Aperitivo — Restaurant in Ottawa

Extremely disappointed by my most recent interaction with a staff member at Aperitivo named Jennifer. After having made a reservation at Aperitivo for 8 people, our group unexpectantly grew by a couple more. I called the restaurant to inquire about increasing our reservation number and was told that is not possible to increase the number. They normally only allow 6 people at the largest table they have, but they already increased it to 8 to accommodate us. At first, thinking it was simply that they didn’t have enough space at the table for more people, I very politely asked about reserving a separate table beside the table we had. Jennifer was rude, impatient and snippy with me from the onset of our phone call. She proceeded to tell me “we don’t allow that, and we really won’t be happy if you separately book a second table.” I was still dumbfounded just not understanding the reasoning, so I politely asked if she could just explain to me why they didn’t allow multiple table bookings just so it could make sense to me. I was not trying to change their policy, I was just trying to understand it. Jennifer rudely said “well I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Aperitivo, but that’s not the atmosphere we look to cater to”. I thanked her for the explanation and she responded with “well do you still want to keep your reservation then?” I answered “yes please, for the time being.” Since this would allow me to reconfirm with people and sort out the logistics before finalizing the plan. Then, to my absolute shock, Jennifer just hung up on me. No response of “of, course or sounds good” just hung up. After her attitude throughout the entire call with me I decided to call back just to say “I want to share that I felt it was very rude of you to hang up on me” she said “OK, thank you, have a good day” and hung up again. Wow.

What really pushed me to write this review however was not necessarily Jennifer, but it was the way the manager Riley Gilchrist responded to my email informing him of this poor interaction. When I expressed to him that it was really unfortunate to be treated and spoke to with such disrespect, impatience and rudeness he just replied that Jennifer was following restaurant policy. He did not even take the opportunity to apologize for the fact that this was my experience with one of his staff. Had he even recognized that the way I was treated is not the way he would want a customer of Aperitivo to be treated I would have felt heard and respected. Honestly unbelievable. We have friends who often book out the restaurant to have client appreciation gatherings, and I will definitely be sharing my experience with them so they are aware of the way I was treated by a business that they will likely not...

Summary: Food was good, but service was horrendous. Will not be coming back.

We arrived approx. 5 min before our reservation time (6pm) and were promptly seated on the patio. After looking over the menu for 5-10 min, we ordered 3 dishes all at once. Having been here before, we knew that these dishes are served one after another rather than all at once (due to the size of the kitchen and the style of the dishes) and we had no problem with this. The dishes came out quite slow (even compared to previous times eating there) but this did not seem like it would be a problem... After finishing our 3 dishes (at around 7:20pm), the server asked us if we wanted to see the dessert menu. We quickly decided on a dessert and were waiting for it to come out when the server came by our table around 7:35pm and told us that we were past our 1:30h time limit on the table and would have to eat the dessert at another table outside of the covered patio. We thought this was an odd request, but complied. However, the weather forecast was showing that rain would be starting very soon. For some reason, the manager quickly dismissed this concern and said that she saw that the rain would only start at 9:40pm (which was not the case as per the Weather Network or the Apple Weather app). When the dessert finally came out 5min later, the rain had started. We quickly at our dessert and one member of our party went to request the bill and express concern regarding the restaurant's policies. The manager was very dismissive and said that there was nothing that could be done in the situation. The manager even said that the 1:30h time limit was part of some policy in Ontario so they could not change it even if they wanted to (I couldn't find anything whatsoever about such a mandatory time limit anywhere on the internet). Nothing was done to compensate us for having to move tables and eat in the rain. Not something that I would ever imagine happening at such a restaurant. If we were getting close to our time limit (which was not mentioned when we arrived), shouldn't the server have warned us when we had ordered dessert?? Having liked eating here several times before, we were extremely disappointed with this experience and will not be...

Absolutely incredible. Great service and food. Tried the olives, charcuterie, cheese, pork tacos, hen, corn bread, and peach. Also had the hibiscus sour and vodka Pom mule.

Here is a breakdown:

Olives: 4/5 - great variety, marinated nicely, and the addition of citrus and vinegar was nice.

Charcuterie and cheese: 4/5 - I like the options and variety, and it is nice that you pay per item. For $9/item it’s a great starter and good way to try a few cheeses and meats.

Corn bread: 5/5 - the cornbread was not dry, and it was very flavourful and fresh. The honey butter was whipped and tasted like icecream. Wonderful dish!

Pork tacos: 3.5/5 - the pulled pork was delicious, and I liked the Mediterranean toppings. However, the tortilla did not hold and the taco fell apart, making it difficult to eat. Also, I believe there was fennel or something that tasted strongly of licorice in the taco, which completely took over the flavour.

Hen: 4.5/5 - the Cornish hen was delicious, it was perfectly cooked and great to share. The pearl onions and the jus were incredible. I wish I had some bread or potatoes to soak up the leftover juices, it was wonderful!

Peach: 4/5 - it was a simple dessert, peach was slightly over cooked for my liking. I prefer a dessert with more pastry but this was refreshing and great way to end the meal.

Drinks: the drinks were great, but not very strong. I preferred the hibiscus sour. The Pom mule did not have much pomegranate flavour, but had a red colour.

Service: the service was great. We had multiple staff check on us to make sure we had everything. The dishes came in perfect order and in great time. Our table was constantly cleaned and plates were changed between every dish as needed.

Overall would visit again, especially if you’re waiting for a showtime at the movies across the plaza. Great little tapas place in Kanata, and one of the...