Ristorante Castello — Restaurant in Whitpain Township

Overall, the best word to describe the total experience was "underwhelming*. (If they did 1/2 stars, good and service would probably be 1 ¹/2.)

My family has driven by this place since it opened, and it has such a beautiful aesthetic when you drive by that we always wanted to go in. With a toddler at home, finding a night out is always tough, especially since covid, so we don't take too many meals out to begin with. With our anniversary coming up, I was looking for someplace special, and based on the appearances and looking at the menu online, this seemed to be it.

The initial entrance is beautiful. The restaurant is lovely, well-appointed, with beautiful tables, linens, lighting, and everything else. We were set quickly in a corner table, but this is where the best part of the experience ends.

It took a while for anyone to even look our way or acknowledge us. When our server finally made it over, she didn't seem to have a very strong grasp of the menu. Eventually we ordered our appetizers, a spinach salad, and the grilled octopus. I didn't know it was possible to be so disappointed by a salad. The Copper Crow restaurant nearby has a similar salad with almost an identical description. This is actually why we ordered it because we love that one. This was basically some unwashed spinach thrown into a bowl with some bland dressing, a handful of raw pine nuts, and two small pieces of grilled goat cheese. Those two marble sized nuggets were the best thing about the salad. The rest seriously looked like a child took lettuce out of a bag from Target and dumped some nuts on it and haphazardly put a small squirt of dressing on it. The dressing itself was also completely bland and flavorless. Grilled octopus is one of my favorite dishes, so I am very discerning about it. And this was one of the worst I've had. First of all, there was a giant heap of very dry, flavorless couscous that actually appeared to be the star of the dish. In second place on the dish was a giant wad of undressed kale and tomatoes that seemed to have no point. Finally, we found some octopus in there. This is to say that the tiny portion of grilled octopus was a dwarfed by the extras. Again, no flavor to the dish at all so this was possible by biggest disappointment of the night. Another long period went by after finishing with our appetizers. Finally, our server came out to tell us the entrees would be right out, which they were not. Then she asked how the drinks were that we ordered at the beginning of the night. She still hasn't refilled our long since emptied water. My drink was way too sweet so I didn't drink much of it. I told her this and she just kinda said "ohh okay." And walked away. Eventually, a food runner brought our entrees. My wife has the seafood ravioli. This dish was... "Okay". Tough, overcooked shrimp, and drowned in the most flavorless vodka sauce I've ever tasted. I ordered salmon with lobster risotto which was also "fine". The salmon seemed unseasoned, the risotto was bland with texture of hours old oatmeal. The best thing on the dish were the haricot vert, and carrots. We both used the salt and pepper shakers far more than we ever thought we would in such a nice place. When we were nearly through with the meal, our server returned. She apologized that she waited until we were almost done and just said "well, I hope everything was good .. Was it?". We're not in the business of being rude, so we just said it was fine. She seemed offended we didn't want dessert.

The best thing about this experience was the building itself. Unfortunately, the food and service simply don't live up to the price point (nearly $150 for two people including tip). At best, the experience was slightly below that is TGIFridays or cheesecake factory. It wasn't offensive, or awful, but it was just so bland and ordinary. With literally hundreds of great restaurants to choose from, it's hard to imagine returning to, or even recommending this...

The evening started out nicely with one waitress greeting us and reciting a long list of specials. We inquired about cocktails and the waitress said she would send the drink “expert” to our table. Soon after another young lady appeared at our table to take the cocktail orders. I inquired if the bar had Aperol. She replied rather brusquely, “What’s that!” I explained it’s an Italian aperitif generally available in Italian restaurants and certainly all over Italy. Again, rather brusquely the waitress replied, “Well this is America not Italy!” I couldn’t believe my ears. Calming myself I inquired if the bar could make a Pear Martini. “No!” was the reply. I then ordered an Appletini. (It turned out the bar didn’t have the makings of an Appletini either so I settled on a Watermelon Martini which was undrinkable.) My husband asked if she could take the wine order. “sure” was the reply. Okay we will have a bottle of number 102 he said. Again with the “what’s that” and “I never heard of that, let me see the wine list.” Clearly, she had never taken a wine order before.

