Bill M.

Always looking for new places in St Augustine and this place was getting ready to open when we were here last year so we grabbed a spot when we got in town. Very nice dining area. Open and modern. Not too busy on a Thursday night. Got seated in a booth right away. Looked over the drink menu first. Grabbed their smoked old fashioned. Could've sat under the cover a bit more to get smokier but very tasty and an awesome pour of bourbon. On to the food. We ordered the bread service and the tuna cannavacciulo. This was a tuna tartar with a Buffalo mozzarella and coconut milk cream sauce. This was so nice. Light and refreshing. The sweetness of the coconut milk was perfectly balanced with the tangyness of the tuna. A great start to the meal. The bread was very delicious as well. So good it didn't need the butter. We then had the pappardelle cinghiale bolgheri. Yeah it was as interesting to eat as it is to say! Basically pasta with wild boar, raisins and olives. Very intense flavors. The raisins countered the boar and olives nicely. Rustic is the best way to describe it. Great dish After all that we were pretty full. I felt our sever seemed a little disappointed that we were not going to order more and run up the tab but we try not to order more than we can eat there so we don't have left overs. Rarely are they as good as the first time. We finished the night with a light and creamy tiramisu and double expresso. Both delicious. Great wine selection with some really nice ones by the glass that paired really well with with each of our courses. Our server offered great recommendations for reds and whites. Even brought us tastings of what ever we wanted. Impressive food and dining experience. Everyone was so friendly and nice. Our server seemed a little pre occupied but took good care of us. We will make this a go to spot on our visits in the future.

Cara T.

Really awesome and upscale Italian food in the heart of St Augustine! I read some of the Yelp reviews, and decided to suggest this to my family for dinner. We were able to get last minute reservations on a very busy Saturday night! The decor is super airy and modern. We really liked the look of the restaurant! We were seated right away. Our server came over and announced that they were out of almost all the appetizers, even bread, and 1 entree. We were honestly shocked. They told us they understood if we wanted to leave. We contemplated it, but everywhere else was so busy we just decided to stay. Our server, Ryan, was amazing and really turned around what could have been a disappointing dining experience. He heard us say how much we wanted bread and was able to put together a plate from what they had in the back and were reserving for the antipasto board. We ordered right away to lock in our entrees, since he warned us that they were low on everything! Glad we did because a bunch of our entrees sold out! For my entree, I had the Paccheri Coda Giola, which was a homemade pasta with snapper. It was delicious! There was a citrus flavor to the sauce that brought a lot of brightness. I really enjoyed it! My sister had the lasagna, my Mom had the fillet, and my dad had the grouper. Everyone loved their entrees. For dessert, we shared the key lime cake and chocolate espresso cake. They get the cakes from a local bakery. They were incredible! The presentation was gorgeous and they were so light. Both were great, but the key lime was my favorite! If it hadn't been for them being out of every appetizer we wanted to order, this would be a 5 star review! Huge shoutout to Ryan who really saved the day and gave us an amazing night out!

Ginger A.

WOW!!! This restaurant is very special!! It is classy and timeless! If you are in St.Augustine it is a must! It is pricey but we'll worth every Penny! We started with a Augrumato Estivo and a Chimay Blue Belgium. I had a beautifully smoked fish that was very fresh, and plated well. I was instructed by our wonderful waiter that I could eat both sides of the fish including the scales! Fantastic!! My husband had the filet and Prawn meal, we finished with a lemon cake desert with a shot of lemon cello poured over the desert!. This restaurant is a beautiful treat if you have never been! Pricey but worth it if you are looking for a romantic venue!

Christina C.

I came here with my bridesmaids for my bachelorette weekend. We happened to stumble across this place for last minute reservation & couldn't have been more impressed with the food! The atmosphere was quiet so it was nice to be able to all speak to each other and not feel like we needed to yell & the combo of fresh seafood and pasta is to die for! If you come to St. Augustine I would highly recommend checking this place out!

Mariana I.

THIS PLACE IS DELICIOUS!! My bf and I noticed this new place that opened up. It is beautiful inside, crisp and clean. They have white Christmas lights inside. The pictures show ahi tuna which just melts in your mouth!! The pasta has a flavor I never encountered and I felt like fireworks exploded in my brain after my first bite. It has a bunch of cooked yellowtail well!! I only had that fish raw but cooked with this can never compare! The last photo are the lamb chops in a tangy glaze and pistachio sauce!! These are the best most tender mouthwatering lamb chops I ever had in my life.

