They looked so surprised when our party of five showed up. They denied ever getting the reservation, but then the truth spills out. "Well we had someone call in but it was hard to understand him." So they said, "okay, no problem" and hung up, didn't bother to make the reservation. BTW, the person who called is remarkably intelligent and articulate, a college-educated, Caucasian, native speaker of English. Clearly he wasn't the problem.
They agreed to seat us, but I suppose they felt some punishment was in order. The server got us or drinks, ignored our appetizer order, and disappeared from the dining area entirely for over 30 minutes.
We asked the manager, and then we asked again. Multiple inquiries later, he tried to have our orders taken by another server. She walked up to our table and said, (direct quote!) "I have no idea what's going on." We explained that we were ready to order and she stared at us blankly, never once reaching for her notepad.
As abruptly as he had disappeared, our server materialized. His excuse? "The computer was not working..." We reminded him that we had ordered the Shrimp Toast 30 minutes ago. "So you did," he replied. No apology. No explanation for how he managed to forget one item out of three.
The Shrimp Toast arrived quickly after that. Salty shrimp drizzled with olive oil and not much else. But the fantastic quality of shrimp is hard to forget. Perfectly tender and infallibly fresh.
I can't turn down a dripping-fat, meat-butter marrow bone, but you can't taste it in this Baby Octopus & Bone Marrow mess. The linguine is absolutely al dente, but the rest of it is forgettable, with an undetectable red wine, a small spicy kick, and all other flavors as scant as the service.
I loveloveLOVE papardelle, and it's fantastic with this Wild Boar Ragu. A nice combo of pig and mushrooms, decently balanced, but again, about as memorable as a glass of water.
A beautiful restaurant, a lovely location, a place I wanted to frequent. But look beyond the Riviera ritz, and you'll see a pretentious place where the only standout is the service. And believe me, this is NOT the kind of service you want to be remembered by.
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