The Italian House — Restaurant in Westfield

In October, my wife and I visited the Italian House on Park, the food and the service were great. The experience was so good that I thought this would be a great place to have my company’s holiday party. We agreed on a date, we filled out the agreement and everything looked like it was a go. A few weeks ago we decided to finalize the menu and that’s when everything went to hell. We were planning on having 36 guests at the party, we decided on an appetizer, a salad, three options for the main course and a dessert. Our plan seemed pretty reasonable until I saw the quote. They wanted to charge us for 108 main courses for 36 people, yes that’s what I said 108 main courses for 36 people. The reasoning they gave was “well no one is going to eat just one choice; they’ll probably try all three”. Really, that was their explanation. We tried to explain, “of course they will, but no one is going to eat an entire meal worth of fettuccini alfredo and an entire meal worth of chicken parmesan and an entire meal worth of pork medallions, on top of an appetizer, a salad and dessert.” I wish I was making this up, they insisted that we had to order and pay for 108 main courses to feed 36 people and claimed that’s what their contract stated. Their suggestion to resolve this, “don’t give your guests a choice”, seriously just don’t give them a choice. The top of their contract states “PRICES ARE BASED ON A PER PERSON AMOUNT. MENU IS CHOSEN FOR A GROUP, NOT INDIVIDUAL ORDERS”, could this be any more ambiguous? I read this statement as this is special pricing for groups, not individuals., nowhere does it say, each menu item must be ordered for the entire group. I suggested that they make 12 of each main course and if one runs out, it runs out. Their response was “I did speak with my owners regarding the menu for this event. Unfortunately, we aren't willing to modify our menu for this event. The private party menu is attached with every contract we send or print in house. That ensures everyone has 100% transparency with what the private party menu offerings are. I understand wanting to provide multiple choices for your guests. However, we don't want any guests to get the wrong impression with changing our service and selections for private events”. I don’t think they quite grasp the concept of transparency. Maybe I’m just a skeptic, but I have my doubts about whether they’d make 108 servings of the main courses and tossed out 72 of them or would they have just charged me for 108? Now I get the joy of scrambling to find another restaurant to hold my company’s...

I’ve only heard great things about this place, so I was really excited to try it. We chose to do so in celebration of our 10 year anniversary. Our reservation was for 5pm, we arrived about 4:50, apparently they open strictly at 5, so we had to stand outside for ten minutes twiddling our thumbs—thankfully it barely drizzled. When 5pm finally came we went inside and were welcomed and congratulated on our 10 year anniversary. I did put that in the notes of the reservation, but wasn’t expecting it to be acknowledged, so that was nice. We were the first to be seated and were sat in the corner in what I’d guess was once someone’s living room. I didn’t think it would be too weird eating in a repurposed old home, alas, it was super weird. It looked like an old home on the outside and all throughout the inside. Definitely not the atmosphere in which I’d expect to drop $50 a plate. The best thing we had of the evening was the Caprese Salad, the tomatoes were completely firm and flavorful, the ratio of tomato to mozzarella to basil was spot on, and there was just enough balsamic that there was none wasted but enough to make the dish sufficiently flavorful. We also ordered the Horsey Blue (their version of a wedge salad that was flavorless), Chicken Piccata (the wife said the chicken was dry and the piccata sauce was very congealed), Veal Saltimbocca (never had a saltimbocca with a tomato mushroom sauce—it wasn’t bad but I wouldn’t order it again), and a plate of Pasta Carbonara (way too creamy, didn’t taste the egg in the sauce. It felt more like an Alfredo with Pancetta and peas—the two things I liked about the dish, than a traditional Carbonara). I also had a cocktail while my wife had a Chardonnay (or three), and I ordered a delicious tiramisu for desert while my wife received a complimentary cannoli, less the cannoli—so just a dollop of whatever cannoli’s are stuffed with, as she’s keto so doesn’t do sugar or grain. Which brings me to my final disappointment of the evening… each main course is served with a side of buttered angel hair pasta. They DO NOT do substitutions, so they offered to charge my wife the same price and just not serve her the pasta… and charge her additionally full price for whatever side item she’d rather have… we said forget it and we’d just have her meal served as is and I’d take her boring buttered pasta home for later and forego a side. Overall, I just can’t understand the hype and sadly can’t justify extending this place a second chance, especially at that...

I am super reluctant to leave a negative review, and I take pride in supporting local businesses when it’s earned. However, this was a very bad experience.

First, the hostess asks “do you want to sit in the back bar?” You could tell immediately from her tone of voice it was basically them asking us for a favor to sit in a less desirable location. I obliged, only to jokingly ask if it’s the “worst seat in the house?” The manager smiled and said it was fine, and then walked us to the back corner next to the restroom and the door the servers walk in and out of constantly. I asked to move tables and then throughout the meal saw two other groups walk into the “back bar” only to see it’s clearly not as great a location and walk back out. Bad seats happen, but it’s not a great look to be coerced into sitting in one to help out for scheduling when you have a reservation.

The waiter told us there “were no specials” only to hear another waitress next to us recite them to her table.

Had the shrimp scampi and it was 5 really hard/chewy shrimp on top of a bed of grocery store grade pasta. This just isn’t $22 worth of food. Wife had scallops and they were just as off.

The waiter came by at the end of the meal, picked up my plate and took two steps away before asking “were you done?” It felt tacky to point out that I was not done, and that my plate was still fairly full.

I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to work in a restaurant after the world went crazy these last two years. But this whole experience really exposed the fact that the value exchange just isn’t there. You’re paying a 350% markup for food you could easily make at home, and being asked to sit in the worst spot in the house with bad service.

I know this review won’t affect the bottom line for a very popular place. And on a warm summer night on the patio maybe I wouldn’t notice as much with fresh air and good energy. But when you’re faced with bad food and bad service you can’t help but call it out.

Restaurants value proposition to customers are fundamentally broken. Sometimes there’s enough smoke and mirrors within the ambiance to make you forget about it, but this time it was plain as day. Nothing about this is “worth” a $120 meal unless you just don’t care about the money. It’s a bummer because I love the spot but can’t see myself going back or recommending it to...