Angela's Ristorante & Pizzeria — Restaurant in Virginia

So Angela's has become our Valentine's Day go-to for several years, because they don't require - or even take - reservations (unless you have a large party), and places that DO take reservations are usually booked up by the time that I call. For several years we've just walked in to Angela's and either gotten a table right away, or after just a very short wait. This past Friday, we tried what we've been doing for years, and the line was out the door. I guess "our little secret" has gotten out. Oh well, live and learn. We were told "20 minutes" and got a table maybe just a little longer than 20 minutes, but not TOO much longer. The place was decorated nicely with Valentine's balloons, and it was an overall festive atmosphere. They were slammed, but our waitress remained pleasant and composed, took our order, and the food came out after not too long of a wait, the portion sizes were ample, and the food was delicious. So why only a three-star review? Over halfway into my meal, something didn't taste or feel right in my mouth, and I reached in, and pulled out a 1.5" to 2" shard of metal. It looked like the kind of metal shard that you get when you open a can of tuna, or anchovies, or clams, and the can doesn't open cleanly, and a small shard of metal separates from either the lid or the lip of the can. Which makes sense, because I had linguini with clam sauce, the clams likely came from a can, and this is likely what happened. Okay, I used to work in restaurants, stuff happens. When the waitress came to check on us, and asked how everything was, I picked up the shard of metal from my bread plate, and showed her and told her what I had bitten into. This could have been serious, I could have cut my lips, tongue, or gums, and if I had swallowed it, I could have perforated my esophagus, stomach, or intestines. I said "you should show your chef what I found in my food," and she said "alright, I'll let them know." Several minutes later, she returned with just our check, and I gave her my credit card. She returned with the processed check, and said, "have a nice night!" I would have expected a manager, or an owner, or a chef, or SOMEONE to come apologize for the shard of metal, make sure I was alright, but no one did. Maybe offer us something off of our meal, or a complementary dessert, or some incentive to come back and try them again, but no, nothing. At LEAST check on me! I have no way of knowing whether she didn't bother to tell anyone, or if she DID tell someone but no one cared enough to come check on me and apologize, just "have a nice night!" So I left what was otherwise a very nice meal with a - figuratively and literally - bad taste in my mouth. This is the kind of thing that would make me not return to...

I came here based on the good reviews for food, but clearly should have paid more attention to the reviews I saw that mentioned bad service. My friend and I split an appetizer and salad. We were about 2/3 of the way through our entree when my friend found a small, round, sharp, rusty piece of metal in her food. I pulled it out and waited until our server came back to our table. I showed it to her, explained, asked her to let the chef know, and told her we were done eating. When she returned several minutes later, she explained that the chef didn't believe me, he said the kitchen had nothing to do with it, and that he thought I was lying. Now, I understand that things happen, sometimes things make it into packaging that shouldn't be there and then it accidentally gets put into food. If they had merely apologized and offered to remove that item from my bill, I would have been just fine and wouldn't be here leaving this review. However, once the chef so rudely and inaccurately accused me of lying, I told the server I would not be paying for the entree. I watched as the chef clearly ranted and raved in the kitchen, glaring at me, throwing his hands around, and raising his voice to his staff. The server was wonderful and tried several times to reason with the chef and come up with a solution. I asked very politely and respectfully to speak with the chef or the other owner (his wife) who was also standing around in the kitchen. They both refused to speak with me. Truly says a lot about the chef when he can't man up enough to even speak to a customer when there's an issue. He finally agreed to take off 50% of the entree and I let it drop because of how hard the server was trying. It doesn't matter if the food is the most amazing food around, I refuse to spend money in a business that treats their own staff that way, let...

I won’t lie, the food is great. However, I cannot support this man. My parents live in the area and this was a Friday night, special occasion, place for us when I was growing up. After college, I moved home and decided to get a serving job there. Let’s just say, I lasted 3 months and my family refuses to eat there anymore. The owner is a sociopath and treats his employees like dirt. He’s so scared of his wife cheating that he makes her hostess every night so that he can watch her. I wasn’t even allowed to talk to her. I thought maybe he would relax if he knew I was gay...nope. Instead, he would mock me and talk to me in a “gay” voice. He would cuss me out if a customer didn’t like the food or sent it back (which, since it’s an open kitchen, they could hear). It was never his fault if someone didn’t like the food. Embarrassing. He watches the cameras every night and would talk to us about how many times we used the restroom. He only hires one or two people outside his own family, and it was a regular thing for him to belittle them so much that they would cry. He told one of the waitresses that she needed to lose weight if she “ever wanted to get layed”. The man is unhinged. It was embarrassing trying to talk to my tables while you could hear him and his son yelling at eachother in the kitchen. The regulars would laugh it off, while newer people looked terrified. It was over when I asked for my tips, which were days late, and he (in a lisp voice) called me a “whiny little girl”. I could go on for days with insane stories of him disrespecting staff and customers but like I said, the food is good, but only if you are OK with patroning a psycho who cares very little about...