Acquolina — Restaurant in Aspen

Let me start by saying I had called a couple days in advance to make reservations for my parents’ 40th anniversary. They had taken note and mentioned they would be sure to give us a great table by the window to celebrate and do something a little extra to mark the occasion.

We get there at 8pm promptly for our reservations only to be told they don’t have that seating at the moment and will try to get us whatever table is next available. The man at the front very rudely says we are not guaranteed tables and will have to wait. Ok fine so already not off to a great start. Another man walks by, the manager I assume, and upon hearing what’s going on, offers our family a glass of wine while we wait. I made the mistake of not bringing an ID (though I’m 30 years old and very clearly of drinking age...) but the man refuses to serve me even though I have a picture of my passport and my parents are literally telling him I’m 30. Fine I can understand they’re super strict so I let it go. But the experience doesn’t get better from there.

Despite our 8pm reservations, we are not seated until 8:30. The table is great though so we are happy enough and begin looking through the menu. The waiter comes by and takes everyone’s drink orders except mine. Does not even look my way and after taking my family’s orders, literally does not even wait a moment for me and walks away. So when he finally returns to take the appetizers and main courses order I make sure he also brings me some tea.

The appetizers do not show up until 9pm, a full hour after when we go have our reservations. But the food is amazing so we overlook the tardiness and enjoy the garlic bread and fornarina. When we get our main courses at 9:30, they completely screw up my dad’s order, bringing him veal instead of chicken. We let the busboy know it was the wrong order and he presumably goes back in to tell our waiter, who doesn’t even bother returning to apologize. He doesn’t come to apologize for giving us the wrong order or to even check if the food is ok. The man literally doesn’t come back out to check on us once after he had taken our food orders at 8:40. Which was so rude considering we had seen him check on the other patrons around us multiple times through the night. Not a single stop by our table.

I would be remiss not to point out we were also the only family at the restaurant who were not white. I would truly hope this has nothing to do with the atrocious service we received, but it did cross my mind once or twice.

At the end of the night, after having not bothered coming over to our table since taking our orders, the waiter brings us a $220 check. Still no apology for mixing up my father’s order (we never got the chicken)... He literally tosses the check on the table and leaves.

Despite me having told them this was a special occasion we were celebrating, we have been subjected to the worst dining experience of my life. I have never before been treated in such a terrible way at a “fine” restaurant where you are paying over $200 for 2 apps and 4 main courses.

I don’t expect much coming from writing this review, but I do hope if the managers of this “fine” restaurant happen to stumble upon it, that they use it as feedback for change.

Upon returning to our hotel after dinner, we made sure the concierge and front desk were made aware of the experience. Our hotel concierge, who had initially recommended this restaurant to us for a celebratory dinner, declared they will stop sending hotel patrons to this restaurant in future. So even if these restaurant folks don’t change their tune, at the very least, they will never get our hotel’s...

Overall not a good experience. From food to service. Let’s start with the service. I found our server insulting. We started with the wine. Asked our server for a recommendation- the only recommendation she had was a $175 bottle. Normally this wouldn’t irritate me because I love a good bottle of red. However it’s the only one she could recommend. Immediately my thought was - oh she trying to make sure she makes money. I totally get it! That’s why she’s there. However I think it’s best to give a couple of options. Just my opinion. Okay we move on from the wine to appetizer and dinner. We had the calamari for an appetizer....No complaints. Moving onto dinner again I ask our server about the menu. She goes over the specials - I ask her about the Alfredo- She responds with..... “That was created for a 5 year old” I look back at my menu - and it’s on the adult menu. I wasn’t looking at the kids menu. I looked at my fiancé.... I said oh it’s made for 5 year olds. Okay............. I take a breath.... I ask her what she suggest on the menu. She gave me 2 options. The special and something else- at that point I was so annoyed. I asked her to order what she thinks is best. I am open to new adventures. And if Alfredo is for 5 year olds- let me have some adult food!!!! What does this adult food taste like?????? Needles to say she brought me the special because after all it is a special and they don’t always have it. For me it was very basic. I didn’t enjoy it at all. The wine was delicious though. Ambiance was nice. Would I go back. No - not really because of the food but because...

Unfortunately, I wish I could give more stars but we had a very inattentive server, he seemed more focused on flirting with the waitstaff than even bother asking how are meal was or refilling our drinks. To be fair, this seemed unwelcome by the other female employees. I would normally understand if it was busy but we came in before any rush. While in Aspen and at this price point, you are paying for a fine dining experience and this was not even close to one. The other wait staff seemed competent and ended up mostly taking care of us. They were very clearly giving each other looks, like where is he now? It was probably around 35-40 minutes after appetizers were brought out that he even came back to our table.

The food was okay, I think this waiter definitely took away from the experience overall so we didn’t enjoy it as much. For appetizers, we had the Rollino which the whole table liked. We also had the Bruschetta which was overall very dry and lacking flavor. For Dinner once we were finally able to order three of us had the Rigotoni, the others felt it was okay/good. I found the mushrooms to be a bit soggy. We also had an order of Orecchiette at our table, which was very very dry and went unfinished by a very non-picky eater.

Overall, would not come back here as there are way too many lovey places in Aspen with exceptional service even those significantly below this price point. I would hope the restaurant makes improvements for...