La Campania — Restaurant in Waltham

Had been looking forward to coming here for a long time, we finally were able to go recently to celebrate a birthday. I will say after this experience we will never be back. The aesthetic and vibe were certainly really nice but everything fell flat when it came to service and food. We decided to not get a bottle of wine and one of us got a drink and also decided to skip appetizers and go straight to an entree. After this point we started to notice service took a nose dive. Other tables around us got a nice introduction and read the specials for the evening. We did not receive this. Attentiveness to our table was pretty much ignored and unable to get a word in when the waiter did happen to come by. For food, we opted to get pastas which were Mushroom Gnocchi and the Shrimp Risotto. While the risotto had some nice flavor to it, the shrimp had a really unpleasant taste to it which was off putting. The Mushroom Gnocchi was extremely bland and disappointing. Not only did this particular dish not do it justice, but one of the bites I took had a whole twig in it. I removed the twig from my mouth and kept it around to show the waiter when he came back. When the waiter returned to ask if we were finished and wanted to wrap anything up I demonstrated the twig to him. He quickly didn't really give a sh-t and said it was probably from the rosemary. Cool, even so, I shouldn't have had a piece of twig in my mouth from my dish. No apologies here. We asked when they returned with the bill if there happened to be any specials tonight because we had heard them describe them to multiple other tables. He quickly retorted with "Oh on the first page?" in a passive aggressive response and declared he always read them to every table and got very defensive. I replied with the fact that he did not in which he disingenuously apologized when returning with our paid bill. Upon leaving the table he promptly ignored us with no well wishes for the night or thank you for coming. I was appalled at how we were treated here and my only guess was not paying enough for it with our bill. Extremely disappointed given how happy I've seen other people here and how long I've been...

Went here with our sister in law who lives nearby. She raved about the food from prior experience . The hostess was very welcoming and decor was rustic Italian and lovely . It went downhill fast. We had a late reservation after visiting a very sick friend whose wife cooked us a delicious lunch so we ordered light. Bread and olive oil were very good so we had high expectations Shared flatbread pizza with shrimp , arugula which was very good . Husband had the pasta special which was nothing like the description and tasted far worse. More like a manicotti in soup and pasta was not cooked. It was far from Al dente. Tasted raw on ends with flavorless filling .it made no sense …do I ask for a spoon? We shared the large morel pasta. Flavor was good , size for $36.00 was very small. Now for our waiter . He apparently has been there for many years. No apology for the long wait to bring us barely cooked pasta , no grated cheese offered and no apology when we told him, and only because he asked that my husbands manicotti was severely undercooked. He said he would tell the chef but for what if you don’t intend to do something about it? If you don’t care, don’t ask and avoid the awkwardness . But the worst part was his attitude from the beginning . I thought it was my imagination but my sister in law agreed he seemed put off that we ordered light and didn’t order liquor . He gave us an annoyed glare and asked several times if we wanted wine or drinks , each time we had to repeat “ no Thankyou “ we actually felt guilty and certainly not wanted. Did he ever think that maybe we just don’t drink or that someone has a health issue or perhaps it was late and we were tired ? Don’t push us to order liquor after we say no the first time and don’t act annoyed that your tip will be less because we are ordering light . By the way , no offer to compensate for the raw pasta dish, not even a cookie. You are an expensive Italian restaurant you should at least cook pasta correctly, especially when it...

Just got back from dinner at La Campania and it was extremely disappointing from start to finish. The hostess had the personality of a wet mop, the waiter was not attentive, the chairs were exceedingly uncomfortable, and the food was ok but not great for the price. We were the first ones in the dining room, so obviously the waiter was not busy. He never bothered to bring any bread, so when he brought the check, I asked him why we never got any, and he had the nerve to say "Oh, you never got bread?" and gave us a loaf to take home. We would have enjoyed it with our wine while we were waiting a long time for our food. The people at the next table who arrived after us had to ask for bread as well. The portions of food (and amount of wine served by the glass) are stingy, so we were glad to have some bread to eat when we got home. Also, how can an Italian restaurant not have any soup on the menu??? We have eaten at La Campania a couple of times over the years and had a better experience. Needless to say, we will NEVER go back, nor would we recommend this place. There was nothing positive to say...