Vespaio Restaurant — Restaurant in Austin

Had dinner here recently with a couple of friends. The cocktails were good, but everything else was between mediocre and awful, including the service. We ordered the fried calamari as an appetizer, and it was very under-seasoned. They also forgot to put lemon wedges on our plate (our friends got wedges on theirs). Small thing, I know, but now it seems like it was a sign. It then took almost an hour to get our main dishes. After about 40 minutes of waiting we asked our waitress when we could expect our food, and she assured us it was coming out soon, without even offering to check on it. We asked her to look into it, and she came back and said that "they were plating the dishes now". It took another 20 minutes for the dishes to come out. My spaghetti carbonara was ok, not the best I've had but pretty good. Unfortunately, the scallop risotto my spouse ordered was almost inedible. The scallops were burned to a crisp on the outside, to the point that the dish literally had a burnt smell, which was unpleasant, to say the least. The risotto itself was watery and flavorless, so it's not as if the rest of the dish was ok. We called the waitress over to point this out, and she was very dismissive of our complaints, in the end agreeing to go get the manager. He did come over and apologize, offering to replace it with another dish. We ordered the cacio e pepe spaghetti, which came out pretty quickly, but the pasta was over-cooked and the sauce was very thin and watery. The waitress then had the gall to come over and ask if we were "happy now", insinuating that the issues with the previous dish were all in our head.

The scallop dish was removed from our bill, but between the service, the wait, and the lackluster-to-bad food, our overall experience was pretty unpleasant. Not at all what we would expect from a restaurant with these prices and apparently good reviews. Shame, but we...

I used to frequent Vespaio before I moved away from Austin. I recently was back in town and visited Vespaio and can happily say my experience only improved. Vespaio is a staple on South Congress and here's why you should support them:

I dropped in shortly after 5p and was not only greeted by a friendly and exuberant host but also the smell of freshly baked bread. I promptly grabbed a seat at the bar, since I was a party of one (normally I dine in their main dining room). The music overhead was subtle but featured a lot of local Austin musicians. The lighting at the bar was perfectly soft giving the whole area a soft glow that was still functional (dim lighting and old age sometimes don't work well together).

Tom at the bar greeted me with a friendly hand shake. I ordered the espresso martini (by suggestion) and the beef carppacio (I had a craving for this plate in particular). Tom quickly delivered on both.

Richard the General Manager came by and we chatted a bit about how much Austin has changed. He grew up in Austin as well. He let me know Tom has been at the bar for 15+ years. This is a huge sign that Vespaio's hospitality group cares for their employees and values them. Richard was kind in our interactions.

There was a mixture of people at Vespaio on a weekday evening, from neighborhood regulars to elder couples and even a large family with kids. I observed Richard touching each table and ensuring all guests were enjoying their experience.

The espresso martini was velvety in texture and had subtle vanilla hints. The carppacio was everything I had hoped it would be- delicious wagyu beef, crispy capers, spicy arugula and a little tang from a horseradish Dijon.

I will definitely be back, but everyone should check this place out. South Congress has seen so many landmark spots change recently and this place deserves to...

Had dinner there last night and can easily say I will not be going back. The service and food were both not good. To start, our first and second options of wine were not available, which we were only told after ordering, of course. We ordered calamari to start which came out very quickly, but it was under seasoned and not hot. We ordered 2 plates and ended up waiting over 35 minutes. In the meantime, a table was sat next to us and I kid you not, received their food in less than 5 minutes. Seeing this, we brought it up to the waitress because we never heard from her in this time who proceeded to say, and was obviously lying, when she said that she had actually noticed the wait too and had told her manager (she only went to the manager after we complained). The food was brought to us by the manager about 5 minutes later and his over the top expressions were very off putting. He started off by asking if the waitress had told us that the risotto for one of our entrees takes 40 minutes to cook (it does not and she did not) and did not offer an apology. Finally getting to the food, the risotto was hot, but the short ribs on the plate were lukewarm. When I told the manager this, he said he would tell the chef but never heard from him the rest of our time there. At the end of the night, only our 2 drinks were comped from the bill. We were not expecting a free meal whatsoever, but to have such a bad experience and only hear made up excuses instead of owning up to being short staffed in the kitchen (there were only 2 visible cooks) or just dropping the ball with a packed restaurant was the worst part. Looking at the other reviews, I see that this is a common...