Tonight on Restaurant Impossible, Robert Irvine and his crew are in Orange City, Florida to makeover Bumbinos Italian Ristorante. Emotions are high, and there is a lot of yelling between the owner Terry, her son Willie, and her friend Cappy. Robert then starts to yell after realizing their mistakes, such as firing most of the staff and switching cooking roles in the kitchen. Robert needs to rebuild the relationships and figure out the correct roles for people in the restaurant to turn it around. As I normally do with Restaurant: Impossible episodes, I searched around the Internet to read stories, comments and reviews about Bumbinos Italian Ristorante to get an idea of how the restaurant is doing since Robert Irvine visited, and here is what I found (note - all reviews are post Restaurant Impossible):Positive Reviews:
- "This place is a really good! If you're looking for your Italian craving to be filled, you are considering the right place!..The wait staff was great and the owners came around to all the customers to make sure we were satisfied with our food. With the makeover, this place is a cute place to go with anyone no matter the occasion... It is reasonably priced and the serving are big! Enjoy!"
- "While service might be a little slow, it's worth it for the delicious food. Garlic knots are delicious, think they have gotten better! The Chicken Piccata was worth every penny and I'll definitely will be getting that again! Restaurant Impossible did a great job creating ambience for this little Italian restaurant."
- "We decided to visit because of all the hype with a food channel visit. We made reservations and were seated promptly.... The atmosphere is quaint and bistro style. I was impressed with fresh flowers on the table. Lovely touch. Enough though the service was good, the servers seemed overwhelmed and it showed. We ordered a lemon vinaigrette salad that was large enough to share. It was fresh and light. We ordered a pizza with fresh basil. It was a traditional thin pizza "New York style." It was flavorful and you can tell they use fresh ingredients...We will be back to try other items on the menu!"
Negative Reviews:
- "Was not impressed at all,just ate there Thursday...Ordered the calzone,was not hot, sauce not impressive at all....The waitress was wonderful...The owners no smiles....Don't think I will be back.....Sorry!"
- "We showed up the day after the reveal and had dinner. I have to say, it was delicious. We had an excellent Caesar salad and probably the most delicious meatballs between here and Prato in Winter Park. Followed by a completely average pizza and horrible service. Now don't get me wrong our server did her best but was yelled at and berated multiple times by the owners. I was a little shocked considering how much she was hustling! But again, it was very clear that someone who knew what they were doing worked on the menu and save for the pizza had managed a miracle in this place. The question is, did it stick two weeks later? I'll give you one guess... nope!..Two weeks later...Gone was the delicate meatballs tossed with pine nuts and light marinara and crostini. In its place was fairly gross meatballs with canned sauce. And of course, since I am sure they know better, a lot of the same crap was back on the menu...I won't be back and I imagine that more people will follow!!!"
Other News and Links:
- Here is the Bumbinos website, dinner menu, Willie's Bumbinos Facebook, Bumbinos Facebook, and Twitter page.
- Here is the explanation of the restaurant name from an article around the time the restaurant opened, "A young relative once pronounced the Italian word for children "bumbino" instead of the correct "bambino." The name was chosen to welcome people with children, and the misspelling was intentional."
- Bumbinos opened in 2008, but at a different location(same city) than they are currently at.
- A few weeks after the makeover Willie from Bumbinos asked Robert Irvine on Twitter, "Hi Robert it's Willie from Bumbinos 70% of customers want old sauce what to do? coast to make old is too high" Robert responded with, "do what you feel is right for you .." I'm not sure how helpful that was.
- Bumbinos made a menu with both new items and also brought back old items due to customer requests. (Link)
- Here are the results of 3 restaurant inspections at Bumbinos (2 in 2010, 1 in 2011)
- There seems to be 3 other Italian/Pizza restaurants within a mile of Bumbinos, so there is a lot of competition there. (link)
- The restaurant has responded to negative reviews on review sites to try to defend themselves/invite customers back to try it again.
Conclusion:
The review for Bumbinos before the Restaurant Impossible visit were not that bad, and people commented that the location was a bit hard to find in a shopping center. The reviews since Robert Irvine visited seem to complement the food and atmosphere, with there still being a few issues with slow service.
The restaurant has added old menu items back to their post Restaurant Impossible menu, and it seems they may have went back to their old sauce. With multiple Italian restaurants nearby, Bumbinos will need to capitalize on the Restaurant Impossible exposure to take customers away from their competitors.
*Visit Our Restaurant Impossible Update Page to see all Restaurant Impossible updates, and which restaurants are open, closed, or have been sold. Also Like Us on Facebook and Follow Us on Twitter