Candela's Pizzeria & Ristorante Italiano — Restaurant in Virginia

The Good: Friendly staff. The ladies there are such a lovely people. Our waitress was not the friendliest but not terrible. Salad was decent. It was fresh and didn’t have old looking stuff. The garlic knots were tasty and fresh. Recommendation to the cook would be to make them large and serve like 6 pieces instead.

The Not So Good: The dinner entree. Wife got the chicken Carinese and I got the chicken marsala. My dish had way too much mushrooms and and I am pretty sure the mushrooms were canned and not fresh. I sauté fresh mushrooms all the time…these are not fresh. The veggies in the carinese were not fresh either. Looks like something from the frozen section at Food Lion. Chicken pieces were tiny. Imagine cutting one chicken breast in half, than cut it again to thin it, than pounding it down to make it look a bit bigger…so it’s like you get half a chicken breast. Taste was bland like they watered down the sauce and not much substance. Add all that together for a $19.75 dish…not worth it. My daughter got plain pasta with butter and sausage on the side…sausage looked dried and been sitting under a heater…

Overall: Trying to give local places a try but not working so far…we will not...

When I walked in approximately 10 employees were setting eating lunch. Pizzas and pasta dishes all around. It’s gotta be good if the employees have lunch there. Was seated as soon as we came through the door by a nice lady that wasn’t eating lunch. The cook came to the window and started conversing in Italian. I had the lasagna and a salad with bread my wife had manicotti with the same sides. I also had a side of jalapeños for my lasagna. Mine was delicious, lots of meat and tomato sauce. The salad was crispy but plain. The honey mustard dressing was good but my wife had the ranch and it was a bit on the bland side. My wife didn’t love her manicotti. She said it had a sour taste to the sauce. She added sugar and made it better. I tried a bite and it did have a sour bite to it but to my taste was ok. Just wouldn’t order it knowing that. All and all it was a good meal but the sauce on the manicotti kind of spoiled the experience. It will not stop us from coming...

I rarely write negative reviews, but this was too much for what was a nostalgic restaurant that I have many fond memories of.

Been going here for 30+ years (since it was Rosa's then Candela's at the prior location across the shopping center). Had dinner with the family at the new location ~2 weeks ago and inquired about a reservation for my mother's memorial service. They said to call back as the event nears, which I did today. Somewhere there was a miscommunication and they had booked the 2 rooms (management blamed it on their official Facebook messenger account not being official?) That's fine we can find somewhere else, it happens.

However when I called, the man on the phone could not have been more cold/rude. exclaiming "I don't care!" Hot tempered and angry, ZERO apology. If that's the ownership, I'm much happier spending my money elsewhere in the community. Still upset/sad about it. Will never go...