With my mom's 60th birthday approaching, I wanted to plan a special evening. I live and work in the Netherlands but was able to arrange a brief visit to Minnesota. More than a month in advance, I booked a reservation at Biella for Sunday, October 4th at 6pm. I spoke with Biella's proprietor and general manager, Mark, who told me about a number of special options that he could arrange. We decided on a 5-course taster's menu and he said they could make a special tiramisu for seven people and serve it with candles. Mark promised to create the taster's menu and send the details along with a price estimate before the evening of the dinner. I also told him we might take advantage of the happy hour (I understood it ran until 6:30pm on Sundays) and he said fine. After that I never heard back from him, though I tried to call a few times before the big night. However, I'd already sent a number of emails and we'd spoken on the phone twice - I felt sure that he would follow through.
We arrived on Sunday and my dad went to check on the reservation. It was there, though it was listed as a ""60th wedding anniversary party."" Neither the wait staff nor Raul, the executive chef, had heard about a taster's menu being prepared for our party. They said we could just order off the regular menu. I said we'd like to see what was available for happy hour but were then told it only applied for those sitting at the bar (why didn't Mark mention this to me when I expressed interest?).
The waiter brought wine and poured the glasses too big so he had to open another bottle in order to fill my mom's glass (a bottle which we wouldn't have ordered otherwise, and didn't finish). He also delivered an appetizer we hadn't ordered, and bothered us continually to keep ordering food so the meal could be ""timed"" right. But the service was really the least of the problems.
Then the tiramisu. The waiter asked me if he should take other dessert orders or just bring out the tiramisu. Of course just the tiramisu - it was for seven people, right? Well, a piece came out with a candle and was placed in front of my mom. We sang, she blew out the candle, and we waited. Ten minutes passed and it became apparent that no seven-person tiramisu was on its way. At this point I went and spoke to the manager for the evening who did provide us with more tiramisu and gave me a discount on the meal. This was the only redeeming part of the evening.
This experience was completely outrageous. Mark has demonstrated an utter lack of interest in his guests and has lost at least seven future customers (my family are locals). Even the staff seem to recognize his incompetence - I was told that ""we would like to apologize for our boss."" I will never eat at this restaurant again, and urge anyone seeking to create a special occasion to avoid it like the plague.
Pros: looks great on paper
Cons: everything else
more