Perhaps on a relatively touristy strip of nothing but bars and restaurants near a bunch of hotels, service doesn't have to be a priority in order for a restaurant to stay open. It certainly was not at Casa Nuova tonight.
The three of us were seated quickly, and our waiter took drink orders, but he up-sold my wife on a higher-priced glass of wine by literally not answering her question about what the house wine was, twice. When he brought our drinks, he took our order for pastas, and we asked him if they could do cheesy garlic bread - the answer was yes.
Ten minutes later, the waiter brought three *orders* of cheesy garlic bread, and when we said we'd only asked for one, he tried to reassure us that we would want the rest. We had to insist he take them back. (In fairness, the cheesy garlic bread turned out to be decent, but this was an oddly passive-aggressive up-sell.)
Meanwhile, two larger groups had come in with 5 or 6 in each, but we ordered our dinner before either of those groups. We waited and waited for our pastas, watched the other two tables get their apps (including the 5-top getting four or five entire orders of cheesy garlic bread, doubtless including the two we'd sent back), and waited some more.
Our friend who had ordered white wine asked for another, but the waiter brought a glass of red - which my wife graciously agreed to take since she figured she'd probably have a second one eventually anyway. But time kept on passing - 30 minutes since our order, 35 minutes since, 40 minutes since... I asked the waiter where our pasta was, and he said if we were hungry he could always bring back the other two orders of cheesy garlic bread(!!). We declined, and he said he would check on our pasta, but he didn't return. Then it was 45 minutes since our order
... at which point we watched the same waiter start to serve pasta entrees to the same 5-top that had ordered after us.
At that, we finally got up, canceled our order, insisted on paying for what we'd actually consumed, and wished the other large group luck in getting their food anytime soon. The waiter said that we would've gotten our pastas in just one more minute, but we saw no indication that was actually true, so we went to a nearby supermarket for what turned out to be pretty good sandwiches.
It's a shame most people probably won't check the reviews before eating there. The owners and staff are probably counting on it. read more