Went there for the first time this weekend. In a nutshell, on a scale of 1 - 10: food: 5 - 6 atmosphere: 5 service: 2 They do appetizers well, except I can't understand how a namesake dish could not be well-prepared. The bread had been toasted then left to room temperature, with ice cold cut tomatoes and onions in dressing on top, with ice cold shredded cheese. Entrees were decent if overpriced. A pork loin with good sides -- gorgonzola-pear bread pudding. But then a good risotto with bland chicken breasts thrown on top. A good tortellini and sauce, but overcooked low grade proscuitto got in the way. The service was among the worst I've received, particularly in a restaurant whose average entree price is close to $20. What is so interesting is that when we complained about service, the host had the nerve to defend the waiter and blame the kitchen, obviously not listening to the content of our concerns. (He let it slip that he usually is a waiter but was acting as host that night. Go figure.) When we complained to the waiter, he defended himself and blamed the bar. Some examples: we ordered dessert and coffee with liquer. The coffee came after 10 minutes, and the liquer came a full 15 minutes after that. By then, the coffee was cold and no one even ventured our way with a pot to warm it up. We couldn't even ask our waiter, since he was MIA at the time as well as most of the night. Another 10 minutes, still no dessert. I asked the host if he could find our waiter and just cancel the desserts. I told him I would have asked the waiter, but hadn't seen him in 15 minutes. He actually said that he Try wrote: that if he couldn't catch him before the order was put in, we were out of luck. (!!) When I finally saw the waiter, I jumped up to tell him -- since he didn't bother looking our way -- but the host was on his way with the desserts. We told him we didn't want them at that point, and we politely told him of the problems we were having all evening. That is when he blamed the kitchen! I don't think the kitchen was to blame when drinks came without taking old glasses away, or that the waiter never stopped to ask how the meals were or if we needed anything, or how when he brought the liquers 15 minutes late, he dropped them down, saying defensively, "I didn't forget about you," since we had asked our busboy to locate our missing liquers. Not "apologies for the wait," or anything like that. We finally told him as well about our disappointment, and he told us the owner would buy us a round of drinks. Odd compensation when we were obviously ready to leave. The final kicker is our check with credit card sticking out sat on the end of the table for almost 15 minutes after all this. I would think at that point they'd try to speed up the service, but no. (By the way, 2 of us ordered creme brulee. I noticed that they put the desserts over on a tray at the edge of the dining room. 20 - 25 minutes later, the waiter went over and picked one up and took it to the other dining room. So much for made to order -- or even the pretense.) We did go downstairs to the bar to get our free drink (we're not stupid), and the host came over again and kept saying what an anomaly the service was, because it's the best staff he's ever worked with, blah blah blah. Just no acceptance of responsibility by anyone. I think that was what was more annoying than anything. I can't see going back. The food wasn't good enough and the atmosphere isn't worth it, either. I figured I'd put this out there anyway just in case other experiences were better.
Pittsburgh, PA