Tarassa's Italian American Cuisine — Restaurant in Town of Duanesburg

As a local resident of the small town where this restaurant is located I was very excited when they were opening because I was well aware of the quality of the food and service of the owners other business. That said, my husband and I decided to go for my birthday. Upon entering the restaurant there was quite a line and it was a little confusing because most of the people in line were waiting on to go orders. There was not a hostess so we asked a server about restaurant seating. She said there was 2 people ahead of us and it would be 10 minutes. As we were waiting additional people were coming in for restaurant seating and were just as confused as we were by the line. We told them what we were told by the server because there was no hostess to assist people as they enter the restaurant. As the two people ahead of us were seated we moved forward to the door of restaurant for our table. At that time the same server who just told us it would be ten minutes said to us in an overwhelmed/stressed manner "next time I recommend you make reservations." Let me preface this by saying not five minutes before we left for the restaurant I read the restaurant specials for the evening on Facebook and the post encouraging folks to come down for the Friday specials. I understand they are very busy and getting staff isn't easy these days. There were several open tables that may have been being held for reservations but the manner in which the server approached us about suggesting reservations made both my husband and I feel as if we were bothering her by coming in to the restaurant to eat. The server showed us and the couple behind us a back room of the restaurant and asked if we wanted to sit in that room and said if we didn't it want to sit in that room the wait would be "awhile". I was confused because she just said not 15 minutes before it would be 10 minutes for a table. My husband and I were fine with the room and so was the couple behind us. Honestly it was better in my opinion because it was quiet and private. The waitress never told us her name just immediately said the specials to both tables at the same time and took our order. I ordered a glass of wine but it didn't come until mid meal. It was brought to the wrong table and the server was told that it wasn't ordered at that table. The food was delicious as expected. I was asked by another person if we liked our meal and I said it was delicious at which time the conversation led to it being my birthday. Our server came with the check and left it saying "Wendy said your glass of wine is on her since it's your birthday". Which was an unbelievably kind gesture. We later realized that Wendy was one of the owners and the person we were talking to about how delicious our meal was and it being my birthday. When the server brought the check she did not say if we pay the server directly or pay up front. When server came back around to check on the other couple we asked politely if we pay her. She said you can pay me or pay up front. So we said we will take it up front since you are so busy. When we got up front to pay we told the staff member working in that area that we wanted to add the tip to the check. The staff member asked us who sent us up to that area to pay and we said our server said we could pay up front. She asked who our server was and we had no idea because she never told us her name. The staff member then started describing to us what different servers looked like. As I was trying to describe our server I happened to notice the person that I was having the birthday conversation with come into the area and I said she will know who our server was and she did. That issue solved, we thanked everyone and went on our way. As we left I was feeling torn because the food is delicious but the experience could have been better. It felt as if our server was overwhelmed by the amount of patrons. This made us feel as if our presence was an inconvenience...

The first time visiting this establishment, I ordered a couple slices after asking how old they were. You know, old slices aren’t so great. So the second time, I called to order the smallest pizza. A lady answered the phone with a simple hello. I said hello back and waited for her to say Thank you for calling Tarassa’s how can I help you? Nothing but silence. I then asked if I had called the restaurant and got a yes. I go down pay and asked if they had packets of cheese and crushed peppers. A lady said no but she’ll get me some. I got tired of waiting and left. As I hit the door, I couldn’t help but over hear the blonde lady with eye glasses tell another customer “Every time she comes in here she’s…”That was my second visit. At which point stood up for myself and shot back “Every time I come in here what??” She said “You’re mean”. Ok. If not wanting to buy old slices is mean, then I’m mean. If being impatient on getting grated cheese & crushed peppers is mean, then yep. I’m mean. You know what really is mean? When some lady at a pizza place belittles me to another customer BEFORE I’m even out the door. She couldn’t WAIT to talk smack about me to anyone who would listen. Well you can tell her for me, if that’s how she’ll be treating me, I won’t be setting foot inside that restaurant a third time. Have a lovely...

I called in on Saturday to order a few hot subs, and Mac & Cheese bites! It took about 20 calls to get through but I wasn’t giving up that easy. I was given a 40 minute wait time for my order to be done… by the time 40 minutes hit i was told unfortunately it wasn’t done yet. This was understandable since the line was literally out the door and their phone was off the hook. A little over an hour and I finally have my food! I drove the 30 minutes home and had all I could do to not pull over on the side of the road to eat it LOL the smell of the food was great. We got a buffalo chicken sub, meatball sub, and Italian steak. The buffalo chicken even after the long ride home was crispy and the sauce was SO good. Steak sub was just perfect. The meatball sub? The meatballs were SO big and flavorful. The mac and cheese bites were awesome, you can tell the Mac and cheese is homemade and hand breaded. The overall cost was very reasonable for the area. Can’t wait to be able to dine in and also try other things off the menu! We’ll definitely be ordering from...