Casale

We just held my sister’s baby shower for about 45 guests at Casale 2 wks ago. It was known as The Newtown Grill when we first started planning things, then it changed management and name 2 wks before our event. We only found that out because my mom wanted to look at something on the Newtown Grill website and couldn’t find it. She searched around and found out it had changed hands. The event manager never even bothered to email us that things had changed! Fortunately they still honored our event contract. Or maybe I should say unfortunately.

I have to say that the restaurant itself is very nice…we had our event in the wine cellar, which was beautiful. Our guests raved about how nice the venue was. Our wait staff was excellent. We had caesar salad which was good. I would have liked to have had freshly ground pepper and parmesan available, but not a big deal. The vanilla ice cream went well with our shower cake that we brought.

The entrees were terrible, especially the chicken parmesan. I wish I had taken a picture. It was flat and dry, with breading that separated from the meat. The sauce tasted like it came straight from a can. It was absolutely the worst chicken parm I’ve ever eaten. I’ve had better at Olive Garden, even at my job’s cafeteria. The ravioli had the same tomato sauce as the chicken parm, and the tilapia was bland. Not one guest said a word about the food. Many sent their finished plates with portions uneaten. I could only stomach half of mine. It’s such a nice venue, but the entrees were such a big disappointment especially since we spent a lot of money, and expected much better. To put it simply, if you were going out for ambience, I would send you to Casale. If you were going for Italian food, you’re better off at Bertucci’s. For a little of both, I would suggest Maggiano’s—which is where I would have gone had I known! The only reason I give it 2 stars is because it’s a nice venue.

I sent an email to the event coordinator 3 days after the shower to let them know how disappointed we were. Never heard back from anyone, not that I expected to. Meanwhile, the bakery where we purchased the cake called us a few days after to see if things went well with the cake! I’ll never go to Casale again.

Minestrone soup had no beans; it was to be my source of protein. Never heard of minestrone soup without beans. Wouldn’t have mattered, however, because the soup was so salty that you could not taste the fresh vegetables. It was like a salt lick. Worse soup I ever had. This chef is so unpredictable you never know what you’re going to get from week to week. Caesar salad – dressing was to be on the side – was not. Lettuce was drowned in the dressing. Disgusting. Pasta with marinara – there was cheese in the marinara sauce! If I wanted my marinara to taste like parmesan cheese I’d add my own! Egad, it was terrible, oh – and the pasta wasn’t fully cooked. I like al dente but not uncooked, thank you. Husband had “blackened” salmon which was not blackened. There was some sort of orange glaze on it. Sometimes the food is perfect, sometimes it’s awful. (Once they served the salmon over iceberg lettuce instead of spinach without telling him they were out of spinach – he wouldn’t have ordered it then. Come on.) I don’t care what the reviews about this “renowned” chef say – he really, really is not that good. OH – and the new manager – dude strolls into the bar area, dims the lights so you can hardly read the menu and turns the stereo to ear-shatter volume. Thank you (bartender) for turning it back down before our ears started bleeding.
The bartenders are great.