Hazel K.

We've been coming at this restaurant a lot of times! And every time we go here we leave impressed! The foods are not good it's Amazing! All the ingredients they use are fresh and it's crazy how they combine all the foods is unusual but yet it taste so incredibly good! Service is also on point every time. We have Ryan and he is just so good! He knows the menu well and make sure you have a great experience! This is one of our go to Italian places and we live in Jacksonville and we don't mind driving just to eat here.

Kristine S.

This isn't a restaurant Hubby and I would normally choose but we were meeting 2 other couples for dinner so we rolled with it. The 6 of us shared a couple appetizers. We tried the oyster trio and the fritto misto. Everything was tasty especially the calamari in the fritto misto. We also shared a few bottles of wine. Check out their wine room! For the main course, I ordered the tagliolini vongole. They were out of clam so they served it with shrimp. The fresh pasta was very delicious and was lightly coated with a white wine sauce. The shrimp were well seasoned and cooked. Not something I would typically order, however, I'm glad I did! Hubby ordered the Paccheri Coda Giola (Yellowtail Pasta) and he really liked it. The yellowtail was fresh and tasty. The pasta shape was unique but was great. Alta Marea does pasta very well! For once we actually order dessert after dinner. We tried their tiramisu and I loved it. The espresso flavor really shines and the texture was perfect! Last but not least our service, Derick, was fantastic. Very attentive and knowledgeable. Overall, great meal and excellent service at Alta Marea. I would recommend it if you like costal Italian!

Jasmine F.

Bottom Line Up Front: Awesome customer service! Ryan is the best thing about Alta Marea. The restaurant has upscale environs, but the food takes a back seat (or trunk) to service and style. Nobody wore masks or gloves; large bottle of hand sanitizer was at maître d' station, and my menu was laminated for easy cleaning. Great Paccheri Coda Giola sauce, but the fish needed to be fresher or doused in lemon; plus, the dish needed a piece of crusty bread or a pasta that would better soak up the delicious sauce. The tuna in the seafood carpaccio had an off, nasty meaty flavor that made me think the fish was old or improperly stored. If they incorporate more ladyfingers, the tiramisu would be a great dessert. Until they can fix their seafood freshness/storage issues, correct the tiramisu ladyfinger-to-fluff ratio, and figure out a better bread service, I cannot recommend this place. Pre-pandemic, my family visited Terra & Aqua often; so I was excited to try their new sister restaurant, inspired by the northern Italian chef/owner's motherland. It has a lot of great reviews -- and a few very terrible ones. Takeaways: -- Service was excellent. Thanks Ryan and team!! -- They should invest in a water filter. The unfiltered tap water in this area smells like sulfur and tastes disgusting. They offer bottled flat and sparkling. -- I really want to support this new restaurant, but the seafood doesn't taste very fresh. It seems the seafood ordering and storage processes should be adjusted to reflect actual demand -- particularly during the pandemic. -- I love seafood carpaccio. Though their version got great reviews, only the octopus was good. * The awesome octopus was prepared like ceviche, and I could eat it all by itself! * The tuna had a weird, meaty smell and flavor. The salmon was just so so -- as if the fish wasn't very fresh. Maybe the off taste was due to old fish, bad seafood storage protocol, and/or cleaning the fish in NE FL swampy tap water... -- Paccheri Coda Giola: freshly made al dente pasta, and awesome sweet sauce. The fish tasted slightly off, like it needed a lemon bath before it was mixed in the delicious sauce. -- I craved a piece of crusty garlicky bread to sop up some of the delicious sauce, but the mediocre grocery store quality "bread service" wasn't worth the $7. I understand the desire to serve authentic Mediterranean dishes sans bread, but there is no Italian grandma or pastry chef in the back baking bread to warrant the price. Most local restaurants serve warm bread for free. * Restaurants that charge for bread (which is more common lately as a cost-saving measure during covid-19) tend to make paying worthwhile by presenting the diner with a diverse array of freshly baked breads. * They need to either serve small amounts of their Publix-quality bread gratis (on demand?), serve one slice of free bread per entree, or make the bread service worth $7 a basket by baking it in house or ordering artisan breads from local bakeries (inventoried consistent with demand). -- Tiramisu is the only dessert they make in house: flavors were excellent and presentation was lovely, but they need to fix the fluff-to-ladyfinger ratio. I felt like I was eating a big bowl of fluff. The other desserts (a light key lime cake and a chocolate mouse cake) were from Crème de la Cocoa -- a local bakery. They serve LavAzza coffee. Environment: modern and simply designed; and neither too bright, nor too dim. The seating is perfect -- a nice bar, cozy booths for couples/solos, and large center tables for families/groups. It seems clean, though the leather seats had a few stains that could be easily wiped off. Upon entering, I smelled a faint odour of standing water/old rain that I also tasted in their nauseating unfiltered tap. They desperately need a water filter. An essential oil diffuser or boiling lemons and cinnamon might clean the air. * Though perfectly located on the corner of King and Aviles Streets, I was the only customer the whole time I was there. * Early reviewers mentioned walking in after watching someone making pasta in the window, but there was no pasta-making set up. * In the era of covid and social media, they should advertise (Yelp events?). They have a FB page, and a website, but they only show pics of 3 or 4 dishes. They have a lot of pasta making pics, but they only make fresh pasta for a couple of dishes. * They should take pics of all their dishes and desserts, then put them on Instagram and other social media sites -- describing what each dish is and how awesome it is. They should also make more pastas in house, and change up their dishes seasonally (e.g. Doro). *Alta Marea can't rely on word of mouth to build a customer base with off-tasting seafood and uneven reviews, and (at least when I was there) an empty restaurant.

