A couple of months ago, I reviewed Abbondanza, on Simonton Street here. The first experience there was delightful. I am sad to report, however, that it seems that was a fluke.
A couple of weeks ago, we visited Abbondanza in hopes of repeating the same good meal we had the first time. Alas, it was not meant to be. After a 30 minute wait (we were told it would be 10-15 minutes) we were seated. Another 10 minutes go by and we are watching various servers shuffle around, yet not one of them comes over to our table. Another few minutes go by and a server appears. This is the conversation:
Useless Server: Are you ready to order?
Me: Excuse me? (At this point the U.S. had not so much said hello to us, nor offered us a glass of water).
US: (Notices the bottle of wine on our table, which we brought) Is that yours? You can’t open that here.
Me: Actually, we can. You have a corkage policy which allows it.
US: I’m going to talk to my manager.
Meanwhile, I realize this isn’t going to end well for us, and as I prefer not to waste my time on bad service, I asked the hostess to reseat us with another server. The hostess was quite snooty and explained that they serve over 300 meals a night and people seem to like it. Once again I realize, I’m not people.
Finally, we move to another table, and I ask to see the manager. She didn’t seem to care too much what our issue was but insisted that we stay and that we would have a excellent service, and she would waive the corkage charge, which was waived last time we were there just because, so I didn’t see how this was so great.
We stayed. The food was good, and we even had good service. Alas, Matt the waiter is only there for the season, and is leaving in April. I will not be going back, and frankly, I would recommend you go to Mangia Mangia if you want pasta, as they always have excellent food and service. Skip Abbondanza altogether – there are too many other good choices around. Life is too short for bad restaurants.
