Tony C's in Cary... we ate there so you don't have to! (2009, live)

[Petunia16]

We didn't try the pizza... maybe we'll give that a shot.

Re: working the kinks out when a restaurant first opens... aren't they a chain? You'd think they had it down by now? But, I do understand that these things happen.

Have to point out, my husband's stuffed shells tasted like frost-burned Stouffers from any grocery store or Costco... you got 4 or 5 of them and it was $11.00. When they put them on the table they just didn't look "right". My friend's chicken parm looked wrong, too. The spaghetti was a hard mass and the chicken was hard and looked like it had been sitting for a long time.

There's "missing spices" then there's terrible food quality from the start.

We really should have complained... but... again, we felt bad. Our waitress' mother & family was sitting in the booth behind us. The manager wreaked of cigarette smoke. It was just... so awkward.

There were a ton of cars parked at the restaurant last night... I hope that they get plenty of practice. We honestly wanted to love this place!!

[ragdolls4me]

I stopped in yesterday to see if they had a menu that I could take home and "study"; none except the fancy ones right now (with the sad story on the front!) but the hostess said they would have some soon. I did take a peek and theirs and the fare looks very similar to Cinelli's (not sure I would call them a chain, apparently it is a family that has several different restaurants locally) and we like Cinelli's a lot. I also liked the look of the inside better than I'd imagined from afar; larger than it appears from outside and in two different sections. Guess that's the "sports bar" part. I'm still holding out hope that they will get their act together.

Across the way, I tried the Genki place and it was nice. A little pricey, too, although they had a small lunch size selection with lower prices so it wasn't as bad. Can't really go wrong with hibachi chicken, IMO. Not a sushi girl myself but that looked interesting with a large selection if you like that.

[ty320f]

I really hope Tony's turns out to be good...
my alfredo was excellent
next time I guess we'll try the pizza.
And Genki has great sushi! I love that place

[Savingtime]

In this hard time if they don"t get it together soon I will be over fast, I hate spending my money on bad food and poor sevice< Even with the poor food Service could have been better for you! It would have been a low or no tipp night for me!

[Heats4]

I was in the other night & although I didn't eat I have been in the restaurant business for years and know it takes new places a little while to iron things out & get things rolling just right. Hopefully within a few months the food will improve. If not, it's a shame. We really need more restaurants/bars in that area.

[Pepito's Mommie]

I'm late to the thread, but I'm part of Petunia16's dinner party. We figured that the place would know what they were doing since the owner's have several other locations in the area.

We really wanted the place to succeed because it would be nice to walk to dinner. However, if we were offered "free meal" coupons from that place, we wouldn't go back.

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by Heats4

I was in the other night & although I didn't eat I have been in the restaurant business for years and know it takes new places a little while to iron things out & get things rolling just right. Hopefully within a few months the food will improve. If not, it's a shame. We really need more restaurants/bars in that area.

I most definitely agree with you. I've been to some local mom-and-pop restaurants as soon as they've opened and have had terrible experiences. After giving them 6-8 weeks to shake off the cobwebs my second experiences have always improved. I'm not the type who will go out to a new restaurant, have one bad experience, and then "never" return. I'll just give it some time and hope things get better. If after the second time I'm still displeased then I'll never be back.

One thing I would tell the owner of Tony C's would be to add a suggestion box and/or customer comment cards near the entrance so people can offer their opinions on how to improve your restaurant. For the first few weeks "bribe" people to do this by offering to take some money off their bill in exchange for them taking the time and consideration to give you some much-needed feedback and then tailor your restaurant to suit the needs and desires of your customers.

Judging by Petunia's experience it was mostly a case of inexperienced staff that led for drinks to be left unfilled, food to be prepared incorrectly, etc. Once these employees better acclimate to their new positions most of the "kinks" will be resolved. As far as the sob story on the menu is concerned it sounds as if the owners are still in post-euphoric bliss over the recovery of their little one and think perfect strangers would like to share that with them. In my more down-to-earth and "everybody knows your name" sort of hometown that menu wouldn't have caused anyone to have batted an eye, but I can see in a a very large city like Cary how people may have been turned off by it.

Go back to Tony C's in June and see if things have improved. You may just be pleasantly surprised!

[Miss Liliana]

I have to agree don't wast your time or money..That place is a dud. First off they can not be related to the Cinelli's in Cary. The staff was so confused it was funny. I would think if these people own other places they would know how to run a place.Whats is the deal there it took 40 min. to get our drinks and then had to chase the server down for refills. oh the best was we waited over 1 hour for our food to find out the server forgot to put it in the computer or give it to the cook. So we had 3 very hungy children and two very angry parents. we will never go back to Tony c's , but we will be back to cinelli's , sorry we wasted our money this weekend there

[MetsLover21]

Cinellis is my favorite restaurant, i always am anxious to go to new locations but they just dont compare. I always find myself traveling back to Kildaire and Cary Pkwy to get the aunthentic italian cusine that cinellis is known for!! Especially the grandmas pie, OUT OF THIS WORLD, tony c's nice try is all i have to say !

Honestly i was excited,so excited i rushed to get a togo menu and the kid at the door didnt know if they even had any, he ripped out every page from their sitdown menu, can u imagine ??? how funny, but not as funny as the story on the cover! very strange.

[MetsLover21]

Originally Posted by Petunia16

We didn't try the pizza... maybe we'll give that a shot.

Re: working the kinks out when a restaurant first opens... aren't they a chain? You'd think they had it down by now? But, I do understand that these things happen.

The Cinelli restaurants are not chains, each is owned seperately by different members of the Cinelli family, hence the differences in service and food quality. BTW, the pizza wasn't anything spectacular- they haven't got in down yet there, I'd definitely stick to the Cinelli's on Kildaire for sure. Their pizza is always superb, and I love their waitstaff, very efficient and consistent- I see the same faces almost every week.