Orazio's by Zarcone Restaurant — Restaurant in Town of Clarence

We visited this restaurant for a Mother’s Day brunch buffet after seeing on their website that it was advertised at $29.95 per person with drinks included. We were able to get a last-minute reservation for six people. However, upon arrival, only five of us ended up attending. The hostess—who mentioned it was her first day—told us there would be a $20 charge for the person who didn’t show up, which we weren’t aware of. While we were willing to pay it, her lack of experience and professionalism were immediately apparent. She spent much of her time on her phone and seemed unsure of her responsibilities, which is concerning, especially on such a busy day.

We were seated and greeted by our server, Joe, who was excellent—friendly, attentive, and helpful throughout the meal. Unfortunately, the buffet experience itself was far from what we expected. Despite the restaurant opening only 15 minutes earlier, many of the buffet trays were empty, and food replenishment was slow. We even had to ask the staff to bring out more plates, as only a small number were being put out at a time.

When we finally got our food, everything was cold—even items that were sitting in heated trays. Most of the dishes were also overly salty. Still, we tried to stay positive since it was Mother’s Day and we didn’t want to complain. We ordered soda and orange juice, assuming they were included, as the website indicated.

Shockingly, when we received the bill, it totaled $375—$275 just for the buffet. That comes out to $55 per person, not the $30 we were expecting. We double-checked the website and found the $29.95 Mother’s Day brunch menu—only to realize it was from the previous year. The current year’s menu was only available via a pop-up when first entering the site. If you accidentally closed the pop-up, there was no other way to find the updated information. While it was our mistake to not notice the date, the restaurant should absolutely update their main menu tab to reflect current pricing.

To make matters worse, we found out that drinks were not included—every soda, juice, or coffee was $5 each, which felt excessive.

The food quality did not come close to justifying the $55 price tag. Between the cold and overly salty food, slow replenishment, and misleading online information, we felt disappointed and misled.

We mentioned the issue to Joe, who kindly offered to get the manager. After waiting 10 minutes, Joe came back to check and said she’d ask again. We waited another 10 minutes, but the manager never came to speak with us. Eventually, we just paid the bill and left.

On our way out, we voiced our concerns to the hostess, who dismissively replied, “It is what it is,” in a rude tone. For someone on their first day, we were surprised by the lack of professionalism and basic customer service.

In summary, this was a disappointing experience all around. The only bright spot was our wonderful server, Joe. Unfortunately, due to the poor food quality, lack of managerial presence, and unprofessional staff, we will not...

Do not go here, failing restaurant. Worse dining experience of my life and I’ve been around. Our family went on Christmas Eve this year for a nice family dinner and kick off to Christmas Day. It is the first time ever dining out for Christmas Eve dinner. First, I will say I’ve been coming to Orazios for years before new ownership, having dinners and multiple banquets here, the food was always excellent. But this night was a complete nightmare. Started with arriving for a 7pm reservation and not seated until 20+ minutes later after checking back in at the desk. Drinks took 30 mins to get, salad missing dressing for one diner that took another 15 mins to get. Food took an hour. My husband sat with dirty dishes and glasses on a tray within inches of where he was sitting. There was no busboy and other tables sat with food along with the dirty dishes for a long time. Food finally arrives, and out of the 4 entrees only 1 was marginal. 3 of the entrees were not eaten. As we sat waiting on service, food, etc, we witnessed customer after customer complaining about the food with some walking out of the restaurant after their food arrived. The bright spot was the server who was amazing, kept apologizing and apologizing the problems. The server asked the manager twice to come to the table and she refused. We asked to speak to the owner but he refused to come to the table. The server eventually told us the management would not make any adjustment to the bill even though 3 of us did not eat the entrees. Upon exiting, we went to the bar area with the bill where we found the manager and owner and tried to discuss the situation. The manager raised her voice that she was never asked to come to the table and the owner said he would not make any adjustment since their food is always perfect and there were NO other complaints that evening. What a lie considering we personally heard people complaining and walking out because the food and service was bad. One of us overheard a server and another employee talking near the restroom that many customers were complaining about the food and service. The owner and manager became verbally abusive and were threatening in nature, forcing us to pay the bill in full. I’ve travelled all over and never once when there was an issue, even a very small one with food at a restaurant, did any manager or owner behave in this way. This clearly has failing restaurant written all over it. It is unfortunate that things changed when Zarcone took over. This ruined our Christmas Eve and the other events that were to happen afterwards. Read the other reviews for Christmas Eve 2023 including the one customer who felt the owner wanted to fight him in front of his 7 year old and grandmother. Read responses from the restaurant which in many cases is defensive to...

Worst dining experience of my entire life.

25 minutes after being sat we got our first drink. No apologies or communication about the slow service. We noticed the table next to us get up and leave before having any dinner at this point; we should have followed suite.

When we finally got our entrees after some 90 minutes (we had put our orders in before getting our drinks) it was the worst food I've ever been served. Plate of rubbery, microwaved turkey slopped atop mush they called stuffing, all swimming in something resembling gravy. Must've been left over from the party going on downstairs.

We had been trying to grin and push through the whole meal so Christmas Eve wasn't a total bust, but I could not force myself to eat that entree. So I told our server I wasn't happy with it and had to send it back.

Then the bartender came over and didn't believe the food was bad, so she pried for exact details on what I didn't like about it. When I described the issues I had with the food, she told me I was being offensive and that their food is excellent. She ran off to get the cook or owner, I don't even know what his role was because when he came to our table he didn't say. He just looked like he was ready for a confrontation. No apologies. No trying to resolve the situation. He just wanted specifics on exactly what I took issue with when it came to the food. Then he became incredibly hostile. Looked like he wanted to fight me in front of my mom and 70 year old uncle. I said I didn't want the food and I didn't want another entree. When he got even nastier I said we're leaving and that's when he threatened to call the police on us.

This was unlike any experience I've ever had in my entire life, at a restaurant or otherwise. I worked in the restaurant business for years and never encountered or even heard of such godawful and ultimately threatening service. I've never written a bad review before today.

I look forward to seeing the Google business owner's snide remarks to this review, in which he will take zero accountability, claim the awful food I was served was in fact delicious, and accuse me of who knows what. That seems to be how he handles all his failings after seeing the multitude of 1 star ratings here.

Run away from this place and...