To start, when we go out to restaurants we look at 3 things. The Atmosphere, the Service and the Food. Here is our review of Osteria Tre Tassi:
We had a 7:00 reservation and arrived 2 minutes early. The host said our table would be ready soon and asked us to wait in the bar. From the bar, you can see directly into the dining room and we saw many open tables, including the first 3 on the right as you enter. We were approached by a waiter who asked if we wanted to order drinks, but we said "no" because we were expecting to be seated shortly. However, we stood there for a good 5 minutes before the host came back and took us to a small 2 top directly next to a table of 3. This is the kind of set up where we had about 15 inches between tables, so the table next to us stopped their conversation and had to go into whisper mode.
First, service. Our waiter was nice and attentive. However, he never smiled and was not engaging - you know, asking questions, being conversational. We could compare that to the waiter at the table next to us who was very outgoing and friendly. However, due to the tables being so close to each other, he kept scooting between the tables to pour water and serve food, so we got to know his backside really well by end of the meal. I can never understand why restaurants seat people right next to occupied tables while there are open tables that don't have other diners next to them. Our waiter took our drink order and when he came back and served them he told us about the menu. He started by telling us that the special ravioli of the night was already sold out, along with the bruschetta, Ceasar salad, and chicken. If we had a later reservation perhaps that would be understandable, but we were a prime time 7:00 and to be sold out of the feature of the evening, along with the Ceasar salad, bruschetta and chicken is just poor food management. We defaulted to the focaccia for an appetizer which was ordinary and ordered a lobster pasta and short rib rigatoni for entres. The rigatoni was good and pasta cooked al dante. However, the lobster pasta immediately tasted like spoiled fish. Now there is "good" seafood flavor, such as the saline deliciousness of a fresh oyster, but this was the "bad" seafood flavor of something that had gone bad. I had my wife try a bite and she agreed that it was not good. The waiter came over and asked how we were liking our food and I explained that my entre was not good, and he politely asked if I wanted another of that one or different entre. I ordered a potato ball pasta in truffle mushroom sauce and it came fairly quickly, which was nice. This dish was just okay. Unlike a good Gnocchi, these were marble sized balls of potato pasta and were really rather mucky. I ate half of the dish and didn't bother to take the rest home. So far, the atmosphere was not good because we were seated so close to another table and had to look at the neighboring waiter's butt all night. Our service was good, professional, but the one thing I look for is "did the service enhance our experience?", and the answer here is unfortunately "no". Some people are meant to be customer facing and others, while competent, are not. So it was with us. The food was not good and the fact that there were sold out of so many items, including standards such as the Caesar salad, was a real disappointment. But the real reason I give this restaurant a 1 star rating came as we were leaving. From our table we could see into a room where the wait staff gathered. The host and our waiter had a conversation, and we could see them looking at us. The host came out and started to come to our table, but stopped and walked away without talking to us. No biggie. But after we paid our bill and were leaving, he gave us a parting sarcastic shot of "hope you enjoyed your meal" as the door was closing behind us. He knew we didn't, and we felt by the tone in his voice that this was a snarky jab. It's one thing to have some things not go well at a restaurant. It's another to leave feeling badly. There is another reviewer who posted an email exchange with the owner after a bad experience. I suggest you find and read that and my sense is that this attitude comes from the top. We will never go back and hope that this review is helpful to other potential diners. There are so many wonderful restaurants in Door County - I would focus on those. read more