Nola Kitchen & Cocktails — Restaurant in Town of Hempstead

UPDATE: Lynn, you NEVER tried to resolve or make us feel any better about this situation. We were embarrassed in front of our friends. I wasn’t upset, I was disappointed! We were regulars there. We had our Christmas party there and my son’s First Communion at your East Meadow location. If this is the way you treat regulars, I can only imagine how you’ll treat first timers. We will NEVER go to a restaurant that you own or manage ever again. So, stop lying on your response reviews.

We have been going to Puglia's Italian Steakhouse in Seaford, since they opened. We used to also go to their other locations in East Meadow and Garden City. We decided to take some friends out for dinner at Puglia's, and decided to go on Saturday, 3/11/23. Well... everything started out ok, since we arrived at 4:30pm. We were immediately asked what we wanted to eat and drink. By 4:45pm, our appetizers were served. Our dinner itself, too a very long time to be served, like they forgot about us. While we were eating, my husband takes something out of his mouth...OMG it was a piece of steel wool. He called the waiter over and showed it to him. He immediately took his plate and got him a new dinner. After dinner, we decided to have dessert, again it took a very long time to be served. As soon as we were done eating, the waiter asked us to leave. We were confused, and a bit insulted. We were only there for about two hours, from start to finish. We go to this restaurant at least 1-2 times a month and this wasn't what we were expecting. Especially from the waiter that knows us and serves us all the time. This is after we gave him a $60 tip for just four people. We then decided to speak to the owner/manager, and she said, "We need to sit other people down". There was probably four people waiting at that time, which they had other tables to seat them. Not only she was uncaring, unprofessional, she was rude. We told her that she just lost four of their customers and she said "Ok, not a problem". We will NEVER go to Puglia's again. Being a faithful customer, obviously doesn't mean anything...

We had a 5:30 reservation and arrived promptly. We were brought to a table but then were awkwardly told to go back to the hostess stand bc they needed to rearrange the seating. No big deal. When we were seated our waiter was courteous and took our drink order right away. We ordered an appetizer and told him we were ready to put in our dinner order too, to which he replied “that’s helpful”. Our arrabbiata calamari appetizer was delicious . However after that we waited over 45 min for our meals. 3 of 4 meals were brought out. The 4th took another 6 min after the waiter semi apologized and said it would be out in “30 seconds” (why not just wait in the kitchen for 30 seconds?”)

While my 3 companions said their food was ok, I was absolutely disappointed with my order. I wanted something light so I ordered the Prosciutto Flatbread appetizer for my meal. I thought it would be like every other flatbread I’ve ordered -thin with some cheese arugula and a protein.

However it was a messy pile of too much Arugula, ricotta & prosciutto and you couldn’t even see the flatbread. Our waiter finally came after everyone in my party had finished and asked how the food was. (I had barely touched my plate which didn’t sound any alarms for him) When I told him mine was inedible and I wasn’t happy he said he would talk to his manager. Well he didn’t. When we asked him again he replied “my manager is outside if you want to wait I’ll try to get him”. After being there so long we just paid and got out of there. It wasn’t worth being offered a dessert or even being comped for the meal.

Slow service, subpar food (my husband’s cavatelli with sausage and broccoli rabe was extremely watery) extremely loud dining room - we will NOT be going back.

Almost forgot - when the waiter was clearing the drink glasses he dropped a wine glass from his tray which landed on my husband between his back and the back of the chair. No broken glass, very little wine spilled on him and it was truly an accident - but just shows the level of service...

Puglia’s Italian Steakhouse is yet one more fine restaurant in Seaford. They are located on Merrick Road, right next to my other local favorite, Cara Mia’s. It is a tough choice between them, but when in the mood for a good steak with a side of Italian Puglia’s is the place to go. The Italian side of the house has all the classics. The Scungilli in a Fra Diavolo sauce and Chivalini Sausage Wheel are two of my favorite starters, followed by the Chicken Valdastano as a main. On our last visit, we were both looking for steak, and in addition to the large rib eye, NY strip, and porterhouse, they have several daily specials. I opened with the Seafood salad, which consists of a large portion of shrimp, scallops, calamari (very tender) served over Iceberg lettuce, olives, and celery. The dressing was an EVOO and citrus vinaigrette well-seasoned but not overpowering to mask the delicate seafood flavors. Jo had the Caesar salad, which arrives with fresh Romain lettuce and crispy well-flavored croutons. For the main event, we shared the 40 oz Tomahawk Steak cooked medium-rare. The steak was a fine prime hunk of well-marbled meat cooked slightly to the rare side, which is just the way we like it. The grill will cook your steak to your preferred temperature, ranging from an extremely rare (ok raw in the center and well charred on the outside) black and blue to nicely well done as you would find in the upscale restaurant in the city. We complemented our steak with cream spinach and sauteed mushrooms. Each side was more than enough for two, and we had plenty to take home. We have been here many times before, and the food is consistently excellent. The staff is amicable and quickly gets to know you, so your opening cocktail arrives before you even ask. For more details and review, see...