Orso — Restaurant in Alaska

It's a very pretentious place-they are too good to have side dishes to go with the food... the waiter told me that they couldnt make mai tais even though it looked like a full enough bar selection over there.. and he said I couldn't change anything on the menu I had to order everything as is but as is is not it good enough I spent $75 and I was still hungry the menu doesn't have enough variety of things to order it's a bunch of fish things that don't come with any mashed potatoes french fries ot rice just asparagus.. with everything. Who eats that? I ordered the calamari but it was not juicy at all it was hard to chew and I came with while baby octapus on the plate. I ordered the tiramisu it was a frozen ice cream cake and just a sliver. I ordered the Chowder it had all this corn and peas in it with no salt... how is it owned by the same person that owns Glacier Brewhouse and they're not able to serve fries here or side dishes. you get no salt and pepper on the table... all of these server people walk past you that can help you but they don't and they don't serve you even though they could help. it took forever just to get a glass of water and even then I had to wait long to get a straw to drink it. I ordered the crab cakes the calamari the Tiramisu and the chowder and one drink- I was still hungry. If you're expecting to get a full complete meal move on. It's more just to get a taste I guess of whatever they want is to think is Alaska's best food but this is not. It also was uncomfortable sitting in those high chair Mediterranean tables that cut into your stomach and breasts with a super bright hot light just burning on your face the whole time and people walking past where you can't even lay your feet out. It's an awkward design and it was really crowded in there. Even the waiters could barely get the trays in to bring in the food. I know that Alaska has a diverse history and hire internationally but I couldn't understand what most of the service people were saying. I tried it and that was that but I won't be going back because I actually like to get full when I eat. I like to make a complete meal experience and taste actual food and have multiple drinks and i couldnt do that here. There are lots of fish pasta entrees but most of the menus of gigantic placard that has nothing appealing. There were people all around me that were waiting long times for their food.. the chowder and calamari came out really fast I think they just had it sitting under a light. I guess this is just an impressed tourist or International people but for someone actually wanting to eat this is not the place. The crab cake had a lot of cornmeal in it. I think because the staff is mostly European they're not expecting other people of different colors to come in there... it's a little awkward the service staff is not the same with every kind of person I was so glad to see the person of color working at the front but I still...

After the Manager reached out and assured me that the service we experienced was an ananomaly, I have decided to revise my rating to reflect the food and the promise of consistently professional future service. The manager did not request a revision. I will return in 2019.

The original post: The food is good; actually it's delicious. The ambience is somewhat pedestrian, but it is the abominable attitudes of the front-of-house staff that lowers a 5/6 rating down to a THREE.

To start, we should never have accepted a table when being told "We need the table at 8"-- never in my life have I had a HOSTESS tell me how long I could dine! Like an idiot, I said "fine" and we were grudgingly seated. The water person/assistant was decent, but someone should teach him how to pour from the side. Asking us to pass our glasses and leaving a bottle for us to finish serving ourselves. Next came the waiter who immedietly tried to upsell the cocktails. Since we weren't drinking, and informed him of the designated time factor (1.5 hours to dine), he quickly got a super snotty attitude, took our appetizer & dinner order, then left. The two times he showed up in proximity to the table he was about as dismissive as could be in polite society.

The ONE nice employee is the young man who brought us out our food. He took a moment to genuinely interact with us, and not only placed the plates on the table from the correct side, but simultaneously removed the used appetizer plates. My son said "I wish he was our server", and I fully agreed. We ate. It was yummy. Then our server returned, all of a sudden he was the most obsequious sycophant in Alaska. Hey, it was getting close to tip time. My party was surprised by this suddenly congenial representation. I was not, nor was I impressed; if anything, it pissed me off further since it was so obviously false. The Hostess showed up to take a plate. It was 7:50PM and the "B" wasn't kidding about wanting that table. We ordered espresso dopios and dessert. I was going to finish my meal, damnit. The water-boy tried to take our water glasses. I told him he could wait until we were done with our meal.

The server brought the check. As we concluded our meal, I gave the server my card and he ran it then brought it back for my signature. I tipped 10% ( I ALWAYS tip 20% minimum), signed, and we took our last sips/bites. The Hostess was now giving us the overtly evil eye. It was 8:02PM. The Server actually came to the table to ask for the signed check!!! No one does that. Ever! I told him he could wait until we were done. 4 minutes later, I was standing outside the door. It's a threshold which neither I, nor my family who live in Anchorage, will ever be...

Just had a very poor dining experience here and therefore, it isn’t possible for me to recommend Orso to anyone. Dined here on the evening of 6/19/2023. Our reservation was at 1900 hrs. We were greeted politely by the hostess and we were sat quite promptly. Our positive experiences ended right about here. We waited approximately one hour for the two appetizers we ordered. One of the items needed to be compensated. Our complaint was that we ordered clams, and the dish arrived with virtually no clam meat. The explanation we received from our server was a rushed “Sorry, the kitchen is a mess right now.” This rushed demeanor was also present in the manager who agreed to comp this dish because he carelessly collected the plates from the table, spilling the sauce all over my pants. I never even asked him to hurry. White wine sauce now soaking through my clothes, we waited an additional hour for our main dishes to arrive. During this wait, the wrong dishes were delivered to our table. After more than an hour and a half of waiting, and a vague response from our server regarding the status of our dishes, we requested our check so that we could leave. A manager tried to convince us to stay so we had to insist we pay our check and leave. Atmosphere earns a 4/5 because it’s a nice, clean environment with well-maintained, detailed decor and welcoming furnishings. Orso lost one star from this category because we were sat in close proximity to the kitchen, from which we could hear chaos in the form of loud clattering and staff-on-staff arguments. Atmosphere is very superficial, though. It doesn’t make up for the...