Rena's Italian Fishery & Grill — Restaurant in Alpharetta

We tried Rena's last night for the first time. I wouldn't say we're food snobs, but we are pretty picky when it comes to Italian food, especially. I grew up in an Italian family, and we do a lot of cooking. We've also had the immense pleasure of going to Italy twice, so far, and the food there is amazing. So, for the most part our experience was good at Rena's. First of all, our server, Sarah, was great. I would ask for her if/when we go back. I'll start with the positives. The service was very good overall, I'll explain more in a minute. The drinks were good, although my negroni was a little sweet for my taste. I started with the scallop appetizer, which was terrific, and then on to veal piccata, also very good. My wife had a salad and then pasta with pomodoro sauce. The grated cheese was real, and of course, we always say yes to fresh cracked pepper. On to my one issue. My wife has allergies to preservatives, yes it's a bit strange and took forever to diagnose. She's a good sport about it and very attentive to ingredients now. It does, however, pose a challenge with going out to eat. She carries a card that shows what she can't have, so that makes it easier. Our server, Sarah, was very attentive and helpful the whole time. She went and talked to the chef and manager, and came back and very apologetically said they weren't able to cook any protein because of the cooking oil they use. My wife had asked for salmon, but again the oil. However, they brought bread and butter to the table, and surely an Italian restaurant has at least a little olive oil somewhere one would think. Anyway, my wife handled it gracefully, and again, Sarah was trying very hard. I just feel like, maybe the chef and manager could have thought outside the box a little and used a small pan with either butter or olive oil to cook a piece of protein. All in all, though, it was a good experience, and I think we would try it again, and maybe try to talk directly to the chef and/or manager, and the prices weren't too bad. My wife would not write a review to complain, and maybe I'm being too protective. It...

Rena’s is the sister restaurant to Crust, just down the street in Alpharetta. And now, after eating at Rena’s, I have 2 favorite Italian restaurants in Alpharetta. If you love Crust for its delicious and fresh food at reasonable prices, you’re also going to love Rena’s. The only difference is that it’s a little more upscale with some higher price point dishes, mainly the seafood. We took the recommendations of our waiter, who was personable, efficient, and very knowledgeable about the menu and restaurant. My wife and I both ordered off the top of the menu with the fresh, wild caught, market priced fish, which worked out to be $31, including your choice of vegetable or pasta side, for roughly a half pound of fish. My grouper with white wine sauce was delicious. My fish was moist and sweet and the sauce was an appropriate match for it. My wife enjoyed her haddock with red pepper sauce just as much as I had enjoyed my grouper. She made sure to order her side pasta with fettuccine, which is made fresh, in-house daily. For the quality of the fish and presentation of the dish, I know I would have paid more in other similarly situated restaurants. We also split between us an incredibly delicious and large beet half salad for $9, which was the deal of the night. Finally, I can’t turn down a crème brûlée, even when desserts have gotten to a crazy $9 each in most good restaurants. But, I would pay that every night for what turned out to be the best crème brûlée I’ve ever had. Who would think the rather pedestrian flavor of butterscotch would turn a crème brûlée into an even more elegant and scrumptious tasting dessert. Bravo to Rena’s pastry chef!! One final note is that it was 7:00 pm on the last day of a 3 day weekend with a NFL playoff game about to start on the bar’s TV. The joint was jumping! Yet it wasn’t so loud that my wife and I couldn’t enjoy a romantic dinner away from the chores of home. All around great experience with food, service, and price. I plan on bringing friends...

We had the privilege of renting Rena's upstairs facility and their catering for a family wedding celebration. The facility was incredibly clean with a very cool industrial vibe. The parking was plentiful and easy to access the facility with elevator access right outside. When setting up, they made things so easy and were incredibly helpful with things like storing our flowers for the ceremony, the cake, and anything else we needed. They were constantly asking how else they could help even though they were swamped with things to do to prepare themselves. When we arrived from the ceremony, they had all the tables set to perfection with decorations, gifts, in goodies. Almost immediately the bar was in full swing and appetizers we're available. The dinner was excellent, hot and flavorful, and the servers were so respectful, professional, and on top of everything. The bar was a full bar and willing to make just about any drink that people requested (instead of typical catering where they force everyone to choose from the dozen bottles they brought). And after partying late into the night and early morning hours, they were just as friendly and helpful, and did all the cleanup and had collected any personal items that were forgotten or things they thought might be sentimental to keep, and held on to them for us to be picked up later. We weren't the ones who paid the bill, so we can't comment on what we received for the cost. But I'm pretty sure we got far more than we expected from Rena's and the wedding party made it clear that they were incredibly happy with how things went and would definitely refer them to others. So we also would highly recommend Rena's catering and upstairs room for any party or get together you are thinking...