The wine bottle arrived delivered by the first waitress we encountered. She properly presently the bottle to my husband and stepped back to uncork the bottle. That task done she at once loudly proclaimed “Who wants wine”? and began to pour around the table filling each glass more than half full. We could only stare at each other amazed at this lack of proper wine serving.

Shortly after a waiter appeared at our table to take our dinner orders. We briefly related our experience with trying to order drinks to which he proclaimed, “Well we’re not into mixed drinks at this restaurant we specialize in wine.” At this point we didn’t bother to relate our wine experience. He took our orders expertly and we settled back.

The timing was appropriate between ordering and delivery of our appetizers and entrees. But I must say I find it an additional breach of fine dining etiquette when the servers need to loudly proclaim around the table “who had the ravioli,” “who had the veal chop,” rather than knowing ahead of time which seat had which entrée. While everyone enjoyed the food, praising the flavors, every entrée could have been served hotter. One diner’s ravioli dish was room temperature. Perhaps heated dinner plates might be considered.

My husband ordered a second bottle of wine. This time the waitress brought it to the table and immediately began the opening process. One of my guests presented a glass in front of the server and said that his dining partner would taste. Completely ignoring this request, the waitress opened the bottle, flopped it on the table and departed.

Finally, and during the course of eating our entrees, one of my guests stopped our waitress walking by and requested that her water glass be refilled. The response from the waitress was that she was too busy to refill water glasses! The waitress did finally come by with a pitcher of water after we were done with the entrees.

One would say why didn’t I contact the manager to report the lack of customer service and proper dining protocols. How can one explain without totally ruining the evening that every person encountered during the dining experience was obviously lacking in training and experience? It would have sounded very insulting. Better to write and review for others to beware and for us to cross this place...

The good parts: Beautiful building Mike (Bartender) – very kind man who works non-stop. The ONLY one there that asked anything about our food, drinks, if we needed anything, etc. Entree was good, although Caesar salad was very oily with a lemony taste. Cocktails were horrible (stick to the wine). The bad parts: Overall atmosphere is you are invisible unless one of the old regulars. Others in close proximity to us had expressed the same sentiment. The manager was floating around spending lots of time talking and checking up on certain tables but ignored everyone else. One positive for her is she jumped behind the bar to help when they were overloaded. But it seemed like she was only making drinks for a select few and ignored others with empty glasses. We were not told about any of the specials but those beside us were. We witnessed an altercation between 2 bartenders and an obvious regular couple. The male customer called the female customer “a bitch”. The male bartender stood up to the male customer saying “I don’t care who you are, you don’t call a woman a bitch”. The male customer yelled back stating “why don’t we take this out to the parking lot”. The male bartender then went to find the manager to let her know about this customer. I could see her looking over and just shaking her head. She didn’t come over. The female bartender also went to the manager and again the manager did not come over. The male customer was still making loud comments to the bartenders who were still trying to work and take care of their customers. Numerous customers in the bar area all heard this happening. Finally the manager was a few feet away from me talking to the female bartender who was telling her manager about the continued abusive comments. The manager kept looking over at them and was about to walk away. I had enough and approached the manager. I told her she needs to address this because the situation is getting obnoxious and the customer continues to berate both bartenders. She finally went over to the couple. And apparently knew them very well. She puts her arms around them, was smiling and laughing with them. And then floats away. Never apologies to us or anyone else who witnessed it, doesn’t ask them to leave, nothing. A couple who was sitting at a high top behind them was so disgusted they immediately paid and left. The male bartender did apologize to us about his outburst and the situation overall. I’ve never experienced a place that management would allow a customer (regardless if they are a regular) to berate their staff and not do something about it. And definitely to make it worse by kibitzing with those customers, not apologizing to the other customers, and ignoring the well-being of their staff. We will let our friends and family know what this establishment stands for and how they treat their employees and...