I was looking forward to eating at Cafe Gelato because of al the favorable reviews I've read, so I went to lunch during Newark's Restaurant Week. It was very disappointing. The soup, a potato with truffle, was very bland. My mother had a chicken salad panino, and it was also very bland. I had crab stuffed raviolis and they were very good. Before we asked for the check, we notified the waitress that we had a coupon that was sent to our home address. My mother is on the mailing list. The coupon said not to open it until we got to the restaurant. ""No Peeking"" was in bold letters. The waitress told us we should of opened it earlier, and we could use it another time ""b/c it might of been a free appetizer and I don't want to run back and put in an order to go"". I said we'll forgo it if it?s a free appetizer, can we just see what is inside first? No, she replied; use it when you come back. I educated her that it expired at the end of January, and it was already the 27th. After a loud sigh, she opened the envelope. It was a free scoop of Gelato and we had a scoop on the check. She said she would take it off and bring back the check. She brought back the check; it still had the gelato on it. Just wanting to leave, we didn't bring it up, gave her $50 cash for a $35 check, and handed her the parking tickets to be validated. I asked, do I give these to you and you bring them back with my change or ask the host at the door (who was very friendly and polite) She replied she could do it for us and brought back the validated parking ticket with no change. Yes, I had to ask for my change on my tab. She claims she didn't realize we weren?t' giving her a 43% tip. We finally left, after leaving a 20%tip, which at this point I thought was more than generous. When we attempted to pull out of the parking lot to leave, we found out our parking ticket wasn't validated either. If you really want to try Cafe Gelato, I'd suggest take out.
Pros: Looks to be reasonably priced and a nice menu
Cons: The service was bad and the food wasn't good enough to over look that aspect.
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