My family and I have been patrons of Marinelli's in Palmer/Easton since around 2011, so writing…read morethis review honestly makes me sad. We went there for their advertised Mother's Day special dinner this year, and unfortunately it was one of the worst dining experiences we've had in a very long time.
To begin with, it took roughly an hour just to receive salads -- the first course of the meal. The restaurant was clearly busy, which we expected on Mother's Day, but the service throughout the evening never recovered. It became extremely difficult to get any follow-up service at all. At one point, my wife literally had to call across the restaurant just to get someone's attention, which is something we would never normally do.
The staff themselves were polite, but communication was often difficult, which made handling problems with the meal frustrating and confusing.
There were also several issues with the Mother's Day promotion itself. The advertisement stated that mothers would receive a complimentary rose and appetizer, but neither mother in our party received a rose. We were also only given one printed special-menu sheet for a table of four, which made ordering unnecessarily awkward.
As someone with gluten intolerance, I already understood my options would be limited, but I was genuinely shocked by the quality of the food I received. I ordered the gluten-free pasta Bolognese, and the pasta arrived visibly undercooked -- hard to cut with a fork and hard to bite into. The sauce was overwhelmingly heavy and spicy, more like an arrabbiata-style meat sauce than a traditional Bolognese. I returned the dish and instead ordered my longtime fallback choice there: a gluten-free personal pizza.
Unfortunately, that was no better. By the time the pizza arrived, the rest of my party had already finished eating. The crust tasted undercooked and chalky, almost like a frozen pre-made crust that had not been properly prepared. I could barely eat half a slice, even after trying to reheat it at home later.
To make matters worse, because there were no gluten-free soup or dessert options available, I effectively paid for a special dinner experience while barely being able to eat at all.
The rest of my party was similarly disappointed. The desserts were underwhelming, the cheesecake portions were unusually thin, and the cannoli texture was off.
What disappointed us most, however, was the response afterward. We politely spoke with the manager, whom we've known for years, hoping at least for some acknowledgment or effort to make things right after such a poor experience. Instead, we essentially received an awkward apology and no real attempt whatsoever to address the problems.
I was also surprised to see the pricing discrepancies. The gluten-free personal pizza was listed online around $16, yet the dine-in price came to nearly $23 after an additional $4 pepperoni charge. When I asked why the dine-in price was higher, I was told it was to pay for the dining room redesign -- which honestly felt like a very strange explanation.
I genuinely hate writing reviews like this because we have supported Marinelli's for many years and have had decent experiences there in the past. But after this Mother's Day dinner, we unfortunately left feeling ignored, overcharged, and deeply disappointed.
