but the table of 8 next to us did not seem to have any issues... Once we realized that the service would be slow, we made sure to order our entrees as soon as possible.

I won't even address the lack of proper wine serving etiquette or the fact that our server was unable to open and properly pour the bottle of champagne we order in celebration.

After almost 90 minutes, I walked away from the table and asked to speak to the manager. I was informed there was no manager on duty and that the owner was behind the line. I asked the server to please convey our situation to the owner and ask how he could remedy the situation. I was told they ran out of salads and that was the delay... how an establishment such as this runs out of salads at 8pm on a Saturday is beyond me... but we pushed through...

The straw that broke the camel's back was at 9:15 pm when the entrees finally reached the table and the lasagna was cold. I once again walked away and insisted to speak to the owner immediately. While I was waiting for him, I was told by someone in my party that they had found a long hair in their veal parmigiana. The owner came out... didn't apologize but instead told me they were doing the best they could and that the salads had run out and it was the best he could do. I waited for him to pause talking and asked him about the hair in the veal parm and he said that there was no hair in his kitchen and told me it was probably my hair. He said he would recook the veal and I said we were not interested and that we were leaving.

I was presented with a check for the whole meal with not as much as an apology. I told him I would pay for the bottle of champagne, two bottles of wine, appetizers and even the salads that were consumed but I would not pay for the entrees that came out cold and with hair after a 2 1/2 hour wait. He walked away and said that he would call the police...

Once Martin County's finest showed up, needless to say the full check was paid with a promise to never return and make it known to all the horrible service that we received.

I would be remiss to not add that the table next to us, a party of 8, had their leftovers boxed up in containers and bags before our entrees reached our table. The only difference between them and our table of 7 was that we were openly...

Disappointed in our recent experience w Casa bella.    Food was as good as always but ultimately a very disappointing experience.

My mom who had a major milestone birthday wanted to take the immediate family for a nice dinner to celebrate.  Casa Bella has consistently been one of their places they go to since they moved here 4 years ago.   They know Gerry, Dan (watier) and other folks.   One of the workers even gave my mom a hug.   They are regulars.   My wife and I go as well, but just not as often to kids, other places, travel etc etc.

In short, I'm writing this for her, and the night fell very short for her, and she is vowing not to go back.   My wife feel same........so If Jerry (Gerry) is reading this let's see the response otherwise there are two families who won't' go back.

My mom  booked a specific table many, many, many months ago.    To start, when she got there, they had just given it away.   Apparently, Jerry didn't tell anyone so Dan I think gave it away.    That was a table that could fit 8.    So the only table they could offer in the right side room (neither of us really like the room when you walk in, just a different vibe) was a 6 person table, by the kitchen, that 7 people had to squeeze into.    I can tell you my mom was less than pleased, perseverating on it.    Was it that hard to put a reserved sign on ? Then it literally took 20 minutes for someone to come over. Couldn't get water, or a menu.   Off to a real great start here!      Dan was not our waiter, another lady..nice enough, just not Dan who knew them.  He would have been if they didn't give that other table away.

Fast forwarding a few things but call outs:

My sister has some health issues so she asked for olive oil on the side pasta vs marinara.  Our waitress said no, but could for an extra charge.   Seriously?

*I asked for Angel hair vs the fettuccini.    I was told that would be an upcharge?   What in the holy f?  No restaurant ever has said this before..   It's the same flour water and salt........I even told her that wasn't right and crossed a line.  I didn't want mom to pay more so i declined the change.  Keep in mind my mom's dish came with angel hair.   Mom and I just laughed with WTF.

Dinner was great as usual.      Then there was dessert.   Gerry said he would help with dessert at the beginning due to the table issue.    Waitress came back and said 'we'll just buy one piece for the bday girl'.     Of course.    Our favorite desserts and cannoli and tiramisu.  Of which we were told they were out due to a previous pre-opening party.    Fine, we ordered a tartufo.   Waitress came back, out of that as well.  Seriously???      Ordered 3 '2nd and 3rd choice' desserts.

Our view is with all the above, they should have accommodated the two SIMPLE menu changes.    Then Gerry should have bought some wine or do something to make it right.  Very small cost for the long term.   So seriously, this is how they treat regulars?  Unless we hear back unfortunately, they will not return (and remember they go there often!!!) nor will we..it bothered my...

We had desert & coffee at home…

Tried Casa Bella Stuart for first time with my wife. We arrived 6:30PM March 7th were greeted immediately and offered a table in the garden room. Our server Summer was very attentive and provided us with great information about the specials and the restaurant. Our food (Veal Marcelo & Chicken dish) food was excellent, our table was cleared promptly with desert and capachio. The owner Gerry came by our table and asked about our experience, we were delighted and let him know we plan on returning with friends visiting within the next week. On March 18th we returned with our out of town guests and our experience was far from great, actually it was embarrassing as we told our friends about the great food and service we experienced on of first visit. On our second visit we were greeted by the owner and he promptly seated us on the front porch. A server (not our main server) greeted us with water and advised our server Cheryl would be with us soon. Cheryl did arrive promptly at our table, she took our drink order two beers and a bottle of wine for the table. The beer came promptly, however the wine arrived fifteen minutes later. Cheryl then took our order, with bread, salads and soups arriving in a reasonable amount of time. Once finished the table was cleared and our main meal arrived. At this point our guests were impressed and the food, veal, Aji tuna, and seafood dishes were prepared perfectly and tasted delicious. After we finished our meal, the service went down hill rapidly. We waited at least twenty minutes for our table to be cleared, Cheryl did come back in the room and started to clean another table on the porch, she said “sorry we have people waiting I have to clean this table”. Cheryl finally did clear our table she said “you cleaned your plates I’ll be back with the desert menu” another fifteen minutes later she returned without a dessert menu, at this point we decided to leave as we felt abandoned by our server Cheryl. Of note the owner was seated at the table with his friends Cheryl was cleaning near our table, that was the point in the evening which service went down hill. Very disappointed that we were abandoned by our server in favour of the owner and has guests. We decided to have desert and...