I am so disappointed that my previous five star reviews are now a thing of the past. It seriously pains me to give this place 3 stars, but I really have no choice after last night's visit.
I made reservations for my partner's birthday celebration dinner for 6:00PM. We arrived to a packed parking lot, so we knew it was crowded and it seemed there was a private party going on as well. We were seated promptly and service started on point as usual. We asked for the wine list, made our choice, and that was taken care of.
We were told about the specials and decided on our menu. We both ordered soup, and decided to share the stuffed clams as our appetizer.
The next few minutes seemed to have set the pace for this 3 star review.
Our soup was brought to the table with our appetizer! Seriously? Even low end restaurants don't commit that type of major service error!
I was going to ask them to take it back and keep the appetizer warm until we finished our soup, but who wants dried out stuffed clams!
Normally, our waiter (or someone else) comes over after each course is delivered and tasted to make sure everything is ok. That never happened. No one even glanced our way. We finished our soups and our now room-temp clams, poured our own wine, and waited. Someone cleared the table and within a minute we had our salads, dropped off with a bang (almost thrown), wordlessly.
Soups were good. Stuffed clams were really good, and would have been better had they been hot. Please let people know, when they ask to share an appetizer, that there are only 3 clams. We would have changed it had someone told us.
Salad was ok - just lettuce and a few bell pepper strips.
I forgot to mention that the bread has changed, and now it appears to be sliced white bread. It was still warm and delicious, but not as good as our previous visits.
Also, during our meal, we had to move our chairs so a couple of waiters could get tablecloths out of the cabinets behind us. Really?
Entrees were delivered quickly. His osso bucco was absolutely delicious - exactly the same as in previous visits.
I went with something different and tried the Calabrian Seafood stew over angel hair pasta.
It looked amazing when they put it down in front of me. Then I looked closer. Before I started eating, I had to remove one unopened mussel, and a couple pieces of broken shell along with a broken mussel. The person plating the dish would have noticed it had they been paying attention.
The seafood was pretty good. The shrimp were on the verge of being overcooked, along with some of the clams. Mussels and lobster were good. The angel hair pasta was perfectly al dente, but it didn't seem like the right pasta to go with the sauce. The sauce was pretty good, but completely overloaded with onions. I'd never get that dish or any seafood entree there again.
Someone who I presume to be the manager asked how everything was after we started our entrees, and when I said "pretty good" he asked if he could do something to fix it. At that point we long finished our soup and room-temp apps, and I had already dealt with the bad mussels and so there was nothing he could change or fix.
Once again, we ended up pouring our own wine for the entire meal. The only time someone poured (after the first glass) was when they cleared the table and noticed a tiny bit left at the bottom of the bottle.
After they cleared the table, I stepped away for a moment. I went over to the gentleman who was seating people to ask him to let our waiter know that it was my partner's birthday, and that I would like a candle put in his dessert. He stepped away, and came back a moment later to tell me it was all arranged and taken care of. I thanked him and went back to join my partner. (I found out later that one of the waiters, the woman who started a day before, actually walked over to my partner at that point before I even got back to the table, and said "I hear it's your birthday". Well thanks for blowing that surprise!!!!! Someone please teach her some common sense!!!)
So anyway, he ordered creme brulee and coffee, and I ordered a cappuccino. Coffee came out - and it was excellent.
Then came the creme brulee - with NO CANDLE. Nothing. What the heck happened to my SIMPLE request that was "taken care of"???
At that point, it was the last straw. I got up to look for the gentleman who "took care of" this, and instead found the manager. I will say they handled the apologies well. The person I originally told apologized, as did the waiter who apparently dropped the ball AFTER she mentioned the birthday to my partner. We were offered a free drink, and our dessert and coffees were comped, which was nice.
Unfortunately, my partner still never got the one small simple thing he enjoys - a candle for his birthday celebration.
All in all, we will likely put this place at the bottom of our list for any future visits. read more