Caporella's Italian Ristorante

So, I came here only because I had a gift card. I also have a dairy allergy. You may wonder why I ate at an Italian restaurant given this information. I was wary. But I'm not so extremely sensitive that cross contamination is a big risk, and I called ahead of time and asked if they could accommodate my allergy and the person on the phone said yes. There was gluten free stuff on the menu which gave me hope they'd be conscientious. When we got there, our table's waiter insisted to me that they could make ravioli for me that was dairy free. She insisted they read the label on the box of ravioli and that it did not contain milk or cheese. I was super excited because I used to love ravioli and haven't had it in so long since I developed my dairy allergy. The interior of the restaurant was beautiful for an atmospheric family meal vibe. Great, right? No. The plate came and I took a bite and could tell immediately that something was off. I asked her to check again and, surprise, the ravioli actually does have cheese. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. So. They apologized a bunch and took the plate and I ordered the steak and baked potato instead. I explained again that I would need margarine for the potato, not butter, and the waiter insisted they could do that. At that point I had no appetite because of, you know, being food poisoned and just sat outside the restaurant for about 30 minutes with my EpiPen in hand in case I had to use it. Thankfully I did not. Extremely stressful experience though. I went back inside when the rest of my party told me my plate was ready. I sat down in my chair and looked at the food. The baked potato came with real dairy butter. Because the kitchen didn't have margarine. At this point all I could do was laugh. You feed me my allergen, you apologize for doing that, and then after all that hubbub you do the exact same thing a second time. Why not just explain that there was no margarine and bring the potato with no topping? I could tell the staff did not understand at all the severity of allergies. It's not a personal diet preference and it's not a cute little "oh I'm lactose intolerant but I love cheese too much to give it up even though I'll have a little tummy ache later." In the past my throat has closed up from milk. And even if it was less serious... listening to the customer's needs and communicating with them is basic service. I was not cruel and did not raise my voice but was firm in my attempt to explain to the server how dangerous food allergies are, and I did not exaggerate when I said that not being careful about allergens could kill someone. The server walked away midsentence. So basically, I felt like the restaurant did not care about customer safety at all. If you have any sort of dietary restriction you should never eat here. I feel like I should have just not tried to eat here in the first place given the fact most Italian food has dairy, but the moment they assured me a meal was allergy friendly, it was out of my hands and the blame for the bad experience was solely on them. If they had been on the ball from the beginning and told me the food wouldn't be a good fit for me, I would simply have thanked them for their time and went about my day without writing this review and without spending a couple hours that evening in digestive distress because of the allergy poisoning. I take great care to keep myself safe with my diet and sometimes wish that I had a button to transfer the very uncomfortable symptoms of food poisoning to the people whose neglect caused me to have them. But alas! Also, other people at my table really liked the free bread.

The service was excellent! The food was fantastic!! Definitely will be back!!! They also had gluten-free options for my son !