New York Restaurant Guide

One of the worst dining experiences ever. Our waiter was rude, unattentive, & very unfriendly. My linguini with clams was completely awful. The linguini was completely dry, cold, and had only a little cream sauce underneath it on the bottom of the bowl, as if they had put some sauce in and thrown dry pasta on top. The clams were so bad that I am pretty sure I've had better in a canned soup! I had chocolate cake for dessert, giving them a chance to redeem themselves- but the cake was not moist at all & the frosting was hard. Our waiter never came over to check on us, ask if things were okay or if we needed anything. We had to ask a bus boy if he could find someone who we could order some drinks from because our waiter was again no where in sight. The 4 of us were shocked to be treated so poorly. We didn't understand how you could give such a lack of service and still make good tips. We literally saw our waiter only 2 times during the hour and a half we were there, once to take our order & once to bring the check. Both times he was completely rude and unfriendly. When the check arrived, we finally realized why the service was so terrible and he treated us so badly- he had added on his own gratuity. Guess he figured he didn't have to even do the bare minimum, let alone be a friendly server, since he would tip himself anyway. We were so disgusted that we went to the host stand and asked why the tip had been included (I know it's sometimes added for larger parties, but we were just a party of 4) - he informed us it is stated on the menu that gratuity is included. I asked to see a menu because I was positive it did not say that. He showed us where it is stated on the dinner menu - the only problem was, we never saw the dinner menu - it was 1pm and we ordered from the lunch menu, on which it was not stated at all. We had to pay anyway, they insisted. This place treats you like dirt, and forces you to tip them as if you had been given attentive and friendly service.

In an effort to treat my husband for his birthday, I took my husband and another couple out to dinner, July 2008. My husband and I have had good experiences in Little Italy in the past and so he wanted to try another restaurant there. The other couple had never been there and thought it would be a fun experience. However, this experience left my husband upset and angry for the rest of the evening, ruining his birthday.

First, the waiter was gruff and denied requests that were slightly different than the menu, even though the restaurant prides itself in accommodating any special requests (from website, "Casa Bella has a very high standard for catering to all their guests, to satisfy each and every one"). They didn't have many beer options, so my husband did not get to have his choice of beer. I then had to beg the waiter to ask the bartender to add some grenadine to Coke to make Cherry-Coke, my husband's favorite non-alcoholic beverage.

Second, our food was not good. My linguini was undercooked (still tough to chew), my husband's gnocci was overcooked, and our friend's veal was difficult to cut through and chew. For the price, meal portions were small. Also there were no free refills on drinks (such as the Cherry-Coke), which I suppose is to be expected in NYC.

Third and most irritating is that a 20% MANDATORY GRATUITY FEE was surprisingly added to our bill. When we spoke with the waiter, the manager, and another restaurant employee (not sure of his title), all three argued with us and insisted that the gratuity choices were not an option for the customer to make at their restaurant. They used excuses such as needing to pay the expensive NYC rent for the restaurant property, and making sure that tourists don't under-tip the waitstaff, particularly because Europeans are notorious for not tipping because a 15% service is included in their bill at home. We pointed out that we are not Europeans and that we are usually generous tippers. Even with the bad service, we planned on tipping 15%.

Overall, we were extremely upset that (1) after crappy service and expensive crappy food, we were forced to pay an additional 20% on top of the food bill and city/state tax, and that (2) we were treated very rudely by the waiter and the manager to whom we issued our complaints. They seemed to have a too-bad-for-you-we're-going-to-rip-you-off-anyway attitude.

We noticed that other customers were upset by the same unpleasant treatment. When we first sat down, a neighboring table was upset when their bill arrived and had an argument with the waiter, who sarcastically told them, "Welcome to New York, my friends." We should have paid more attention to their complaints then and found somewhere else to eat, but we did not realize what the problem was until it happened to us! (After the fact, we noted that our nearby restaurants did not carry the same mandatory gratuity policy.)

Since ending our NYC trip, we have investigated mandatory tipping law in NY. As best we can find in our research, we have determined that it has been established in law that tips (gratuities) in restaurants and similar places are entirely optional at the customer's discretion, being a voluntary payment for personal service, _even if_ the amount is shown as an "automatic service charge" on the customer's invoice. That is, if a customer feels that service really sucked, he or she has the absolute moral and legal right to cross out the "automatic service charge" amount and put something less (or something greater, if service was glorious). Look up results of a Soprano vs. Taveras case in Sept 2004, and the following links.

http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg00734.html

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Is_it_legal_for_a_restaurant_in_New_York_City_to_charge_a_mandatory_service_charge_or_gratuity