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| - On food, Stella Mia is at least four stars. And ordinarily, I'd give the experience as a whole that. But 25-30-minute wait times for food are really a bit less than acceptable at places charging $20-$25 a plate, and it's not helped when servers come by every five minutes to ask "if you're doing okay" when it's obvious that your salads are long gone and you're anxiously awaiting your meal. It's rubbing it in, basically.
So, like most upscale-ish Italian places in suburban strip malls, the crowd here's on the older side, with decor featuring red velvet carpet and various other semiotics for luxury circa 1961.
Service was friendly and enthused, with the exception of the long turnover time on the entrees. (That's not your waiter's fault, by the way, and is not actually an excuse to leave a bad tip. Just sayin'.) I did the shrimp in a white wine sauce with angel hair pasta. It was delicious, although the absence of either freshly ground black pepper or crushed red pepper at the table brought me down some. Other entrees--e.g. my mom's fettuccine carbonara--looked excellent as well.
So, given the other reviews and the quality of the meal itself, I kinda feel like we just caught them on an off night. But that's the restaurant biz for you: you never know when people are visiting from out of town, and you might only get one chance to impress.
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