Celeste has been my favorite restaurant for years. I've been there many more times than I could possibly remember. However, after what happened to me there several weeks ago, I'll never set foot inside again. I brought a date to the restaurant -- I had raved to him ahead of time about what a fantastic place it was. Dinner was fine. But things went wrong towards the end of the meal. First, the server dropped off the check at the same time as he served dessert. I sensed that they were going to try to rush us out, so I purposely held off on paying the bill for a few minutes. As we were finishing dessert and our bottle of wine, our server started hovering over the table, grabbing whatever utensils or dishes he could the moment we finished. Finally, I guess he got sick of waiting. He blurted out: ""Please! There are people waiting outside!"" I was mortified. We had each just had a three-course meal AND shared a bottle of wine, and yet that wasn't enough for them to let us sit and chat for five minutes after dessert?? My date and I hurried out, and I decided that I'm going to take my business elsewhere from now on. Gennaro, just up the street, is my new destination of choice for great Italian on the Upper West Side.
Pros: Low prices, good food
Cons: Incredibly rude service
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