Antonio's Italian Eatery — Restaurant in Aiken County

I was preface this non-stunning review by saying this was our 3 persons party first visit to this Italian eatery restaurant. On entry the Hostess greeted us and placed us at one of the worst (for traffic and noise) inside tables available. We asked to move toward where the Locals sit (Locals will be a big theme here). We were moved to a nice open an available table by the wall. Our Waitress arrived. Introduced herself and asked for drink orders...as we just re-sat down we needed a minute to look at the food menu to match it to the beer, wine, and spirits to choose so we politely sent her away. We decided on a bottle of red wine for the table and a cocktail. Waitress returned and we asked for Vodka and tonic, a glass of initial Chardonnay (as we were still working out the meals to match to the red wine bottle). Locals (Business types and older daily clients started to fill up the place..the Guests sat at those close to the front door and bar tables were having to raise their voices to hear themselves). I went to the bar/serving counter to look at the vintages/manufacturers of the red wine they served (as opposed to just asking for the house red...as our good and friendly Waitress was not aware of who the wines came from or their vintages). At the bar I introduced myself and asked to see an example of the red Wine bottles they had available. This is where it started to go quite bad. The attendant/Wait Staff behind the bar was abrupt in tone and offensive in her manner...she informed me "We can't sell you a bottle of Wine", I stood there looking baffled and informed her that instead of buying the wine by the glass we want to send the entire bottle to the table. She overtly was dismissive of me standing there. It was then i was saved by our tables Good Waitress who informed the Bad Waitress that yes we were dining at a table and that she should give me the printed (not on the tables "Wine" list). I was given the wine list, looked at the bolltes, checked vintage and manufacturers...and purchased a nice bottle for the table. I returned to my seat with No, I'm sorry from the bad sour Waitress. We could not order the Vodka cocktail....they do not serve spirits. We ordered, Waitress returned 3 minutes later (she had lots of tables to cover) to be informed that the Chef ran out of Sicilian pizza and we would have to order something else. WHAT... This is an Italian restaurant at normal lunch time....make another pizza...it can be done in less than 10 minutes. NOPE, we were asked to choose another meal...we already started eating the bread for the table (on our napkins because they provide a loaf of nice warm bread but no plates to put it on). So we reordered generic and available meals....and that is what we received...bland Americanized attempts at Italian food. Seems the Chef gave up on most things. I surveyed the room...nobody actually looked like they came here for the enjoyment of the food, perhaps this is just a Local place to hang out for lunch and has become an older person's weekly bland routine. We ate the food, we asked for some more warm bread (as it, singularly, was tasty) and were informed by our Waitress that another loaf would be a separate new charge....really. So yes bring us the bread. This is when our Waitress apologizes for the entire restaurant atmosphere and other employees, she realized that although she is trying very hard that the others providing services in the restaurant gave up good customer service a long time ago. Seems their normal Clients show up everyday (regardless) as it's a downtown walking locating so the Staff & Chef no longer try to impress anyone. We finished, tipped of Waitress for trying to make good of a bad environment. And left. This bad time first experience was strong, and that's quite regretful. The meals highlight was a nice salad. Yes, the Owner can...

We have been here twice. Pizza and salad. Excellent pizza. Reasonable prices but the service has its challenges. The first time the service was ok. The second worse. Yes it was a busy lunch crowd. Our order for 3 slices and a salad was put in just before 12:52. They delivered our slices at 1:29 according to the receipt. I had asked for the check prior to receiving the food. They brought it out together after almost 40 minutes. Simply unacceptable with no apology, just a "we were very busy."

Response: Yes I have worked in a restaurant and other food services. I have worked and ran NY Delis. I worked as a cook in a 5 star restaurant in DFW. Yes I do understand being in the weeds on both the front and back side of a restaurant.

Perhaps you need a refresher in customer service. When the back is so in the weeds, you probably shouldn't say your slices will be right out and then 10 minutes later it is still not out. Maybe its the timing. As I can see, you wrote that twenty five minutes on a busy day is not bad for a lunch. Well how does 38 minutes feel as a lunch time for getting food out and 10 minutes to eat to try and keep it close to 45 minutes. We came in to your restaurant at about 12:45. We were at your restaurant for lunch and it took almost an hour.

I really do not care how busy you were when you cannot get three slices of pizza out to a customer in less than 38 minutes. Perhaps reduce your seating and give your cooks more room. I do not know as I do not run your business.

I just know that you were given a mixed review and attacked your customer. Rather than attack, maybe take it to heart that when you get busy, you run into problems and see what you can do to change that. Doing the same thing and expecting different results..... Perhaps you can think about...

Yesterday was probably the last time my family and I go to Antonio's, the food is good, but yesterday had a bad experience. We invited a couple of friends to have a good time over there, we arrived at the restaurant probably around 7:00 pm or 7:30 pm and we were going to be at that moment a party of 10, we understand that the restaurant is small and we do not mind to seat separate because we know we were a big group (even that from the door we saw plenty of available tables), we said that was fine that we can take different tables and sit separate, the host started telling us that probably the wait was going to be more than 45 minutes and the long wait for the food to come out (TABLES WERE AVAILABLE AT THAT MOMENT), then start telling us that probably we were not going to receive good service because we were going to have different servers and other things that probably we were not going to have a good time, never in my life imagined a restaurant telling me that if I stay we were not going to probably have a good time, are you serious? With all of that we knew that he did not want us to be there so we decided that we better go find another place, since was pretty uncomfortable to not feel welcome at a place. We said is fine, we are going to look for another place, thank you, the host turns and tell the servers that were there "they are not going to stay" and they start to celebrate that we were leaving.

For me was funny to see that, but the rest of the group was disappointed about that reaction, I can not believe how a restaurant is happy about 10 people leaving because you did not want them there, I do not think that the owner will celebrate that as those workers did.

Thanks to the workers who anticipated that was going to be a bad night and that nicely,...