Comically Bad
We…read morereally thought we had found a great little local, non-chain Italian restaurant. We read the reviews and thought, "Let's give it a try." Unfortunately, the evening became almost comically bad.
There were four of us celebrating a birthday. We had reservations around 6:00 p.m. and were seated right away, so things started off well. We ordered sparkling water for the table and a bottle of wine from the menu, which I asked to have decanted.
The bottle that arrived had the same name as the wine we ordered, but after looking more closely, we realized it was actually a different wine from an entirely different region. Then came the decanting. I asked three separate times, but our server didn't seem to understand what "decant" meant. We finally had to explain, "Just pour the wine into a pitcher." That probably should have been our first clue.
We ordered a couple of appetizers from the specials, including what we thought was tuna and salmon served on a tostone. Honestly, I'm still not entirely sure what we received.
For dinner, we decided to play it safe and order basic Italian classics: chicken parmigiana, chicken piccata and veal piccata, all served with spaghetti. I'm not sure how you mess up dishes this basic, but somehow they managed. The chicken was dry with a very strange texture, the veal was dry and chewy, and the spaghetti had an odd synthetic, almost plastic-like taste. None of us enjoyed our meals.
They did bring out a small birthday dessert, which was a nice gesture. It appeared to be some type of custard, although, much like the appetizer, we weren't entirely sure what it was.
We made the best of the evening because we were there to celebrate a birthday, and thankfully we enjoy each other's company!
I will say the staff was very nice and friendly, and I hate leaving a negative review when people are kind. Unfortunately, our server seemed inexperienced and unsure of what he was doing, and the food simply wasn't good.
Maybe we caught them on an exceptionally bad night, but based on our experience, this is one local Italian restaurant we won't be returning to