A ruined New Year´s experience
We were welcomed by a waiter, who gave us the wine card and asked whether we wanted something to drink and we ordered water and 2 glasses of prosecco. About 10 min later we received the New Year´s menu and then found the wines we wanted to have. After about another 10 min a waiter showed up to take our wine order. When we informed him that we had ordered prosecco 20 min earlier, he didn’t seem to be interested, he just wanted us to order our wine. We did, and about 5 min later the prosecco finally arrived.
Then about 5 min later a waiter served us two plates of Agnolotti. We asked whether we were not supposed to get anything before the primi, as it looked that way from the menu. She went and checked in the kitchen and then came back, apologized and took the plates away, again. Shortly after we got the correct plates.
After this the food came as it was supposed to, and we were very pleased with the whole menu. The menu was brilliantly put together and the attention to detail, both in plating and in taste varieties, were really well done and was very inspiring.
Unfortunately, the skills and/or the attention from the waiters kept getting less and less professional and attentive as the evening progressed, which influenced the experience highly. When a waiter was at our table, he or she was always correct and polite, but we did not see much of them. Our red wine and our water was placed at a table away from us, so that we could not easily pour ourselves. This detail looks very good and gives a more calm and good looking table. However, this requires - in our opinion - that a waiter then makes sure that wine glasses and water glasses are not empty. This worked well for the first hour. After that, my wife - who was closest to where our water and wine was placed - had to get up and get us water whenever we needed more. At some point, probably around the time we were waiting for the beef to be served, I had an empty wine glass for almost half an hour - without anyone coming to pour more. When my wife got up and took the wine bottle for me, and I started pouring myself - then a waiter showed up, but that was too late.
We had ordered a 2009 Arborina which had quite a lot of sediment in the bottle. This can happen and does not reflect badly on the taste. However, even after the waiter found out that there was a lot of sediment, he kept treating the bottle in a way so that we continuously got a lot of it in our glasses. He had offered to filter it, which we declined, but the bottle could have been handled with more care.
We were now coming up to midnight. Of course, not being Italian, we are not sure what the traditional way of entering a new year at midnight is, so this next part may be our cultural misunderstanding. Here is how we experienced it - if we are wrong in our assumptions, then please just discard this part:
At around a quarter to midnight, I asked my wife whether we should order a glass of champagne to toast in the new year. We were not sure what was normal, and whether the restaurant would be serving anything. We tried to get hold of a waiter - but without luck. 2 minutes before midnight, the waiters came out and started putting a fresh glass on everyone´s table, so we thought that now the wine for toasting in the new year was on its way. It was. Ours got poured at 4 minutes past midnight. By then my wife and I had toasted in the new year…….. in water.
It was now time for dessert, and again the food did not disappoint. Just before 00:30 the Panettone got served. We decided we would like a coffee and a grappa to end the meal with while eating the Panettone. After trying to get the attention of a waiter for more than 15 minutes we gave up and decided to leave. As soon as we got up, then a waiter came - but again, too late.
This was our experience at your restaurant. We counted 40 guests and 5 waiters - which should be plenty of waiters to give all their guests a good experience. Unfortunately it was not.
When we e-mailed our experience to the head of the restaurant, this is what we got: We are very sorry for not being able to give you the experience you expected and, of course, you deserved. There have been some technical problems, during the new year eve, that have caused long times and inaccuracies of the service: normally they don't happen. But this isn't an excusation for a top level restaurant.
We spent 283 our + 700 our for 2 nights at the hotel related to the restaurant - an did not even get an offer of a refund or a partial refund on a ruined New Year´s experience. NEVER AGAIN.