Sorrento Pizza & Restaurant — Restaurant in Alamo Heights

It's a 50-50 mixed bag. Some of the food was a hit some of the food was a miss. We had the antipasto as a starter and it came with an abundance of mixed greens including fresh basil leaves the meats piled high on top or very tasty but we could have used without the boiled ham it tasted like generic Hill Country Fare grocery store boiled ham. There was smoked gouda there was blue cheese there was very bland mozzarella tossed in with red onion slices olives and it was very pretty. the dressing that came on the side was really tasty and was a great accompaniment to the bread in the basket dipping the bread in that salad dressing was a very comforting treat and the butter for the bread basket came soft that was a plus. We ordered three entrees-Pollo Alla Parmigiana, spaghetti carbonara, and crab cakes alla Neopolitana. The chicken parmesan was rubbery- the kind of cold ugly fried Chicken you would get at a wedding where they were on a super tight budget. the tomato sauce tasted like at some point the tomatoes had been in a can. It came with a side of pasta which we got sauce with garlic butter and red pepper flakes and that pasta side was PERFECTION! Moving on to the crab cakes they were mushy and considering they were fried they were not crispy. It was almost like taking a bite of a tuna sandwich that had too much mayonnaise in it, it was just that mushy. I'm used to a more subtle crab flavor these packed a very hard crab forward flavor- as if perhaps the crab was borderline old. As a side it came with capellini tossed in spinach. The pasta was cooked perfectly the spinach however was so overcooked I thought it was Swiss chard. underneath the crab cakes and pasta came a more than fantastic delectable silky lemony garlicky buttery sauce that made the crab cakes palatable. The sauce that came with these crab cakes was EVERYTHING!! Moving on to the carbonara, it was heavy it was greasy bacon heavy bacon forward but I am seriously convinced that there was more than just egg yolks in that sauce. There was a sweetness at the end that kind of rolled around on your tongue as if maybe they threw in some sugar for sport it was not pleasant. Traditionally there should not be cream in it but it was very rich very creamy very greasy two bites and I was done. My husband agreed mine was better- my daytime profession is housewife and CEO/founder of a nonprofit if that tells you anything. My kids were excited to get the to go box but had one bite and left it. My first glass of wine was Ruffino Moscato very very sweet but light and delicate in the mouth. My second glass of wine was a Pinot noir I was non-specific so I'm guessing it was the house wine and it had serious overtones of Raid ant and roach. It tasted the way raid bug spray smells and it punched the inside of my skull in a very traumatic way. The horribly vulgar odor took me all the way back to the garage we had when I was in the 5th grade. my husband even commented from across the table "are they spraying for bugs out here right now?" as I swirled the wine around hoping that aerating it would make it taste better. It did not. For dessert we tried the limoncello cake. When the cake came we were presented with the cutest pair of dessert forks. That was very charming. The frosting and the center layer of filler were EXCELLENT, however we were disappointed that we were presented with a yellow chiffon style cake that tasted completely of orange not lemon. The strawberry coulis that decorated the cake was very good, sweet as well as tart. Our meal would not have been lacking had we skipped dessert. We had a very attentive waitress who seemed to be authentically Italian that was a treat as well as a bonus. So all told, it was 50/50 hit or miss we never been there we knew what we were ordering we knew what to expect and we're disappointed half the time we were sitting there. all of the pasta was bar none and really really good. The entrees containing protein were definitely lacking. I will not be having an argument with my husband over NOT going back to Sorrento. We...

Been going here since the beginning of time (I've grown up in this neighborhood my entire life). Over the years, this place knew how to get it right (emphasis on past tense 'knew'). Unfortunately, last night was probably the worst experience I've ever had at a dining establishment. Worst of it all: I had brought my entire family with me for an early Mother's Day dinner and had to put my parents through the agony of bad service + bad management.

