I had to go to Little Italy for a birthday party recently to experience some "good Italian food" and this party was held at Puglios.

My advice to anyone reading this is:
Be Afraid..be very afraid!!

This is not Italian Food. Well if you consider calamari with ketchup Italian Food
than you're in good shape.

The Pasta was incredibly overcooked and lacked any flavor what-so-ever. Velveeta Macaroni seemed like a gourmet dinner compared to this.

Perhaps my favorite moment was when I went to the bar to smoke a cigarette, a waiter ordered a glass of red wine for his table, drank about half of it (right in front of me!!) and then actually delivered the half-empty glass to the customer's table.

I've been in the restaurant business for a few years, and never in my life have I witnessed or experienced anything like this place. (And generally I'm pretty sympathetic to errors, mistakes and even bad service at times)

I was going to say something to the management but I was honestly so unbelievably shocked with the whole thing.


Ironically, the laughable "Elvis Impersonator" they employ for entertainment was worth a few laughs. Looks nothing like Elvis, doesn't sound like Elvis and actually really looks like Ritchie from the Sopranos. (could pass for his twin)

If you're ever in the vicinity and feel like trying it, trust me save your money and buy some Chef Boyardee.

After just glancing at other people's posts I noticed that alot of people don't want to mention any offending restaurant's names.

I'm now curious as to what would actually be a liability for that? If that was the case, how come we haven't seen food critics sued for slander about their reviews.

I think we are still protected by the 1st Amendment...free speech. I think you can say anything you want about your opinion of a restaurant.

[Live_to_cook]

Second what Crudeau said. The First Amendment protects opinions, as long as they're not intentional, deliberate falsehoods that provably harm someone's business.

Perhaps the reason some people choose not to mention names is that there are a high percentage of restaurant service people on Cheftalk, many of whom are less eager to publically embarass a place.

When I want to talk about a place I name it, because I'm trying to give people information they might (remotely possibly) use.

But not everybody feels that way, and that's their right too.

This just goes to show that in foodservice, consistency is the key to staying in business. Even if your food is consistently bad, some people will like it and keep coming back.

Maybe it's a "Front." In that case I would be afraid!