Osteria Cicchetti — Restaurant in Wilmington

I don’t often write reviews, but I feel compelled to provide a warning to other potential diners.

A few weeks ago, my mom and I were excited for our reservation at the outdoor patio of Osteria Cicchetti. When we sat down, and noticed that were wasps buzzing around the patio, we pointed this out to the waitress, thinking it would raise concern and someone could bring over repellent or take some other (any other!) appropriate safety precaution. The waitress was not concerned, and basically dismissed the safety concern.

About mid-meal, a wasp landed on my mom and stung her. My poor mom was wincing, almost crying in pain — and I immediately alerted the waitstaff nearby on the patio and also inside, asking for any type of first aid kit or any type of help. My mom has severe allergies, and most people know that a severe allergic reaction to wasps is very common. Her entire hand, wrist, and arm started to visibly blow up.

We found the waiter, hostess, and management and told them immediately that a wasp had stung her at the table — AND THEY DID NOT CARE, nor react at all. If anything, they seemed to be bothered by my poor mom, tearing up in pain, asking for any first aide kit or ice because she was afraid she’d go into anaphylaxis due to the sting at any moment.

I had to go inside and get her ice for her swollen arm by myself, because no one who worked there cared enough to do so.

They simply ….did….not…care.

There was a massive wasp nest that was obviously visible (see photo) on the roof of the patio area, directly over the tables.

I of course understand that no establishment can control nature. However, they could have controlled their gross negligence of the massive wasp nest on wall and prevented the entire disaster.

As we stood there, icing her hand, making a plan of how to get to the hospital, we heard a waiter tell a tall man who was either the owner or in management of what had just happened, and they both stood there, looking up at the wasps nest above us. I expected him to ask if my mom was okay, but he completely ignored us, even though we were standing directly next to him, clearly distressed, my mom almost in tears.

I am not one to complain, and I typically wouldn’t share a bad dining experience publicly. However, this was not just a ‘bad dining experience.’ This was a DANGEROUS dining experience, due to this establishment’s severe negligence, lack of adherence to food safety code requiring first aide materials and knowledge, and most disappointingly, their blatant lack of care for...

Last week, I was craving Italian food, so my family went to Osteria. I ate here a long time ago and didn't have any vivid memories on the food, so after looking at all the reviews, we chose to eat here again. The hostess staff and waitress we encountered were nice, welcoming, and attentive. After reviewing the menu, my son wanted spaghetti and meatballs, I chose the goat cheese ravioli, and my husband chose a sausage and meatball spaghetti dish. The waitress had my son's food made first per my request, which I appreciated, and I always taste my son's food prior to serving it to him and...I'm sorry that meatball was awful. It's probably one of the worst meatballs I've ever had. The meat had been processed so much it was like pate, and it had no flavor. Most meatballs I've eaten, you cut it open, and you can see the meat grain, the cheese, the seasoning. This had been put in a processor and pulverized. The mouth felt gross. The second issue was my ravioli. It was so disappointing. The noodle was so thin you could barely taste it swimming in the red sauce, and the dish was advertised as having caramelized onions, artichokes, and goat cheese. You could not taste the onions or the artichokes. I don't even know if they were there and as for the cheese that's usually inside the ravioli, a reverse inflation portion of tablespoon of goat cheese ricotta was placed in the center of the dish to scoop from as you ate. It was so sad. I was actually really mad because I didn't like spending money on bad food. I really wanted to like this place and the staff were nice but it was awful. I am trying to leave a respectful review, but I am shocked at how many 4+ star reviews were left for this place. I'm avid cook and I travel the world trying new cuisines and this was just not it for me. I would rather have eaten at a chain...

Future inlaws were visiting and wanted to get take-out so we could all eat and visit. I recommended OC but the bat staff ignored the inlaws when they went to pickup then forgot my salad (sliming down for the wedding). I'd ordered a salad with added salmon ($8) but only a tiny cut of salmon arrived (see picture) sans salad.

So I volunteered to go get my salad. It was the day before grocery day so I didn't have much at the house. My choices were to not eat more than the two bites of salmon or go get food.

So I drove 20 min to the OC and when I arrive the manager is waiting at the host station with the salad. She was good to offer it up and I could have walked away but honestly it was frustrating to drive 40 minutes round trip and miss the dinner with my future inlaws. Part of that was my decision, I could have gotten food closer. But this place isn't cheap so I went back for the salad.

I brought up the tiny salmon portion to the manager the showed her a picture. That's where I got more frustrated. She said that's the 5oz side and that's how it's ways been. Then pushed the bag with salad to an inch of my chest and said here you can go....

So I get back and nobody has finished their food. It's mostly really buttery and greasy (fast forward to the next morning and I'm trying to scrape peas out of congealed sauce that's identical to refrigerated butter) which makes me a bit happy I got the salad. Turns out the $8 two bites of salmon was not fresh. It's easy to tell when fish had been reheated and it was not same day fish.... anyway, the actual salad was pretty fresh.

Conclusion- service is a negative due to attitude and missing the order. Food is a negative due to three people not finishing any dish due to butter/ grease content. Also due to the at least day old two bites of ...