I went with family after excellent recommendations from neighbors who went in the first few weeks after they opened. They all commented on the personal attention from the owners and the pampered service.
Maybe we hit a bad night or maybe they need more time to deal with a full restaurant - but all of us felt that the experience was middling at best.
Menus were presented for orders immediately after arrival - even though we were still waiting for one guest to arrive. Waiter seemed surprised that we wanted to order drinks first and wait 5 minutes for our friend to arrive so we could order together.
I had heard that the eggplant appetizer was large - so I asked - but was told it was small. My sister asked the same thing and was told it was large.
When the appetizer came - it was indeed huge - more like an entree, but smothered with so much mozzarella that you had to dig to find the very nice eggplant at the bottom. Why is it called 'eggplant parmesan' - should be renamed to 'eggplant mozzarella' since this is the main ingredient.
Two people ordered the chicken scallopini which had so much chicken that neither could finish even half of it but found the sauce very nice. Both found it strange that their pasta served on the plate was COLD - not cold like it sat in a pass for too long - cold like it was out of the fridge. They didn't eat it - but I encouraged them to ask if it was cold by design - maybe an 'authentic' way to eat pasta? The waiter seemed to think we were kidding and said 'of course it should be hot'. When presented with the cold pasta, he asked if we wanted more - but it was too late.
The table next to us had Lasagna served while we were ordering and it was huge and looked great - so one of us ordered the same. But his portion was not even half of the neighboring table and looked like maybe it was the remnants of the lasagna pan. Finally, while one of us were still eating - our waiter presented 'take out' containers - pushing aside the plate of the person still eating to make room (seems that almost everyone at other tables also took food home).
Hopefully, this is just a case of learning to deal with a full house - but at least for now, the restaurant seems to be going through some growing pains.
But for now... it seems that 'quantity' is more of a priority than service or quality. Hopefully they will get this under control. High potential, but not there yet... read more