Yes, ONE STAR for the mighty Aliotos.... And oh, how the mighty have fallen. After our most recent - and last - experience here, we will never go back.
My mother in law called a month in in advance to reserve a table for our family dinner on December 23rd. My husband and I arrived first, only to find they had no reservation. Somehow it never got written down. You'd think at that point, when my husband and I were standing in front of her and requested to have our name put down, she would have, right? No, she didn't! The woman kept asking our name ("Smith, party of 4? Are you Witner, party of 7? Jones, party of 8, is that you?"), but didn't write it down when we (repeatedly) told her. This isn't a guessing game. Did she forget her meds that day? How hard is it to remember a (somewhat) common last name and number of people, or to write it down when we requested it to be? When our in-laws came, she STILL didn't write it down. When my mother in law heard about the debacle, she had the woman check for the other reservations they made for Christmas Day. Yes, they had the reservations down in their name for that day. Thank God. There was a point we were thinking of just walking out of the restaurant at this point and finding another place to go. Good thing it wasn't that busy at Alioto's that night, since we had spent about 20 minutes at the reservation station at that point! Sheesh. The evening started out on a bad foot and continued to go downhill from there.
We were placed at a table back in the far corner, in no-mans land. There were several open tables which would have sufficed. I'm really not sure what that was about. We didn't request a private area - the area we were seated at was more akin to a wedding rehearsal dinner.
Now... the process of ordering proved to be a difficult one. 30 minutes after being seated, the waitress finally came by to take our DRINK orders. Yes, we didn't even get our food orders in at this point! I ordered a drink that was apparently a summer drink (which I didn't know at the time). The print on the drink menu said it was from the previous summer, but she still presented it to us, so I felt it was ok to order off of. This created a big issue. The waitress didn't believe my drink was on the menu. She didn't even know what my drink was. She came back several times to check exactly what it was - for a seasoned vet, as she appeared to be, this was really perplexing and disappointing. Not to mention embarrassing, since I just wanted a drink at that point! Next time around I got a brandy old fashioned - about the only thing she did right.
My mother in law had to repeatedly ask to see a senior menu. It took 3 times for the waitress to bring it. This is just unacceptable. On a BUSY day, I can understand. The restaurant was less than a third full though! There were hardly any people dining that night and the lack of the professionalism on Alioto's part was frustrating.
Finally, we got our food. It took an hour just to get our order in!! This was a ridiculously long time to get any sort of service at all despite slow night at the restaurant. Wow.
The food itself was good - albeit not that hot. It was probably waiting on a counter to be brought to our table. Once again, prior to receiving our food, we had considered leaving $20.00 on the table for the drinks and just walking out.
Now comes time to get the bill. IT TOOK ANOTHER 30 MINUTES TO GET OUR BILL! My husband and I had to leave, as we had to work the next day.
Unfortunately our in-laws had to wait to get the bill...30 minutes later. COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE, ALIOTO'S! I've never experienced such horrendous and unacceptable service.
We laid down the law and said going forward, we will never do Christmas dinner (or Easter, or any other family dinner) here ever again.
Alioto's was once a go-to place for family dinners, funerals, etc - never again, at least not for me. This once great Italian family style restaurant / supper club has now been replaced with places that can provide service the right way. Maggianos, although a chain, is right down the street. Next time, we'll just make our reservations there and be done with it. read more