Walking into the beautiful space, I felt welcome and comfortable with indoor and patio spaces that are equally enticing. I chose the patio since it was a beautiful day to enjoy the sun after days of rain. The busboy was immediately at my table offering bottled water or wine. When I asked for the wine list, he handed me the BOTTLE list (for a table of one?). When my waiter Andrea arrived, I told him I wanted to see the wines by the glass list and he said there wasn't one, would I like red or white? I declined since no mention was ever made of the kind of white or red being served. No specials were ever mentioned, even though I heard them explained to another table dining next to me; I guess solo diners are not expected to want anything special, but they are expected to order a bottle of wine.
Since I had come for Dine LA and the waiter only offered the standard menu to me, I asked to see the menu (not given to me) and he handed me the Dine LA Dinner menu. When I ordered off the Dine LA Dinner menu, he apologized and said, "Sorry." After I ordered off the correct menu, he left and I did not see him again until I was done with my entree course because his attention was fixated on the celebrity who had walked in after I ordered. He was so distracted that when he finally did ask me how my meal was, he was still turned towards the celebrity as he was asking me the question.
I started with the Piccola Parmigiana which looked appetizing but was more flour than eggplant and sadly dry. The nicest thing I can say about this dish is that it was nicely flavored with basil.
The main course of Caldo Mare was probably the best seafood salad in a lemon vinaigrette I have ever eaten. The calamari were exquisitely tender, the clams and mussels tasted fresh, and the shrimp were cooked with a gentle hand.
For dessert I chose the pineapple sorbet, which came in a hollowed out pineapple. It was a perfect light ending to my meal.
With four days left to Dine LA, I would try another restaurant or go back to an old favorite before returning here. I would return just for the Caldo Mare, after definitely specifying that I wanted another server if Andrea is assigned to my table.
Its always tough when an otherwise decent dining experience is ruined by one (or two) poor employees. Hard to fault an establishment for one human being, but the fact remains that service IS a large part of the entire experience.
ReplyDelete