02/18/09

Food was amazing, Staff lacked enthusiam and and sort of customer service skill

by wseattlek

Average rating does no justice to the quality of food at this dining establishment. Our dinners were wonderful, reasonably priced, and had great presentation. The kitchen manages to keep up an intricate and large menu, and should be applauded for a fine craft.

Customer service, um, terrible. Waited at the door for over 10 minutes while servers walked by us and didn't say anything. Avoiding eye contact at all costs. They couldn't have looked more unhappy through our entire dining service from being sat to receiving our check. Limited knowledge of wine, food on menu, and very limited smiles. Waited at our table in the back for over 15 minutes before server ever came to get drink orders and bring water, almost to the threshold where we normally would walk out of a place. We learned to ask for several things at once during meal, as you never knew when a server would be back. Seemed the other guests around us had the same experience and discontent with their servers as well. All in all, great food and a really cozy, cute atmosphere for dinner...but owner needs to strongly consider firing the wait staff and revamping front of house attitude and level of service.

• Pros: Food, Price, Varied menu options, Great bar
• Cons: Poor customer service, unfriendly servers, take too long to seat tables and greet guests, equally take long to serve food from kitchen

09/07/08

Home-style Italian with a personal touch‎

by financial_foodie

My partner and I found this restaurant a few years ago and loved it so much the first time we ended up going one a week for 5 or 6 weeks straight! Needless to say our dining out budget was broken pretty quickly. That's not to say that The Cellar (as we call it) is expensive, we just like fine wine a little too much. ;-)

FOOD: I haven't had an entree here I didn't like. Same goes for the appetizers. I would have to recommend the Gorgonzola & Roasted Garlic Crustini. Yum! Of the entrees some of my favorites are the Gnocchi Carbonara, House Lasagna, Sausage Linguini, Veal Parmesan (or Saltambocca), and any of the entrees with pesto sauce. Another thing I would recommend doing is if you don't mind paying for fine wine, let the owner/head chef, Ken, recommend a wine paired with whatever you've choosing to eat. One I would definitely recommend is the Prunotto Barolo. (His wine markups aren't nearly as high as others around town.)

LOCATION: North Capital Hill, just south of Roanoke Park, small parking lot on site.

ATMOSHERE: Overall it's a smaller place, subtle lighting, good for a nice evening out for two or a quiet dinner with your parents or in-laws while their visiting from out of town. But don't miss the velvet painting of the Godfather in one of the alcoves toward the back!

02/14/08

Horrible Service and Food was overcooked and chewy

by nanibarro

My husband and I just returned from our Valentine Dinner. After waiting 75 minutes for overcooked chewy chicken and begging the server for water or wine....we will nevere go back to this place. Even after telling our server we DONT want our (entire dinner-we literally didn't eat anything) boxed, she brought our dinner back to our table in boxes....um duh we didn't eat it for a reason!!! Anyhow, our dog was happy to eat the chewy chicken.....

• Pros: Parking is Free
• Cons: FOOD AND SERVICE