King Umberto Avis 3

My family and I walked into the restaurant. First, my daughter that’s 17 years old walked in to get our table. The owner gave her a nasty look and said “you do know this side of the restaurant doesn’t sell slices of pizza right?”. Then, the hostess proceeded to give her a nasty look. I walked in a few minutes later and the guy said “you look good.” In a very sarcastic tone. We sat down at the table and ordered the food. Our waiter was named Giovanni, I decided to order veal for my mother. He proceeded to give me a nasty look and say “you do know the price is anywhere from $56-$60”. Implying that I don’t have money due to the way I was dressed. My daughter owned some salmon dish, and when she ate it, she found fish bones inside of the dish. There are no bones inside of salmon , which made no sense. Giovanni also never would give us refills, we would have to ask multiple times. I had the veal Marcella and the dish was terrible. The owner walks over and decided to say “hey I took it off your $300 bill.”. This was the Worst service I have ever received. I felt so mistreated when money is money. He was making it seem as if I was going to dine and dash because of my outfit. People were wearing the same exact outfits as me and my daughter but they never commented towards them. I always eat out and never have been treated like this before. This was very disrespectful, the only reason I didn’t get up was because of my family. Plus I left a $40 tip that he didn’t deserve.

Last week might be the last time we go to King Umberto. What happened here?

The staff has changed (they were a major reason why we traveled all the way to Elmont, NY to eat) and none of the charming people are still there.

Portions have gotten considerably smaller. Food quality is declining.

Pizza is - at best - meh.

I guess, as they say, all good things must come to an end one day. It seems like we are now experiencing the downfall of this once glorious local food empire. :(

My family and I had been going to King Umbertos since 1990 and we thoroughly enjoyed it throughout the years. I - personally - love the specials that they offer, one being an agnolotti dish. Unfortunately, we have been noticing that things at this restaurant seem to be going downhill recently and standards have definitely and drastically been lowered.

For one thing, the staff has changed quite a bit. We are wondering why the quality professionals that had been working at the establishment for years (probably even more like decades) are no longer there?

Wait times for a table - when we have a reservation - have increased to an uncomfortable amount of time.

King Umberto's seems to no longer have or, at least, adhere to a dress code because we have experienced (on more than one occasion) sitting next to men wearing tank tops, short pants and sandals (with hairy toes sticking out) in the formal dining room. Speaking for the group, we found this to be unsettling.

Another time, while in the formal dining room, the people sitting at the table next to us ordered and were eating a pizza. We specifically choose to sit in the dining room at KU (as opposed to the pizzeria side) to have a more formal dining experience. We are not sure as to why they have started serving pizza in the dining room however we were very much turned off by this new practice.

In conclusion, we were extremely disappointed in our latest visit. We are hoping that things turn around here and class is restored to this restaurant.