La Vita - East Haddam

Stopped by for a mid-afternoon lunch date with my daughter. Our waitress, Michelle, was wonderful. We had the pickles peppers (best fried pickles we've had yet) followed by salad, falafel, and a huge slab of amazingly moist pumpkin cake. Everything was fresh and delicious and served quickly. Can't say enough good things about it. We will be back!

The staff were excellent and the food was even better , even so short staffed they accepted us as a walk in and the service was spot on with smiles all around ? love this place , the rainbow ? flags are a beautiful touch to this river side gem ? ?️‍??️‍??????

Great food, friendly staff, nice atmosphere, and fair prices. It's our go to place for Mexican food in the area. We've been here 3 times and have no complaints. (Bathrooms could be updated lol)

Here is a copy of the email I sent to this restaurant today: To whom it may concern: I am writing today to describe the unfortunate encounter my group had at your restaurant on Saturday 9/17/22 at approximately 1pm. A group of 10 (5 adolescents and 5 moms) made a reservation to have lunch at your restaurant prior to our 3pm show at Goodspeed Opera House. Upon entry, the waitress was less than enthusiastic to see patrons and I initially assumed it was because she wasn 't happy having a large group, despite our reservation. I then determined that could not be, as the restaurant only had few people there and those that were there, were on the patio. Our waitress and unfortunately will have to keep referring to her as Waitress because she did not introduce herself, appeared to be bothered by even having to give us menus and our overall initial feeling was less than welcoming. I noticed that she was the same unfriendly tone and body language towards the 5 girls (ages 11-12) and I saw her roll her eyes when asking what they wanted to drink. When returning to take our food orders, a group member informed her that she was gluten free and inquired if the pecan salad was gluten free (no gluten asterisk next to it but it appeared from the ingredients that it would be). Waitress said, I don 't know anything about that and don 't even know what it really means. My friend attempted to provide her some basic insight and that her gluten free need was due to a severe reaction with any gluten interaction (not just a diet fad). My friend said, if you could just let the chef know it needs to stay gluten free, that would be great . Waitress said, do you know what happens when I tell the kitchen we have a gluten free person? They get so mad at me and I don 't know what to say . My friend graciously said, okay well I think it is gluten free but if you could just ask that no bread be touched with it. Waitress said, I 'll do my best . After ordering, one of the kids realized they had wanted to order a salad but amongst the conversation, forgot. My friend and her daughter got up and walked around the corner to request this salad and came upon our waitress eating and drinking red wine. Waitress then delivered the kids garlic bread and I asked for another cocktail and water. Waitress did not even stop walking to see if anyone else wanted anything so my friend asked and can I have one more and a water? , as she turned the corner walking away. Fast forward to our food being delivered and consumed, we realized that the add on salad had not been served to the child. Waitress came back and I informed her she could take it off the check as it was never delivered. Waitress responded with if I don 't write it down, I forget . Never once indicating she was sorry or showed any concern for her guests. I then needed to ask again for water as I needed to take medicine. She brought 1, not 2. Then she brought the check. We gave her 5 credit cards and asked if she could split it evenly (assuming it was acceptable as this is common practice at any other restaurant). Waitress stated are you serious? I 'll see you in an hour . As a collective, we then said ok well we didn 't think it would be that difficult, we can put it one card. Waitress said, I guess I 'll just have to figure this out . In the end, we gave her a 10% tip, which is not my typical fashion but I cannot recall a restaurant encounter that had so many failed and disrespectful aspects. It was unbelievable that said waitress made my friend feel bad and an inconvenience for asking about gluten. What a disappointing lunch. Little did Waitress realize was that we would have tipped her very well, had she shown ANY interest in our table (her only table). It was an extremely unpleasant event, to which known of us anticipated. We even said to each other, its not as if it was one thing that was off with the encounter, it was everything. I wanted to reach out to make you aware so that future

Food was amazing. Fish and chips was my favorite. Didn’t take a photo because I forgot, it tasted so good!