Charred Brick Oven — Restaurant in Town of Hempstead

DO NOT GO HERE!!!! TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE!!!! We went on a Saturday night. The hostess told us there was a one hour wait, so we waited, but it ended up being a two-and-a-half-hour wait!!! People kept walking in and getting seated because they knew the owner. They would kiss, hug, and shake hands, and get seated right away! Terrible! This restaurant does not take reservations, which is absurd, yet if you’re well-connected with the owner, you get seated right away!!! Not right at all!!! We finally get seated and order the grilled octopus as an appetizer! The most disgusting octopus I have ever eaten!!! It was pasty white, mushy, and clearly not fresh! I believe it was frozen and defrosted. The sausage in my pasta dish was clearly way undercooked to the point that I felt sick!🤢🤢🤢. The sausage was red!!! When I asked the waitress, she told me that it was supposed to be that way! I guess if you want to eat raw meat…anyway, as if this meal could get any worse, it does! They brought my brother the wrong pizza, so we asked them and she says she made a mistake. At this point, we’re really annoyed and frustrated to say the least, so when she offers to put in a request for the right pizza, my brother tells her to forget about it. She leaves the pizza on the table, but we didn’t touch it. At the end of the meal, she takes all 3 pies that were ordered, but only boxes up the two that were partially eaten. The third pie was not charged to the bill, but she did not offer for us to take it home. Will they serve that pie to another customer?!?! That’s DISGUSTING AND UNSANITARY!!! Or would they RATHER throw the pie in the garbage THAN give it to us for free even though THEY are the ones that messed up our order in the FIRST place?!?! If this restaurant had EVEN ONE OUNCE of good customer service, they would have acknowledged their mistake, apologize, not charge us for the wrong pizza, and let us take it home, but they did not!!! Overall, an AWFUL experience!!! We will NEVER return here and only hope that people will read this review and avoid this place!!! There are many, many better restaurants than this one!!! DO NOT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE WE DID!!! As for the quality and taste of the pizza, it’s just okay. It’s nothing special, not terrible, but not good either!!! There are so many better options out there!!! DO...

No respect for the customer, and no interest in whether or not the customer leaves satisfied.

I ordered a chicken caprese which comes with balsamic drizzled on top. I asked for no balsamic but when my food arrived it looked like the kitchen missed that note. No big deal, I recognize innocent mistakes happen. But I'm really not a fan of vinegar so I asked for a new one with no balsamic. To me, that's a simple request that any decent restaurant would fulfill. The server came back 30 seconds later with a new plate. It was the same plate. They simply tossed the cheese and arugula together on the plate so that I would not see a drizzle of vinegar on top as if I am blind, slow, or both. That's how you treat a customer?

This comes after my wife had ordered a pasta dish and requested some fresh mozzarella on top. When the food arrived, there was no cheese on top. But again, as reasonable people we didn't think that was a big deal and just ignored it.

This also comes after we tried to order for our 2 year-old. They pointed us to their appetizers of mozzarella sticks and chicken fingers as food for kids. Personally, I try and avoid feeding my kid deep-fried garbage and prefer to feed him real food. I asked for the shrimp oreganata but as a smaller portion. They declined and said they don't do that. Look, I eat out every weekend. In the past few years we've been to dozens of local restaurants and made similar requests. No other restaurant has refused to accommodate. Most will bring a small dish of whatever you want sautéed - shrimp, scallops, chicken, etc. and charge you half price of an entrée. It's not terribly complicated. To me, it comes down to whether or not you have any interest in customers returning. Maybe they usually do, but they didn't that night.

It's rare that I have experiences bad enough for me to write a review, and I...

First let me say that the food was very good, unfortunately it all goes down hill from there. ( I have never written a restaurant review, but this needs to be said). We waited about 1/2 hour to be seated (No reservations accepted here). After we were seated it was a race for the staff to get us out. We met up with friends from Queens who heard about the place & wanted to try it. They were absolutely appalled with the service which made us feel very uncomfortable. We ordered 2 apps & were still eating them when our dinners came out. As we are still eating dinner the waiter & multiple bus boys kept asking if we wanted to have the rest wrapped up while we were still chewing our food. During the entire time we were there no longer than 45 minutes the employees & floor manager kept starring at us (are we leaving yet) for the next group to sit. As we are still eating we were asked if we wanted dessert & we said no because we are still eating & no more than 1 minute later the check was on the table. It clearly states on the menu to keeping seating to a max of 90 minutes. We left choking on our food and came back to my house for coffee & dessert. On the drive home we called the restaurant to voice our displeasure. We were on hold a while asked to speak to the manager & we did, she said someone will call back the next day & a man did. He wanted to hear about our experience we told him & he wanted to know who it was & we told him it was not just one person but the whole staff. He did absolutely nothing to rectify the situation. I WILL NEVER STEP FOOT BACK IN THIS PLACE. If you want a good meal & choke on it this is your place, by looking at the other reviews we are NOT the only ones that...