Dema's Italian Bistro 18256 E Williams Field Rd Ste 7 Gilbert, AZ 85295

Dema's Italian Bistro
18256 E Williams Field Rd Ste 7
Gilbert, AZ 85295

Date 5/1/2009

Server: "N"
Time of day: post dinner rush around 8:00pm


My first comment about this place is that if you must follow (the same location) a well known, established, great restaurant like Baci, you need at at least be a close second otherwise you're doomed from the start!

They had just opened the other day so there wasn't much of a crowd. (Good for us) so I thought!

Hostess greeting was pleasant and we were seated promptly.

The first thing that Darla and I both noticed about the atmosphere was that it was bright, I mean bright! Like an operating room bright. It was accentuated with pink and orange walls with olive/ brown accents. (hmmm we'll leave that alone LOL)

The furnishings were mostly tables with uncomfortable looking wire/metal chairs and wobbly tables. We oped to sit at a booth. The red and white checked table clothes reminded me of a bad Brooklyn pizzeria (Brownsville for you ny'ers)

The server (at first) was very pleasant and full of smiles. She was quick to take our order.

Darla and I both went with the chicken Parmesan with ziti and we ordered Zoe ravioli with marinara sauce.

The food was "up" pretty fast. The meals were served with some good garlic sticks. They will quickly become the highlight of the meal! LOL

ok... heeeeeeeeeeeeere we go! For starters, the portions were very small. 1 small piece of chicken and some pasta. For $13 bucks you would expect more. Most of the Italian restaurants serve 2 halves of chicken with lots - o pasta. This was like a lunch menu portion. Ohhhh but it gets' better. The kids meal for Zoe was priced at $6.00. $6 bucks for 4 small raviolis? Yes! I said $6.00 for 4 hard raviolis!

To The Food:

From the first bite of my chick-parm, it was not a pleasant experience. The chicken had a freezer burn taste to it and the pasta was very hard and under cooked. It just tasted "wrong".

Now keep in mind that I RARELY EVER send anything back. Even if it's not so great, I will sometimes choke it down as to not have to wait for something else.

I asked Darla what she thought and she agreed that it was not a good taste. (I wanted to make sure that I wasn't crazy! :) )

I ate as much as I could as I was hungry from a day at Tempe town lake.

When the server came by for the customary "how is everything?" Well ...I couldn't lie. I told her that I didn't like my food. I was very polite and quiet about it. I told her that it just didn't taste "right"

Well, you would have thought that I insulted her mama! If looks could kill, well, I'd be a goner! "What's wrong with it?!", "I've been serving chicken all day and there have been no complaints!" I guess it's an individual taste" she says. Followed quickly with the following comment, "Some people are just pickier than others."

Being the good Christian that I am :) I bit my tongue and remained polite. I asked the server to please remove the plate and she did as I requested but here's the kicker..

She never offered me anything else. not another dinner, not more bread sticks, nothing.

Shortly after she returned, Darla told her that her chicken just didn't taste "right" either.We told the server that we didn't expect the restaurant to take both meals off the check, we are not looking for a free meal but they need to know when something isn't right. We just didn't like it. (quite frankly, all of the meals should have been comped but that's not what we're about)

She did remove one of the dinners from the check so we paid for 1 dinner and the $6 ravioli that Zoe didn't eat.

She had told us that a manager would be by to talk to us. Well guess what?... after 20 minutes, no manager.

We ate the extra bread sticks (that we had to asked for) to get full, paid the bill and left.

Even on the way out the door.... you guessed it.. no manager!

Oh and by the way Zoe ate a 1/2 a ravioli. Even the baby didn't like it her pasta, it was too hard. The funny thing is that when we got home, we fed her some canned pasta kids meal and she finished it!

Maybe they should hire Chef Boy-R-Dee LOL

Out of a possible "5 YUMS"...

Dema's gets a HALF-A- YUM and that's for the bread sticks!!

Will we return? definitely not! Baci is only a couple of miles away!