Cardone's Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Westerville

My family and I went to Westerville for a dance competition and found this place and decided to go for dinner. When we arrived and saw it was in a strip mall we were hesitant but the reviews were so good we went in. Upon entering we saw that the restaurant is as big as my living room. We were geeeted by a gentleman who asked if we had a reservation. I told him we did not. He looked around and said they could accommodate us and seated my group of 5. He immediately brought us waters and menus. After about 15 minutes a lady came to take our drink orders. She came back soon after and dropped the drinks off and left. We waited another 15 minutes before I stopped the gentleman and asked if we could place an order for appetizers. He responded by saying that we did not have a reservation but they could accommodate us but it would be a few minutes. My friend was so offended by his response she wanted to leave. It had been a long day and we just wanted a meal before starting our 2 hour trip home, So we stayed. But to say you can accommodate us and point out why you’re failing to accommodate us isn’t great service. It was just him and the woman serving all the guests and she was very pleasant. We waited at least an hour before we got appetizers. The calamari was over cooked and the arancini and bruschetta lacked seasoning. The arancini and calamari were also plated on a bed of salad which was a lackluster presentation. The soup lacked seasoning( a trend of the evening) and the salad was 95% lettuce. I was intending on giving a 1 star review but when the entrée’s came! They were all FABULOUS! They lacked salt as everything else but once we attacked our plates with the salt and pepper provided they were delicious! I intended on giving a 1 star review but the main course made a big difference. In their defense it does say on the website reservations are highly recommended, which we didn’t see until I looked for it. Beyond the kitchen needing to utilize the salt more and not so great presentation and the reminder of not having a reservation it was a good meal. I would not return, however I might...

GIFT CARDS NOT ALLOWED!! Tonight I went out with 2 girlfriends to a nice dinner. Our server was lovely and attentive and our food came out in good time and was tasty. All in all in was a great night. We were making plans to return. UNTIL THE BILL CAME. The only reason we had gone out tonight to Cardone's restaurant was one of us had $80 in $10 gift cards that were to expire the next day (Nov. 17, 2018). We put pay our bills, my friend with her gift cards. Then we are told only 4 of the 8 gift cards can be used. It said no where on the gift card. Our server explained the policy. We understood by because there were no wording on a limit, we just wanted to speak with a manager if there was an expectation since there was nothing about that rule on the gift cards or their website. He came out and explained that that is their policy on the IMS website and he did show us the details below. We understand and paid our bills. But we had $40 of gift cards left. We then gave a gift card to 4 different tables since the gift cards expired the next day. The other tables then use the gift cards and THE MANAGER TELLS THE SERVERS THOSE GIFT CARDS CANNOT BE USED ANYMORE. THE SERVERS THEN HAVE TO TELL THEIR PATRONS THAT "SINCE THE GIFT CARDS CAME FROM THE SAME SOURCE, THEY CANNOT USE THEM"

Then we overhear the manager tell our servers to 'NEVER USE GIFT CARDS ON YOUR BILLS. THAT'S YOUR MONEY AND YOU WORK HARD FOR IT' Maybe he doesn't understand how tipping works. We all tipped our server. We are 3 former servers and she was great tonight. It is the quality and manner of the manager than pushes me to write this review and to put others away from this restaurant. When we asked for the coupons back since they were not used, the manager said he ripped then up and told our party that because we are asking about other tables not receiving a discount- that following their policy they could have, that we would call the cops on us.

Don't bother with this place. There are tons of small family Italian restaurant in the area that know how to treat...

I'll start off with, I have not been here physically, however my office ordered from Cardone's via DOORDASH & had an absolutely HORRIFIC experience (because of DoorDash 110%, not Cardone's) - I was back & forth calling DoorDash & calling Cardone's. Pain in my rear! Let me say though, with Dan; the owner/chef at Cardone's, he was absolutely PHENOMENAL. He was very understanding & accommodating with DoorDash's mess. Everything was wrong on the DoorDash end, but Dan made everything RIGHT for us!

Once we received our food, the DoorDash drivers finally got it together & delivered it... Anyway, once we got our food, everything looked, smelled & tasted absolutely amazing. Our group got a ton of food, the chicken carbonara, eggplant parm, chicken parm, stuffed mushrooms, white bean dip, CANOLES (YUM), salmon, etc. We got a variety & everyone was so pleased with it!

I would HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend eating at Cardone's!! However, I would RECOMMEND AGAINST ever using DoorDash! Most awful experience I've ever had with 3rd party food delivery service, DoorDash is literally the WORST.

ALSO, I personally am not a huge fan of italian, but Cardone's won my heart with their juicy stuffed mushrooms, awesome caprese sandwich & AMAZING CUSTOMER SERVICE. Dan (owner/chef) felt so awful about the entire situation because of DoorDash & said that if he had an extra employee, he would've just had someone deliver the meal for me! He was very polite & amazing. HIGHLY RECOMMEND...