UPDATE: I'm updating to three stars, as the owner and his brother-in-law did come back out and fix our installation issues. It did require me posting this review to get a response from their team, but in the end they fixed the major issues we had with the installation. The cabinets are beautiful and high quality (we got their top end, full-plywood cabinets) so very happy with that in the end.
Like many others have noted in their reviews, Lafata Cabinets has been a nightmare to work with. I should have seen the red flags from the start and never signed a contract with them for our cabinets. We worked with designer Anthony Russo. Anytime we had a question on the design or wanted to change something, we received pushback and frustration from him. At one point, I was told that I was getting way too detailed. For a custom cabinet design company, I would expect to be able to ask questions and ensure we were getting exactly what we wanted.
Once our order was placed, we were given an install date 4+ weeks later than what was promised by Anthony. After calling to say this was unacceptable, they were able to magically fit us in based on the original timeline. Day of cabinet delivery - we had to hand over a certified check for the full amount of the contract before we can even look at the cabinets to verify they had the right items for us. This included paying in full for the installation before our cabinets were even installed. I've never had to pay a contactor upfront in this fashion. When I spoke with the owner, Giovanni Lafata, about this he said his drivers didn't have time for us to check to make sure they were delivering the right product because they had more deliveries to get to.
The installers arrived and appeared to know what they were doing at the onset. However, there were a plethora of issues with the install. 1. The sink base cabinet was not made correctly to fit our farmhouse apron sink (despite giving the exact make/model to Anthony during the design phase). This issue resulted in us having to push back our countertop measure and install by 10 days. They did send out somehow to fix the cabinet, but essentially they just cut out a larger hole and tried to patch the edges, making it not look professional at all - and we're still 10 days behind at this point. 2. The sink base cabinet was not centered between the upper cabinets 3. Almost all of the cabinets were not leveled. My husband spent over 6 hours fixing their issues. 4. Four of the cabinet shelves were severely scratched because the installers cut open the boxes with box cutters and scratched them all. When I called and spoke with Annette Peters regarding these issues, I was basically blown off. She flat out said "I can't believe our installers would leave without leveling the cabinets". No apology - no offer to come out and address the issue.
I'm incredibly disappointed and would never recommend this company to anyone.