Lockie H.
Google
What a curious experience! I was all set to give the entire experience a five (from the warm greeting we received by the owner to the initial attention received by the server to the quality of the food). And (as you can see by these videos and the photos) the place is an atmosphere that is well suited to my taste. It’s a bit vibrant, but not too loud, and it’s elegant but not stuffy. The menu echoes that and is elegant but not stuffy. There are some special dishes on here, and there are dishes you would expect from any Italian restaurant.
I was excited to practice my Italian with the owner, who was generous and sweet and very patient with me.
The bruschetta appetizer was a really interesting interpretation on the word, with a trio of different types of bruschetta, one of which I’ve never seen before, and I’ve had a lot of different bruschetta from tapas style to traditional tomatoes.
My food was excellent.
The wine list was extensive, but they still had some affordable bottles.
So what went wrong? Why is this a four star Instead instead of a five?
Well, as is often unfortunately the case, the service was excellent at the beginning, but then when it came time for us to receive the bill and package up our leftovers, the server was nowhere to be found. This is one of those mistakes that I really wish I could caution every restaurant about. Because The final moments in the restaurant are the final taste that you leave the restaurant with, and too often, the server is really falling down on checking in and delivering the bill. It’s also tricky when the food is delivered and nobody comes back to check to see if the meals were to satisfaction. It’s like the servers do a great job in the first half and then disappear. Not all places, of course. but unfortunately, that was the case here. And I wanted a cork for the bottle of wine, because we really had to go. We weren’t in a hurry, we had lingered long enough, but we needed to get home and get to bed to get up for our conference the next day. And we certainly did not rush through the meal!
When our server did arrive, he seemed a bit… Frantic, or a little manic, or like he had too much caffeine or… And when we said it was time to go, he questioned us about desserts and we declined and said we really had to go and…he poured me more wine.
This was so curious! We said we really needed to leave and he refilled my wine glass. I wasn’t quite sure what to do here. I was hesitant to try to pour it back in the bottle and make a giant mess. And so, I reluctantly drank the glass that was poured for me, which is a bit of a shame, because I really would’ve loved to have taken more of the wine home and had it the next evening or even late at night as a nightcap in my pajamas! It was just a very odd thing to do, and I’ve never had a server do that before. When I say I want the check, that’s not the signal to then add more wine to my glass. Especially when we said we want the check and we have to leave. I wonder if he was trying to make up for the fact that he had been so absent. But if I wanted more wine, I certainly could have poured it. Very curious. And a bit erratic behavior.
Also, we saw the owner of pouring some limoncello for the table next to us, and he never did return. It would’ve been nice to have a little sweet limoncello as a nightcap!