This Popular Italian Restaurant in Addison has lost my business for good—no more Chances.

Living in the area of Wood Dale, I am always on the hunt to try somewhere local and support them. I remember trying Elio Pizza several years ago and I was not really impressed with the food. However, my biggest complaint was the atmosphere created by the employees. My first interaction felt very cliquey, with preferential treatment given to people they knew instead of new customers.

Bad servicePhoto bycfk

Fast forward to this current summer, I wanted to give this place another try because they’ve had five years to improve. My first revisit was very nice. I found that their food prices were very reasonable, and the flavor of the food had also improved. Our waitress at the time seemed very nice. I was excited because this could be my new local eatery that I would frequent often.

Fast forward a couple of days later, we decided to dine there again. The waitstaff was all young people, mainly women. The atmosphere had now changed. Everyone was goofing off or on their phones, with no attention to the customers. It felt like a high school hangout for the staff. The owner was there, but I did not catch his name. He stopped at a table to say hello but did not come to ours, even though he looked at us multiple times. He was the person who told us to sit anywhere when we walked in, yet he made no attempt to introduce himself.

Muffalata was coldPhoto bycfk

This was my third attempt to give them another shot. The service was awful. The owner was running around with someone who appeared to be doing some sort of construction. He walked up to one or two tables to say hello, but again, he looked at our table and did not decide to say hello to us. Our waitress never came back for refills. I had to flag them down to get the bill and ask for a refill—basic stuff in a restaurant.

This was my last visit. I tried to give them one more shot, making it my fourth time within a month. There were only two other tables in the restaurant. A young waitress came up to us and asked if we were ready to order before we even sat down. I told her we would like an iced tea. Before I could also request some water, she had already taken off. She came back one minute later and asked if we were ready to order. Luckily, since we had been there before, we knew what we wanted. She took our order and immediately ran away; this was the last time I saw our waitress. The entire staff was goofing off. The table next to me also looked annoyed, with one person asking his partner where the waitress was. There was a girl who I assumed was a manager, serving tables with a Starbucks cup in her hand, chatting with one of the cooks, and ignoring the customers.

Salad was only thing that made it worth coming herePhoto bycfk

My family ran a restaurant for over 20 years. We know how important it is to greet all of your customers and treat them like family. It doesn’t matter if the restaurant is dead; that is when you should treat customers even better and give them more attention. I sat for 20 minutes, sucking on ice cubes with my wife. I could not take it anymore. I went up to the front counter and asked for our bill. I complained that we had been sitting there without any service. Could we please get a to-go box? She apologized and took five dollars off our bill. At this point, it does not matter. I will never come back here. This place does not value customers. Their food is decent, but it’s a shame. The owner has zero desire to befriend new customers. I will not be returning to this place. Maybe I’ll check them out in another five years if they are still around.

As I always say, check this place out for yourself. For me, this is a big no. I don’t care if the food is excellent and they are giving it away. If you have horrible waitstaff and customer service, I will not return to your restaurant.