Numero28 Austin — Restaurant in Austin

Lenghty story ahead, lots of info to share. We were a group of 8. 4 adults 2 young kids, 1 toddler, and 1 infant. Knowing this my friend called ahead around 1pm to try and have a reservation made instead we were told no need just walk right in it will be fine. Well we arrive at 4:40 10 minutes after they open for dinner and the guy at the entrance tells us he cannot seat us inside for at least 45 minutes because other guests had just sat down. So already this visit has started wrong. Now he did say he can seat us outside, I did not want that because with our little ones that would have been horrible with the temperature being 97°F. We angrily talked them into giving us 2 separate tables inside to make it work. Well the temps inside were just a little cooler than outside but not in the realm of comfortable, probably lower 80's and very humid. Service as many others on here have said is sub par especially since this place isn't exactly affordable. They gave us a carafe of water we finished it and I thought they took it to refill it but no they just wanted it for another table. I had to ask the one kind waiter there for at least 2 more glasses of water because my boys were thirsty. Another customer there was at his wits end and was shouting at his horrible server to get his daughter a drink after several failed requests. Just an fyi I did not realize the 18" and 29" pizzas were not round they are only 12" wide, so the size was not what I was expecting especially at that price point. The 3 we tasted they did taste good but they are not worth the price tag especially for us that drove there from San Antonio. I asked for a Coke to drink and watched as they poured a little more than half a can in my small glass and thats $3 no free refills🙈 of course I was never offered anything else to drink anyway. My wife was appalled that the bar tenders were over there scratching their noses touching their faces with their fingers then grabbing lemons or orange slices and putting them straight into people's drinks. 🤢 We finished with our pizzas and staff came by to pick up dishes, we were asked if we wanted a dessert/coffee my wife and boys requested one tiramisu to share they said no problem and left 10 minutes later a bill arrives and my wife is putting a card to pay, but first I ask her does it include the dessert, she says yes I take the card back and have to flag someone down because nobody brought us a dessert. They apologized and 5 minutes later we get our dessert. Tasted like the boxed ones the large chain Italian restaurant buy nothing great or bad. My wife tipped our normal 20% I told here that service was at best 10% maybe even slighty lower. This is a better break down if stars is your thing out of 5 stars. Food ☆☆☆☆ Service ☆ Price ...

First things first: we absolutely love this place. This is real-deal Italian. It's not stuffy nor fancy but just good solid food. Our favorite is the chicken parmesan. The chicken is always perfectly-cooked and delicious. And the spaghetti they serve with it is hard to describe. It has a very thin coating of sauce. Almost so little that it just looks like reddish pasta - and yet the amount of flavor they manage to pack into it is mind-blowing. I have no idea how they do this.

Now, something to know before you go. A lot of the people who work in this place are actually from Italy. Why is this important? Because the service reflects that. This means that they are not going to fuss over you the whole time you are there. That is considered extremely rude in Italy. So, if you feel like you are not getting the attention you are accustomed to in the United States, just flag your person down and he or she will cheerfully assist you. That's their custom and they are proud to give people a great meal without buzzing around the table.

Lastly, testimonial: we placed an online order one time. After waiting for an hour for the website to give us a projected pickup time, we just drove over. When we went inside, they informed us that they were not currently taking online orders because they were so busy. The manager could see our discussion and came over. We briefly explained that we understood they were not taking online orders but that an online order had been placed, confirmed and payment made. The manager had the kitchen make our food immediately and apologized for any inconvenience - which was no big deal as we were not in a hurry anyway. That's good customer service if you ask me. A mistake was made and they owned it. Go try this place. It feels like a little neighborhood place in Italy. This is definitely going into regular rotation in...

This review is overdue. I stopped by here the week before Thanksgiving and was served some solid Italian pasta by some amazing staff.

My partner and I opted to sit at the bar where they had wine on tap! We opted for a bottle of the Nero D’Avolo Stemmari — and it was half off because it was Tuesday!!

AJ was our bartender / wine server / order taker. By the way she handled herself so confidently and how she was making the other patrons laugh and giving our recommendations, we were immediately drawn to her personality and thought she worked there forever. Imagine our surprise when it was her FIRST DAY! We had to confirm with another server (Rene, who had started 20 days earlier!) to double check. Both AJ and Rene had awesome personalities and made us laugh throughout the night. Stellar staff here at Numbero 28!

Onto the food!

I got the lasagna. This was AWESOME, definitely made in house and cooked to perfection. I really loved the texture of the extra cooked bits. One of the best restaurant lasagnas I’ve ever had.

My partner got their cheese wheel pasta. We totally skimmed over the fact that this dish didn’t have any meat, but honestly the full mouthfeel of the cheese and hand made noodles were awesome on their own.

We also opted to get a scoop of their gelato at the little kiosk near the door. I honestly would pass on this next time; compared to the quality of the actual dishes on the menu, this was clearly not made in house and artificially sweetened / flavored. If you’re looking for dessert, I’d encourage you to instead order their tiramisu — if I ever find myself back in Austin and here at Numero 28, I’ll get that instead.

All in all — GREAT staff, AMAZING food, and HALF OFF WINE...