I was heading to Salem in October, and didn't want to risk trying to find food without a…read morereservation, but as expected many places don't take reservations in October because the influx of people, but Antique Table did!
When we arrived the place was nearly empty, which come to find out places aren't as busy on a Monday. There was one other table finishing up in the main dinning area, and one other group arrived at the same time we did. We were greeted and sat quickly, but that's where the speed of things kinda came to a slow down. I'll start with some of the positives - our waitress was really nice and she had a helper who also was nothing but polite and friendly. The decor is really cool! There was no one in the entire back room of the restaurant, so I went and took a peak back there on the way to the bathroom and it had old cameras, typewriters, cool pieces of art, the main room also have some great scales of justice, and other fun features. They also had all the Halloween decor, if anyone needed to use the restroom we were told to go towards the large mirror, and I would always add on to my friends "with the creepy doll on it".
After about 2 to 3 minutes my entire party had and water was brought to the table and served in plastic cups. Which at a place with white table clothes felt a little strange. At some point after our waitress returned to take drink orders and an appetizer of the calamari. She then asked "have I offered you all any bread yet" we said no, but we would love bread. She said "okay it will be $3" and walked away. We all kinda looked at each other confused, because the phrasing seemed like it was complementary bread but we were really hungry at this point and the bread ended up being really good - but it was a small portion for $3. I think 6 thinner slices in total.
We waited a while before she returned for our food order. The menu has what you expect from an Italian places but also has a large section of Mexican dishes, which feels mismatched, it wasn't fusion style it was just Italian and Mexican separately, it just feels really disjointed. I went with the bolognese and one of my friends decided to order the tacos because it felt so silly to do in an Italian spot (and who doesn't like tacos generally). The calamari came out at some point after the bread, but we finished the bread, the calamari, and all our waters at a causal pace after that. We were sitting for a while before anyone came back to the room where we were seated. At this point there were maybe 3 or 4 tables sat in our room and possible one other couple up towards the front area. As many of us were out of water, I headed up towards the bar area or host stand to see if I could find someone. I ran into the guy who was assisting with our table and asked if we could get some more water - which happened promptly.
About 5 to 10 minutes after that our waitress returned with even more water and told us food would be out soon. The food arrived maybe 10 minutes after that, so it had been a while since we ordered. The bolognese was fine, the pasta wasn't overcooked, the sauce lacked some depth and the meat was a little firmer than anticipated but overall it was still okay. They did offer some Parmesan cheese to be added to any of the pastas or tacos.
The total for 5 people, with no alcohol, one soda, one order of calamari, the $3 bread, and the already added gratuity (which they did mention was already added in at 20% and it was also stated on the bill) ended up being $208.
Overall, the food was fine, nothing to make a special trip for. Service was friendly, but very slow. The vibes were a little mismatched - Mexican food with Italian food and plastic cups with white table clothes. Overall, it's a fine experience if you are needing a reservation.
