Stella

After hearing mixed reviews, I went to Stella for dinner a few weeks ago with friends and was very disappointed with the service more than anything. As an event planner, to me dining is about the experience -- and that includes food, service and atmosphere. While the atmosphere was good (lively and fun), the food was mediocre and the service was horrible.

First, the waiter was very rude. He ridiculed two people from our party for being “late,” and I don’t just mean a passing joke by a trying-to-be-friendly-waiter, I mean full on rude. The rest of us were shocked to silence by the repeated comments he made. Second, the server brought bread to half the people at the table and not the other half, although two requests for bread had been made (at this point we had two bottles of wine open while we were scanning the menu).

In addition, the waiter failed to ensure that special requests were followed. Some think that people who make special requests (i.e. no butter, no onions please, dressing on the side, can I have asparagus instead of rice) are high-maintenance, but I believe that one mark of a good restaurant is the ability to accommodate their guests. In this instance Stella failed to do that by every measure. Suffice it to say the level of service at Stella was appalling for a place claiming to be top-notch. I’d recommend going someplace else….

My wife and I ventured into the South End from the suburbs for an early Saturday evening dinner with two of our children and their significant others. The minimally decorated room filled quickly with a talkative crowd. I like simple Italian food and chose the spaghetti with garlic and oil. The fresh pasta was infused with abundant garlic and was as good as I have ever had. The other diners in my party had elegantly prepared broiled fish which they enjoyed thoroughly. Service was prompt and polite but not intrusive. But, when a server spilled sauce from an appetizer on my lap, it seemed like an army of people sprung into action to clear away the mess. My napkin caught to spill but I got an uneasy feeling the offending server was going to suffer some medieval punishment.

The staff is rude. They favor their own friends even when other patrons have reservations. The food is not that bad, but the time they take to serve the food, coupled together with slow and terrible service, make this place almost a nightmare.