DePalma's Italian Cafe — Restaurant in Tuscaloosa

The atmosphere of the restaurant is pretty nice. It's warm and well-decorated; I liked the bottles of wine with different folks' signatures on them along the wall. There was a good bit of smoke coming from the kitchen, and the restaurant overall was quite a bit louder and therefore less intimate than I was expecting, but neither of these are huge complaints.

The hostess who seated us was pleasant, but that was about where the good service ended. Our waiter was...prompt, in that our food and drinks came out really quickly. He also rushed us along and made us feel rather uncomfortable, which is always uncalled for, but particularly bad when no one else is waiting for a table. To start, I ordered a Coke, and my boyfriend ordered a Diet Coke. When our waiter brought them to our table, he seemed unsure who had gotten what, saying "Coke?" I piped up and said, "I got the Coke," and smiled at him. He moved a glass toward me and said back, rather forcefully, "DIET Coke?" And I said no. He switched the glasses again, set one down in front of me with the proclamation, "Coke," and walked off quickly after giving me what I can only describe as a stink eye. The drink in my glass was Diet Coke.

Luckily, my boyfriend received the regular Coke, so we just switched glasses. He was brought his Caesar salad next. I hate for a Caesar to be the highlight of a meal at a restaurant like this, but it was. It was fresh and tasty, nothing exceptional, but solid.

Our main courses arrived shortly afterward. My boyfriend got the shrimp scampi, and I got the pasta Depalma with chicken. They were both underwhelming at best and mediocre at worst. Our garlic bread tasted good, but wasn't crispy enough, and kind of mushy at the center. His shrimp and my chicken were both low on the flavor meter. At the very least, they both needed more salt.

I didn't like how the chicken and mushroom toppings on my pasta were all kind of pushed to the side, rather than incorporated throughout the dish. Both of our dishes involved a bit of cheese -- his, Parmesan, and mine, mozzarella. We both had big problems with the cheese becoming a congealed glob on top of/stuck to our noodles. Mine was particularly egregious, to the point where it was hard to eat. I can't help but wonder if the dish had been microwaved, or perhaps baked, a pretty long time ago. The cheese had hardened enough that there was no way to separate it or mix it together, making it impossible to get a bite of pasta without a much larger gob of thick, room-temperature cheese stuck to it.

That was another problem: neither of our dishes came out piping hot, both closer to tepid. That wasn't cool. Finally, the rosemary cream sauce in my dish was closer to the consistency of rosemary milk. It had a nice flavor, but I really wanted a thicker, richer, more decadent sauce.

I was beginning to think that maybe I had over-exaggerated or misinterpreted the stink eye earlier, as I really do try to think the best of servers, but our waiter rolled up again and asked us if we were ready for the check. Had the food been better, we might not have been, but as it was -- we said yes. He came back with the ticket very quickly and asked me, "Done with your food?" as my fingers were about three inches away from picking up a piece of garlic bread (and, I might add, my plate was more than 50% full). Embarrassed, I said that I was sorry but that I wasn't done yet. He walked off brusquely and came back less than 5 minutes later. He asked AGAIN if I was done -- only 5 minutes later, and still with 50% of my food on my plate! -- and this time I said yes. I was, mostly, as I really only wanted the garlic bread, but it still came across as though our presence wasn't desired.

Maybe I'm overreacting, but...he never refilled our drinks. He never asked if we wanted dessert. And he never asked if I wanted a box. Combine that with the hurrying and the stink eye, and I just don't find that acceptable for a restaurant of...

I've eaten here dozens of times over the years and usually make it a "date night" place at least once a month. That said, over the last couple years or so, the service here has started to deteriorate. Last night, my wife and I went in for dinner and sat at the bar. From the outset, things began going poorly. The young lady behind the bar poured us two glasses of wine that had been open far, far too long. Needless to say, we sent the vinegar back, but she too pushed back saying "well, i already poured them, so..." We told her not to worry, we're fine paying for them and we ordered a much more pricey bottle of Mercury Head Cabernet. After 15 mins and three bottles of wine later, they were unable to get a single one of them open without dissolving the cork. Finally, they gave up and we just ordered a different bottle. This bottle arrived to us not at room temp or cooler, but warm to the touch. It too tasted overheated. Clearly, the wine isn't stored properly in a horizontal manner and in a cool place. I think the AC issues in the main dining room extend to wherever theyre storing the wine below (and just assuming it's fine). Meanwhile, during all this, the bartender seemed irked at us the whole time, as if it were our fault for ordering the wine. As well, during all this, we placed our food order with specific instructions NOT to include an item for which we have food sensitivity. Finally, we got our meals and the warm bottle of wine only to find out neither dish was what we ordered and included lots of the one item we couldn't eat. After all this, the bartender simply said, "ill get the manager." To his credit, the manager came over, apologized and took care of the bill (we ate nothing and, of course, drank nothing), but seemed almost happy for us to leave. He was visibly happy, as if this happens often and is used to dealing with it. The service here has really declined over the last year or so. In my opinion, the staff of what is primarily an adult/professional-visited restaurant relies too much on the albeit plentiful college-aged resources in key customer service roles. As well, I think the younger staff is poorly trained to deal with issues such that we encountered. It's a busy, popular place, so I certainly understand the approach, but issues like these tend to affect more than just a customer here and there. Over time, they can even...

Wow what a disappointing experience. I have been coming to Tuscaloosa for two years now, but never made it to Depalma's. Took my son and his girlfriend out for dinner and I was totally shocked. His dinner and mine arrived first, very wrong for any restaurant, then about 5 minutes later the waitress came over and said they had forgot to bake her dinner and it would be out in about 15 minutes. Of course she felt awful, which she shouldn't and it is wrong for any restaurant to put someone in that position, and we naturally waited for her dinner to arrive. 15 minutes later, the fish and the lasagna of course were cold. A quick, oh I am sorry, did everything come out alright. Are you kidding me, you know it wasn't right and you did nothing to make it right. They should have offered her something to eat, while they were cooking or recooking her dinner, and a member of management should have stepped in to make the apology for the mistake in the kitchen. Total uncertainty, no offer or even an acknowledgement from management and we are not the type of people who make a public display of criticizing people. I would have appreciated the opportunity to let the management know, but based upon the size of the crowd they draw, it is apparent that they don't need my business. What they should understand is you can only treat people poorly for a while, it will eventually catch up to you. And if your staff isn't trained on how to better address these types of situations, people will eventually stop coming. This is why I chose to post this review so that maybe I can help the next person who might be thinking about DePalma's as a dinning option. Unfortunate because I had heard good things, but definitely not what we...