Bell M.

Last night we tried Alta Marea in downtown St. Augustine It's a beautiful, well decorated restaurant. We had fantastic service!! Our waiter was very attentive and provided fantastic service. The food was delicious!! We ordered the bread service, warm Burrata caprese, and the prosciutto e melone. Everything was delicious! I loved the Burrata most of all. For entrees I ordered the tagliolini vongole and my husband ordered cannelloni aragosta. My dinner was so, so good. I was stuffed but we had to order the chocolate mousse cake. And it was fantastic!! We will definitely come back here! The only issue we had was that there were lots of little gnats flying around. They were definitely annoying. But they were flying around everywhere St Augustine last night. I think someone left a door open. The place was very clean. Bathroom was spotless too!

Donna S.

It was date night, and my husband made reservations at Alta Marea in Saint Augustine. We had never been here before and could not have been more pleased. From the moment we walked in we were treated professionally and kindly by the staff. The restaurant is clean, modern, and airy. We started our meal as usual with two glasses of Prosecco. When we looked at the menu, it was so difficult to decide what to order. The options on this menu were some of which I haven't seen in other places in this area. We ordered the octopus salad as an appetizer and it was beyond tasty. It was crispy on the outside and soft and juicy on the inside. I chose a boar Ragu. My husband ordered a seafood risotto. Our waiter suggested a lovely bottle of wine which was spot on. Excellent wine pairing with our meals! For dessert my husband ordered an absolutely delectable chocolate mousse cake and an ever so creamy cappuccino. I finished off my meal with a cool glass of limoncello. This was the most amazing evening and we will definitely be back. In fact, I'm thinking a return for Mother's Day might be in our future.

Christine D.

A must when you are in Saint Augustine. Classy place. The seafood appetizer was one of the best appetizer I have ever had. The home made pasta is killer.

Son T.

My husband and friends had reservations for New Year's Eve. We were all pleased with our antipasti (octopus salad and seafood carpaccio). I really liked the sauce (butter/wine/garlic) and flavors of the Paccheri Coda Giola; I just wish it had a bit more fish or bigger pieces. My husband had the Cannelloni Aragosta. It had plenty of lobster, both inside the pasta and on top, with a bed of red sauce. Our drinks: I ordered an Amalfi Coast. The limoncello flavor was so good!!! My husband ordered an Old Fashioned, had no complaints. Now to the business. Why 4 stars? Although I felt the server to be genuine, it felt a little rushed and it made us feel like we needed to order order too soon. I would invest in my servers, educating them about food combinations (drink/food pairs) to make them like their jobs and take pride. We know the food industry isn't easy and even more difficult with yelpers ratings. Good environment overall, nice background music with clean look maybe to resemble the coast of Italy. I would go back for sure.

Bruening C.

Been walking by Alta Marea since they opened... And finally went! The food, ambiance, and service is five-star. We got two orders of the lamb chops and the risotto -- everything was cooked perfectly! Great meat, not too fatty. Get the pistachio cake! It will top off your amazing experience.