A Long Island Epicurean Delight.......Oops, there is no such thing as an Epicurean Delight on Long I

So, I have been thinking about this on and off for two weeks. Trying to decide whether it is worth writing about a restaurant that could not get out of its own way. About 18 years ago we went to dinner at Angelina’s in East Norwich, Long Island. I can’t tell you what was wrong at the time, because it was too long ago but I will tell you that I refused to go back in all these 18 years. In January we met some people during our travels who happened to live near to us. After a few days of talking, the name Angelina’s Restaurant in East Norwich came up. They said they dine there quite often and the food is good. My husband and I just looked at each other. He had been trying to get me to try the restaurant again, but I had refused so far. We went on a Tuesday night and had a very decent dinner, we had a bottle of Amarone, the service was OK, and the best part was that the restaurant was very local. Two weeks later I made a reservation for 4 on a Saturday night. It was an 8:30 reservation. We arrived on time. The owner asked us to have a drink at the bar as the table wasn’t ready. My husband brought his own grapefruits so he could have vodka and grapefruit juice because during our last visit they had informed us that they used canned juice. Not a good sign. We were finally seated somewhere around 9:10. It was an awful table that was stuck in a corner facing two walls. The service was atrocious. It was one of those “can we order drinks”, “can we get some bread and butter”, “can we see a menu”. When we finally did order, the food could not have been worse when it eventually did come out. The tricolor salads were watery. The pastas were inedible. The risotto was decent. Can’t even tell you what else we had because we could not wait to get out of there. When the check came, I noticed that the wine was $100 more than it had been when we were there on the Tuesday. My husband brought it to the attention of the owner who began making all kinds of lame excuses as to it not being his mistake. OK, so whose mistake was it? I know it wasn’t mine. Did he think he could actually get away with that?! Let’s say goodbye to Angelina‘s. Maybe we will visit again in another 18 years. It’s another fine example of what poor food is available on Long Island.