ORO Trattoria — Restaurant in Sherwood Park

I have eaten at Oro a couple of times now, and I'm sad to say that the experience left much to be desired.

The dining room itself is beautifully decorated, however that effect is ruined by their frankly bizarre decision to feature an open kitchen.

Now I'm not saying that an open kitchen can't be classy for a beautiful dining room, but when the kitchen in question looks like something you'd see in a backwater diner, it doesn't exactly add to the ambiance in any way. Instead the overall effect is like being in a beautiful dining room, with a window into the kitchen of a hole in the wall barbecue joint.

The food was passable, but honestly for the price point, it was nothing exciting, or special, and the sausage that came with my meal was honestly one of the least appetizing pieces of meat I've ever been served in a restaurant, and I once went to a restaurant where they attempted to serve me bacon that was literally still partially raw.

The service was frankly atrocious. We called ahead to see if there were any available tables, and they said that there was one available. Despite having called ahead, we arrived at the restaurant not even fifteen minutes later, and then had to go searching for the host so we could be seated. As the host stand was completely deserted. We finally went to the other side to find the host from Pyro(who was also not at the host stand)who wound up seating us.

After being seated in the completely empty dining room, we waited for over fifteen minutes for a server to appear, which none did.

After nearly twenty minutes of sitting, and waiting, one of the kitchen staff must have noticed us(the one benefit of the open kitchen I suppose) and finally the manager appeared. They apologized for the delay, and wound up comping our meal. As apparently they could not find our server.

We finally ordered our food, and it arrived rapidly, but frankly was really not worth the wait. I asked for the salt. They then had a different server than the one who apparently was supposed to be assigned to our table, bring me a salt shaker, and then immediately disappear. Which was the point where I realized that the shaker they had brought me, was actually empty. I then waited several more minutes for them to reappear, finally got a salt shaker that was filled, and usable, and proceeded to eat my meal.

I guess this is what happens when large corporations like Go Auto try to expand into the culinary field. You get substandard food, a complete lack of design cohesion, and staff who are not paid well enough, or trained well enough to really care about their jobs.

Honestly I'll be shocked if they survive more than a couple of years with this quality of food, service,...

I had heard nothing but great things about this restaurant, so I was genuinely excited to celebrate my friend's birthday there last night. Unfortunately, my group and I left feeling very disappointed with our experience. Our reservation was for 7:30, but upon arrival, we were informed that our table wasn’t quite ready and would be just a few more minutes. This turned into a 20-minute wait. Once seated, our group of 15 was attended to by two servers who were friendly, but there seemed to be a clear lack of communication between them. As a result, we were only approached a few times throughout the evening, and service felt inconsistent. It took at least 15 minutes before our drink order was taken, and then another 20 minutes before the drinks arrived. We were in a bit of a time crunch due to a second reservation at 10:30, so we asked if the server could take our food order promptly. Unfortunately, it took some time for the order to be placed. Afterward, it took an additional 45 minutes for our food to arrive, which felt excessive even considering that the restaurant was busy. While we acknowledged the high volume of diners, waiting 45 minutes for food was still frustrating. The portion sizes were smaller than expected for the price, and since we didn’t start eating until around 9:30, many of us were still hungry afterward. Food was okay — definitely not the best pasta dishI have ever had. The biggest frustration came when we waited nearly an hour for the bills. After our plates were cleared, we saw our server only once, when she delivered bills to a few people on one side of the table. We assumed she was bringing them to everyone, but close to 10:30, she asked if we wanted the rest of the bills. Given the time constraints, one person from our group took the entire bill so we could make our second reservation, though we ended up being 30 minutes late. As most of the party works in the service industry, we understand that busy nights can lead to delays, but this entire experience felt slow and frustrating. It was especially disappointing given the price point and the automatic 20% gratuity added for our large group. Overall, our experience didn’t meet expectations, and we left feeling...

Wow! Just wow! I haven’t had such an amazing food experience for a long time. This is the perfect place for a special evening. It’s not cheap but your mind will be blown away!

Service was 5/5. Taleiya was our server and she had just right amt of friendliness, super attentive. Only critique is we wanted more time between our appies but that did not end up happening.

Food was 6/5. It exceeded our expectations! We started with the Burrata and the Caesar. That burrata was SO tasty. Highly recommend! The Caesar was the best I’ve had in years. Only critique is the croutons were way too dry. They are made in house (everything is made from scratch) so try making them crunchy on the outside yet slightly soft on the inside!! That being said I highly recommend.

Next we had the Vongole and the Ravioli. Wow! Highly recommend both dishes. The vongole had just the right amt of clams in the dish. If you like truffle and mushrooms, get the ravioli. You won’t be disappointed.

We wanted to try dessert but we were too full. You could share one appie, then u might have room for dessert. And if u were going to try just one appie get the burrata!

Side note, they gave us the wrong dish but allowed us to keep it so we walked away with a free dinner. The dish was the cacio e pepe and it was...