Teca Restaurant and Bar — Restaurant in West Chester

My wife wanted to take me out for my birthday and she had eaten at the Teca in Newtown Square but we decided to go to the West Chester location because it is a little closer to our home. I went online to the restaurant website to peruse the menu because I eat a mostly vegetarian diet. Finding lots of vegetarian options, I made a reservation on Open Table and off we went. The restaurant was very crowded. There is a nice open bar in their front room with TV's playing college basketball and it's generally a warm and welcoming environment. We were seated promptly and that's when the problem became apparent. Because Friday was Valentine's Day, the restaurant had a special menu. This was not mentioned on the website and that would not have been a problem except for the fact that there was literally not one vegetarian entree on the entire menu. We almost left but the waiter pointed out that a couple of the dishes could be prepared without meat. One was a rigatoni dish that they were serving with a meatball and ricotta cheese, the other was risotto with filet mignon, asparagus and mushrooms. The waiter offered that the rigatoni could be prepared without the meatball or the risotto could be served without the filet. (Never mind whether the risotto was made with vegetable or chicken stock. I try to not be that rigid when dining out.)

I ended up having a field green salad and the risotto. My wife had chicken parmigiana. The food was fine. The service was fine. I was billed full price for the risotto despite the fact that the filet was not included. (Hey, if you order a Caesar salad it's 10 bucks. If you want to add chicken, shrimp, scallops or salmon it's additional. But if you want a dish of risotto without the featured steak, it's the same price. Okay...)

Would I go back there? I don't know. Maybe I will, but I didn't leave there thinking, "Boy that was great, I can't wait to come back." I think it's lovely that they had a special menu but they could have handled this better in one of two ways. They could have had their webmaster add a feature to the front page of their website highlighting the special menu (maybe this would be too much of a hassle for a special weekend menu) or they could have done a better job making sure that the special weekend menu was more representative of the regular menu so that folks who don't eat meat would have some options.

Plus they could have knocked a couple of bucks off of the price of the risotto since I didn't also have the filet.

That's my two cents. And...

Our waiter was very deceptive in the way he helped us order appetizers. We asked him to help us with appetizers and he told us he would make us up an antipasto platter with a little bit of this and that. We were really looking forward to it. We got a ton of food, but in the end, he charged us for six different appetizers without telling us they were all going to be separate. There were five of us out to dinner for two of our friends' birthdays. Two of the ladies ordered the flat bread special and ate a sliver out of it. They both said it was salty and very dry. When the waiter collected the plates, he asked how things were and they said it was just okay, but he didn't probe into it any further. Obviously not noticing two whole flat breads practically still on the plates. We didn't want to ruin our friends' birthdays so nothing was said and the bill was paid, but I called when I got home. I spoke with the manager who seemed eager to have us come back on the house, but told me I would have to speak with the owner and he would call me the next day. He did not call me the next day and when I called back, I was told he was out of town and would call me on Tuesday. Dinner was on Friday night. I never heard back from him on Tuesday and had to call again. He offered us $60 in gift certificates to come back and try them again, but we settled on $75. I had to call back to ask for the certificates to be mailed. I also called to ask to speak with the manager because I still was not happy and did not want to try the places again. Three of us paid for dinner and I do not want a gift certificate. I am still really angry by what the waiter did and how the owner handled things. I do not want to go back to this...

Disappointing. Over priced. Lazy staff.

Me and my mom walked in at 5:45PM, no greeted us, instead the bar tender yelled across the bar and said, "pick any table." We got to a booth and a server from across the restaurant asked if we had a reservation. Only 5 other people were in the restaurant and only one other table had been set for a reservation. The first server we had gave us a menu and then left, don't know where he went or what happened. Another server came over and took our order. Our server that gave us the menu was behind the bar then entire time we were there, never came back to check on us. The second server was too busy talking to her friends and having a cigarette outside to check on us. The manager also appeared not to care and was talking with the group of 5 employees huddled around the bar. If it's slow, especially when there's only a few people in the restaurant, take the time to check on the patrons.

Then the food came, my pasta was incredibly salty, to the point that I had to guzzle my water. My mom's salad, which was $15, was incredibly bland. She also ordered a specialty gin cocktail, for $12, and it tasted like gin, club soda, and a few mint leaves. Normally I don't wrote negative reviews, and I've been to Teca before and enjoyed it, but I will not be back and advise against anyone else eating here.

I can normally look past these things and brush it off but I've worked in the industry for close to 10 years from dumpy bars to Itialian restaurants like Teca. I don't understand how a place with the reputation like Teca could be so inattentive to their guests. The only redeeming quality is the atmosphere and I guess they...