Missed opportunities by our waitress + manager on duty:

-Seating staff gave us a 2 hour window to eat dinner when we got seated, we accepted. From the beginning of our night, the server insisted on rushing the experience. So much that I had to remind her that we had a 2 hour window that we were very well aware of. I blame this on poor training as a waitress and perhaps other things on her mind.

-No bread at our table, while every other table received there bread. I love there homemade bread, not sure why they deprived my table of it?

-Some orders wrong (my father can't eat mushrooms)..when remedied, the staff obviously picked out the mushrooms from the order. Taste remained. Unfortunately, dad couldn't eat the dish and had to skip dinner for fear of sending the plate back a 2nd time.

-Had to beg for our soda + tea + water refills from other servers around the restaurant because our server would not provide them. Luckily for me, one gentleman kept coming back to ask (I think he saw the frustration of empty glasses, as any well trained server would). This gentleman deserves a promotion to management as he interprets the energy of the room and acts upon it to elevate the dining experience.

-And a number of other issues that I'll spare their review page from absorbing.

At the end of all of this debacle, the manager on duty comes back and insists she "re-charges" our credit card to seal in our 20% gratuity. Instead of hearing the concerns we had about our dinner, she further insisted that "she had tables to take care of still" and couldn't remain to listen. May I add that in the previous receipt the server brought out, she had already charged our 20% gratuity and insisted on an extra tip via the 'tip and signature line'.

Overall we still tipped 15% because I understand what it is to be a server on a Saturday afternoon (4pm, before the evening rush) but let me continue to insist that Sorrento has definitely missed it. The fact that the current manager is upholding to this standard of service is absurd. It'll be a matter of time before more catch on that accepting such level of service from a local establishment just doesn't happen and the preference of eating at a corporate establishment is likely the better route for special occasions (for fear of a similar dining experience).

Worst part of this all, the owner stood aside watching this unfold 😳

Last thoughts: For a quick lunch meal with a work colleague, Sorrento MAY still be it! For dinner after 4pm, steer clear. Save yourself the embarrassment of bringing your family here for a local dining experience.

-poor server training -poor management training -poor dining experience -great food 🍝 BEFORE...

No one tried to hide it and I also seem to have missed any hype about it somehow. But there it was in plain sight a couple of doors down from the corner. Nothing showy or austentatious about the location or entrance. Seemingly just another long established place in a strip of shops anchored by well ensconced businesses from yesteryear. Boring, right?!

With Christmas fast closing in, the Central Market area of Broadway is beginning its holiday transformation as well as the shops that fall within this highly decorated corridor. In acknowledgement of the upcoming season, the dark interior countenance of the restaurant we visited was uplifted by a token string or two of interior Christmas lights that did not seem garrish, but actually supplied a festive feel that might otherwise have been lacking. Don't get me wrong. We liked the Italian subliminal interior decoration as well as any place with an Italophile theme commonly depicted via paint or wall paper of crumbling stone and romanesque pillared ruins scenes.

What I mean about the "no one told me" comment really pertains to the mouth watering lunch specials we had today;

Cannelloni pasta stuffed (and I don't mean just a little in antithesis to a few places where they whiff the crustacean shell past the pasta and call it "filled") with shrimp and mozz then smothered in a snowy white blanket of bechamel flecked with green garnish and laid on with a splash of the darker green color of wilted fresh spinach in crowning symmetry to balance out the ultra rich composition of the dish..

Cod Almondine. A crusted filet with a layer of almond slivers placed in a manner reminiscent of fish scales served in a piquant white wine sauce over a petite bed of wilted spinach and accompanied by a serving of butter and garlic pasta (marinara sauce if you like instead).

Hot, buttered, homemade, bread slices were the preamble for our positively sumptuous Italian lunch constitutional that needed no dessert amendment whatsoever. The richness of the entrees easily transported one past any desire for even the best of tiramisus.

A claim by the restaurant for best authentic Italian food in San Antonio should not be taken lightly. I am certainly no lighter (but very happy) for having discovered this neighborhood gastronomic joie de vivre and to have...