Secco — Restaurant in Hamilton

I’ve never written a restaurant review before, but after our experience last night, I had to. There is such a huge discrepancy between the quality of the service here (terrible) and the food (excellent) that we felt the chef should know.

We came as a party of 5, to celebrate a birthday. For context, our group is a mix of men and women, ages late 40s - early 60s. We love food, drinks, laughter, travel often, and have had many other amazing dining experiences in Hamilton, as wide-ranging as Rapscallion, Black Forest Inn, Maipai, and wings and beer at Buddy’s Roadhouse… we are not hard to please, lol!

The service at Secco was shockingly bad. We had barely settled into our uncomfortable seats (6” too short for the high top table) when our server came over to remind us that we had exactly 2 hours before the next party arrived. He rushed us into drink orders, and continued to rush us all night long. His timing was so bad, it was almost comical…we were trying to celebrate a birthday and have fun, and would be right in the middle of telling a great story or mid-laughter, when he would appear and abruptly and loudly interrupt us. It was so unprofessional.

Right from when we arrived, we felt unwelcome and rushed. As prosecco lovers, we’d been excited to try everything, but in the end had only 1 flight each, because we were so rushed. We are a group that normally orders several bottles of wine.

With the exception of the great food, everything about Secco feels very amateur, yet still pretentious.

The furniture is cheap and looks like it came from Wayfair. Please measure your table heights, before you buy chairs that are so short that even a 6’ tall man can barely get his arms high enough over it to eat.

Our overall impression is that they didn’t hire a professional designer…which is something we wouldn’t even have remarked on, had the service been great. But if you’re striving to be a high-class, professional establishment, with prices to reflect that, then you need to put way more effort into your decor and hire some better servers.

At the beginning of the night, they’d taken our coats. Upon leaving, our server disappeared without bothering to tell us where they were, and we had to go up to the bar to ask. “Yeah, they’re just outside the door in the hall”. Taking our coats, only to then leave them unattended all night in a freezing cold hallway, wide open to the street? That’s just another indication of the lack of attention to detail that separates a mediocre restaurant from a great one.

Based on the other guests, it’s pretty obvious that their main clientele are women in their 20s-early 30s, on a “girls-night-out.” Maybe younger people, who have missed out on almost 3 years of in-restaurant dining during the pandemic have less experience to base their ratings on, but Secco is very, very far from a...

I came for brunch twice at this location and arrived 15 minutes early both times. The server was kind enough to seat me upon arrival, which is much appreciated.

Drinks don't miss at this location, from coffee to cocktails. The coffee is brewed fresh for every order. The raspberry/lychee mimosa is consistently delicious.

Food takes about 25-30 minutes to arrive after the server inputs your order.

Ube Prosecco Pancakes: huge hit and well balanced. The portion is large enough for leftovers. Big Breakfast (V): description mentioned grapefruit brulé but received an orange. The fruit was easy to get out of the peel. Home fries and shakshuka were on the salty side. Bigger Breakfast: it came with an additional side of bacon, which we weren't charged for. Thank you! Home fries were on the salty side. Portion is also large enough for left overs. Oysters Rockefeller: 4 small oysters baked with cheese. Great starter. Secco Benny: delicious hollandaise, and the seafood is cooked perfectly. Home fries were on the salty side.

Notes to the restaurant: Please watch which tables are seated first and place orders accordingly. We waited 15 minutes after all our party was seated for our order to be taken. Another smaller table was seated after us and their order was taken before us. Have one more person on staff to help alleviate the customer wait time for food service. 20% as the suggested tip on the POS is too high. Please...

Spontaneous outing to celebrate something massive: a G1 at 25! No food other than the fries and a desert tonight which is foreshadowing. We had the Archibald which was smoked inside a glass cage which reminded me of that iced rose in beauty and the beast. Btw everyone should watch Jean Cocteau’s Beaty and The Beast. It’s a technical wonder. We also had the Orange chocolate espresso martini… WE WERE READY TO CHUG THIS THING. So good. Who knew orange and chocolate and coffee were good pairings?? (Everyone did, yay!) Props to the bartender wearing a Harley Davidson shirt (lowkey didnt hear me call him for the bill twice so I was eternally embarrassed). We also had the fries which were bomb. We also had the Villa Marchese prosecco (or smth) which was a good suggestion by one of the other servers. We also had the Pandan cake which is epic, and doubly epic to learn that the asian inspired menu items were put on by a filipino! Pilipinessssssss. Not that im filipino. But i have a filipino friend whose company i enjoy once in a few months. (I am asian btw). Anyways we had to stop drinking and eating cuz our TUMMY HEWTED. Which was mostly unfortunate because we wanted to finish the food and drinks. Gf just said she wanted a biscotti which reminded me of the four lady fingers in that plastic jar on the bar. Probably for their tiramisu espresso martini. Which sounds great, but again our tummy hewted. On our way out i...