Mindi S.
Yelp
FIRST IMPRESSIONS ARE IMPORTANT.
We live in HB and had never been to Cucina Alessa. We love Italian food and decided to give it a try. The outside is so pretty - they've done a great job with the ambience there. We walked in at 5:30 pm on a Saturday. The downstairs dining room was largely empty, which was encouraging, as we thought we could have a nice dinner. We were greeted by a tall, red-headed hostess and immediately asked if we had a reservation. We told her we did not and she said she could not seat us. She added that they had two large parties "coming soon" who were to be seated upstairs. We were, again, downstairs, and there were nine empty tables that we could see from the hostess stand. My husband peeked into the bar area and saw a hightop table for two and asked if we could eat there. The hostess, who should have offered this table to us in the first place (we should not have had to ask for it), allowed us to sit there. This is a very small table - honestly only good for drinks, as it is not big enough for dinner service. That said, we wanted to try the food, so we took it. Honestly, after feeling like we had to beg to eat in this empty restaurant, I was ready to leave, but my husband really wanted to eat here, so we stayed for him. I am glad we did.
We ordered two apps - roasted Brussels sprouts and calamari. We also ordered a glass of red wine and a beer. Our server, Adriana, was excellent. She was warm, friendly and knowledgable. We got complimentary bread with pesto. The pesto was watery but tasty, and the bread was very good. With the bread, silverware and two glasses, the table was already crowded and I was worried we would not have room for the apps. By this time, there were still seven empty tables and the hostess was actively turning away customers at the door. It was 5:40 and, just out of curiosity, I checked Open Table and saw that there were available reservations at 5:45, 6:15 and 6:30. I have provided the screen shot for proof. So, even though the restaurant was more empty that full and there were available online reservations, customers were turned away. This is very confusing to me. People had started to arrive for the upstairs parties, but there at least four male servers downstairs the whole time we were there who were not busy. They were literally standing around waiting for tables.
At any rate, our apps came out piping hot and were, honestly, excellent. We would have liked to sit at a dinner table - had we been allowed to sit at one of the seven remaining empty tables, we would have ordered dinner and dessert, as well. Instead, we felt unwelcome and crowded. By the time we paid the bill and left, the same seven empty tables stood unseated. Do better, Cucina Alleso. Your food is great but first impressions mean a lot and we did not feel welcomed or valued at all by your hosts. Had your reservations truly been full, I would not have been able to find three empty time slots on Open Table and your downstairs servers would have been very busy. I really feel that this restaurant has the potential to receive a five star review, as the food is excellent, but we felt like we had to beg for a table and did not feel valued or welcome as guests.
