6. La Fontanella

We visit Phoenix yearly and La Fontanella is always the first restaurant we go to. Food and service are always great!

After driving past the restaurant numerous times, my wife and I finally decided to have dinner there. In short, we will not be back. Although the service was acceptable, the food was far from the proclaimed "magnificent". The highlight was the soup and my wife's salad. Although my wife’s entree was prepared well, extremely tender pork; I had a difficult time believing my dish was not, at least in part, frozen. The diced tomatoes in the marinara were nice, however the "puddle" of water that accompanied and lack of flavor that followed did little to impress. Growing up in south Philadelphia and spending quite a bit of item the San Francisco Bay Area, I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing countless great Italian meals. Unfortunately, La Fontanella will not be joining that list. Generally I try my best to be kind to family owned and operated restaurants and most of the time praise and hype are lived up to. I am happy we tried it, however we’ve spent have as much on dinners elsewhere and raved about the food and experience for weeks, after spending over $100 at La Fontanella it just not worth it.

We took 14 people there for dinner tonight and had appetizers and full meals for our daughter's 18th birthday. The bill was $450 (we didn't even have drinks). We brought our daughter's favorite cake for dessert which the waiter happily offered to take back to the kitchen to slice. When the bill came, there was a $52 charge added on for SLICING THE CAKE. And an 18% service charge on the meal AND THE SLICING OF THE CAKE!!!!!!! We were never told anything about that and when we asked, we were told that the restaurant was insulted that we brought our own cake. Wouldn't you think that they would be gracious with us after we bought dinner for 14 people? With so many great restaurants in town, with owners who appreciate a good customer, why would anyone go to such a place?

Simply said... food was great, service was very good. The staff was professional and timely. The menu prices were a great value. Look in the Arcadia Newspaper for coupons!