Bossanova — Restaurant in Alton

I really like this place, so I'm going to give it a generous 4 star review. The first time I discovered it, I was with a friend of mine and we just wanted a place to grab a couple of drinks and some dinner. Due to COVID, a lot of places were only doing "to go" orders, and we just wanted a place we could sit and eat. Bossanova let us in, but warned us they had a brand new guy in the kitchen. So they expected food orders to take a long time. We were fine with waiting. The first pizza the guy made us came out burnt so they gave us free drinks as an apology and had him redo it. The second attempt was great, and we really enjoyed it.

Made an order recently for chicken pad thai to go and was a little less impressed. They mixed up my order with someone else's similar one, so I got chicken pad thai with soy sauce instead of thai peanut sauce on it. Wasn't worth the hassle to drive back and wait for them to remake it so I just ate it anyway. But IMO, never order pad thai this way!

Bottom line? Bossanova has friendly staff and an interesting menu, plus good drinks. Service can be spotty though, because they just seem perpetually short-staffed or staffed with inexperienced new people. I want to see them succeed though, so I'll give them...

My visit was with a group of friends aka co-workers for Happy Hour. It was Monday and to our surprise, they had a pizza special for $5.99. What a deal. Three of us went with the pizza and the other two enjoyed their salmon. Everyone was pleased with entree. I can tell you, seeing the Blackened Salmon, I know I will be going back to enjoy it myself.

My pizza was a sausage with red onions. It was a personalized size, so it was all mine. I didn't have to share it with anyone. I love personalized size because, I have no self-control and would eat an entire pizza. Now that I know that they have this special on Mondays, it my be where I go to satisfy my craving for pizza.

When coming to Bossanova, I've only enjoyed Martinis as my adult beverage. They have so many to choose from and they all have unique names. They're even broken down into two list; The Bond List for those that are shaken and The Austin List - Yea Baby. I'm a classic drinker, so I always go with, The Q which is a Dirty Martini. Every time they have made it masterfully.

Wait staff and bartenders are always friendly and make sure you're having a good time. So when you are in downtown Alton, be sure to stop by and...

Used to LOVE this place! I started making mussels at home like they did… so tonight went to have the real thing… it had been years since we had been in,… the mussels were soooo bad, I could’ve cried. There was nearly an inch of oil on top and after much swishing got some seasoned broth, wasn’t great, the bread was also saturated with oil. This sadly was not the worst part - in the mussels were at least 4 fully closed mussels (meaning dead) & 3-4 broken mussels (meaning dead before cooked) all mussels should be alive and then sautéed or else you’ll get seriously sick. You tap the shell and make sure it closes quickly - then it’s alive and fresh to cook. If not who knows how long it’s been dead in shell. Other entrees were ok, not like we remembered. The server was pleasant but did not think she would understand about the bad mussels being served. Please do not charge high end prices and have fry cooks in...