Great food, but poor service.
My girlfriend surprised me with a birthday dinner at the Aria this past weekend, and I was super excited. There is complimentary valet service, and the restaurant interior is well-decorated (although not well-lit). Overall, a great place for a romantic date - there is also bar seating available.
Let me start with the good part: food. We ordered the Brie and Crab Cakes to start, the Angus Filet Mignon (medium rare) to share, and an Ice Cream Sandwich to finish. We both don't eat a lot, so one appetizer and one entree is usually enough food for the two of us. The order came with a complimentary side of delicious focaccia bread.
- Brie: The plate comes with a cut of brie, apricot preserves, and toasted bread. I honestly can't distinguish the quality of cheese after a certain threshold. To me, there's cheese I want to eat and cheese that I don't. It's not that difficult to fall into the first category. The brie at Aria is definitely a cheese I want to eat - and finished. It was delicious with the apricot and toasted bread (very crispy crust but soft center). It was a great starter. However, the apricot preserves taste just like Smuckers apricot preserves (which is my go-to at home, so I'm very accustomed to the taste). Nothing wrong with that.
- Crab Cakes: This was my favorite part of the meal. The crab cakes are an appetizer, but it's enough to be an entree for those with smaller appetites. The order comes with 2 small crab cakes and a side of apple pecan salad. There is no shortage of crab meat in the cakes, and I love the fried exterior that adds the perfect crunch. The sweet and fresh apple pecan salad pairs well with the cakes in both texture and flavor. I would definitely order this again.
- Angus Filet Mignon: Pretty straightforward - steak with a side of brussel sprouts and butternut squash puree. The steak was tender and cooked to my liking (medium rare), and the brussel sprouts were amazing (not overcooked or overseasoned). A classic choice.
- Chocolate-Espresso Ice Cream Sandwich: Obviously dessert. The espresso ice cream (with specks of chocolate) is sandwiched between chocolate biscuits (?) with a side of hard hazelnut toffee. It is a dessert with a variety of textures and flavors. Not too heavy, and delicious!
So service... There could be many reasons for the poor service from our server that night - our race, age, sexual orientation, his mood, miscommunication, etc. Who knows? He could honestly be the best server who was in a terrible mood. We are both Asian and in our early/mid 20s, and this doesn't work in our favor with servers that stereotype (regardless of restaurant). We had a few issues throughout our dining experience:
- Few check-ins, and extremely difficult to wave down the server throughout the meal (not a huge issue in general)
- Requested a box for our leftover steak, but the person clearing the tables (not our server) took our leftovers and never brought it back
- Asked, "Do you guys do anything for birthdays?" and the server replied, "Yeah, you have to choose a dessert though." Thus, we ordered a dessert. Turns out it's not complimentary. This would be completely fine - classic miscommunication - but the server was extremely rude and replied with an attitude when we asked about the charge for the dessert.
- The server returned with an updated check where he comped the dessert. An action that would have completely redeemed him, if he hadn't continued to explain the situation with an attitude - emphasizing how we shouldn't have gotten it for free, but he did us a favor (repeated this 2-3x to us).
I assume this is a one-off scenario based on the other reviews. However, I never plan on going back. I can find food and service of better quality elsewhere. read more