The worse Italian food ever, worse than Olive Garden and that’s really bad. My husband had the Alfredo chicken and I had the Asiago. How can a restaurant stay open with such awful food. We were on a trip reminiscing my years at boarding school in Clinton.
They have the best food on the block. It was my mom's childhood favorite when she was growing up and mine too. It has served many generations in Clinton Iowa.
I have never been treated with such disrespect by a hostess in all of my years. Our family has always loved Rastrelli's and have no problem spending hundreds of dollars every time we dine there because we can appreciate supporting a local, family owned business. We had a reservation made for 8 adults and one child. Our hostess, Amberly, had led us to our table and upon reaching it, there were 8 chairs that were placed so closely together that seating 8 adults, let alone a high chair, would be impossible to dine at. The chairs were touching one another and still hanging just past the edge of the two small tables that were pushed together. After realizing that the tables were so small and had yet to have a highchair added, I had went and tracked down the hostess and asked if we could add another small table or sit somewhere else, to which she replied "there's no way we can do that, we have nowhere else you can sit" I replied that we had made a reservation for this reason and her response was "we have lots of reservations." Mind you, half of the booths were empty. I told her, if we can't, then we may have to cancel our reservation because it just wouldn't work. She said nothing and walked away. We decided, before the remainder of the party showed up, that we had no choice but to go somewhere that could accommodate our party size. As the hostess, Amberly, was passing by, I had politely told her thank you, but we are going to have to go somewhere else because there just wouldn't be enough room. She then rolled her eyes at me and said nothing and walked passed me. I said "Ma'am did you hear me? She exclaimed loudly "Yes, I heard you!" I responded, "I was just making sure." I then asked her her name and she basically yelled it at me... "Amberly!" I said thank you and left. She simply rolled her eyes and ignored me rather than acknowledge my politely letting her know we were leaving. She obviously was bothered by our presence and business from the start. Her disrespect was so obvious that others in our party were absolutely speechless. I have never left a restaurant due to poor service...EVER. I am not one to complain, but I have NEVER been treated so poorly by waitstaff, in my life. Especially by a hostess, whose job it is to be friendly and inviting. They are, after all, the first and last interaction customers receive at a business. It is a shame to let employees treat customers this way. We were treated as if we were an inconvenience and to top that off, I was down right insulted by her short tone and physical gestures on multiple occasions. I would never let an employee treat a customer that way because I, myself, would never treat someone that way. We left and went to a different establishment, which, ironically enough, without having to say a single word, had offered to grab an extra table after seating us if we wanted them to. I can say though, as long as there are employees there that treat customers so rudely, I will not be back and business will eventually decline if it continues. When employees treat customers as an inconvenience, rather than the reason they are able to make their living, they are detrimental to the businesses that they work at and represent, and will inevitably cause a decline in customers and in turn, revenue. Allowing such behavior is unacceptable. Manners and common coutesy was definitely lacking from the moment we walked through the door. I expected so much more from this establishment. Hopefully, the proper measures will be taken to assure that other customers don't have to have such a poor experience.
My wife,I and my grandson went for dinner tonight. I had the Pizza special and salad bar. My wife had 4 pc fried chicken and my grandson had the kids hot dog with carrots. Our order seemed to take awhile as it seemed the waitress had to many tables to tend to. When we got our meals I noticed the hotdog was over cooked and tough, he never ate it and what we thought would be cooked carrots were instead a hand full of raw carrots in a little bowl just like what the salad bar has. My Asiago chicken. pizza was overcooked. My wife chicken seemed ok to her. We also ordered a togo meal of cheese ravioli. When we received our bill there was a 2 dollar upcharge for dark meat that was never mentioned. The togo order we received had 5 raviolis in it!! 17 dollars for 5 ravioli. I mentioned the 2 dollar upcharge and was told "Oh I didn't know that" and "I wonder if the waitress knew it" Of course you all knew it!! I've given Rastrellis breaks in the past and it never seems mistakes are ever taken care of and continue. Using local is not always better, same service as McDonald's in my opinion.
Had their pizza first time there everyone always talked it up so I was disappointed to see the cheese was burnt like Donald trump's face the crust was crunchy I wish I had gotten tombstone would have been better and cheaper. The cost for your pizza is outrageous considering how bad and underwhelming it was.
Excellent service! Such friendly staff. Food was great and a visit here was an experience, not just a place to eat. Just visiting the area and so glad we lucked onto this restaurant.
great food, friendly service
I will be thinking about the Cheese Tortellini for a long time...best I've ever had! Good service, huge portions, great value! Glad we found this gem!
Always enjoy dining at this restaurant! Was well worth my 90 mile drive from Cedar Rapids! My Sister and I met for lunch and enjoyed the salad bar, which was delicious, fresh and had many offerings. A basket of warm baked bread was brought to the table which I enjoyed with a bowl of french onion soup, It was the best I have ever had! Lots of cheese & fresh croutons in a delicious seasoned broth. I could not leave without ordering our traditional and favorite take-n-bake sausage, mushroom and onion pizza!
The gentleman who waited on us was probably the best part of our meal. We ordered prime rib medium well for valentines day both were cold and almost rare. Last time I ate here had the ribeye it was awesome, this time not so much. Just have to say for the price small prime rib $30.00 each probably won't be back.