Polpo Ristorante — Restaurant in Avalon

My wife and I tried Palpo's tonight for the first time, anxious to try a new Italian Restaurant in the area. I am not a picky person and am relativeley easy to please. Unfortunately, this place challenged my passive demeanor as soon as we got there. With the exception of a table for 4, and another table of 2, the place was empty, but we were met by a member of the staff that asked if we had a reservation. When we said we didn't, it was as though we were pagan invaders. When we were seated, and looked at the menu, it was fairly high priced, with a simple portion of spaghetti (marinara sauce only)starting at 19.95. We proceeded to order, and while there was staff everywhere, there was little personality or attempted interaction with those working with us, which is a disappointment, because we generally try to engage with the server.

I will say my wife's salad and soup were fine, my order of spaghetti however, left a lot to be desired. It came in a bowl type plate and literally was the size of a small child's portion and looked like it came out of a can of Chef Boyardee.

This is literally the second review I've written for a restaurant in my life, with the first being extremely positive. Due to the ridiculous portion, that tasted average at best, and the coldness displayed by the staff, along with several other negatives, I felt I had to air my experience. I hate to see any business have problems, but unless things change here, especially with the target audience being tourists, I think they are going to have serious issues maintaining a following.

Part 2 After writing the previous post, we learned my wife accidentally left her purse in the restaurant as we left. We weren't awre of the loss until they closed for the evening and becaue of off season hours, they didnt open until 3:30 PM the next day. Understandably, we were concerned, and waiting to determine if it had been found made for a long day. As the restaurant opened, I called and spoke to the Assistant Manager, who said he would check and call me back. As promised he called me back and explained they had the purse and it was available for pickup. Much to our relief, we went and retrieved the purse and found everything was as we left it. There was a decent amount of cash, credit cards etc..... and all was there, undisturbed. I have to stand by my original post regarding the service and food, but I give high cudos to their honesty and their effort to help us locate the purse. Thank you Palpo, and I wish...

Our group had a very bad experience.

Our reservation was for 7:30 and we were told to stand off to the side to wait until someone came to get us. After 30min, we followed up on the status of our table and they told us it should be ready “soon.” After another 15min, we inquired again and they were surprised that we were not already seated- they had called out our name then seated another party in our place. We might have heard our name called, except they told us to step away from the hostess booth and wait off to the side. So it took us a full 45min to be seated.

After we were seated we had to ask for water for the table twice. We later had to ask for refills too. We had to ask for an ice bucket for our wine as well. We also had to ask to place our orders with our waiter. The service was not great.

We explained to the waiter that there was a mix up with the reservation and they seated another party in our place which resulted in a 45min wait, and we asked if there was anything that could be done to rectify the situation. The waiter said he’d ask the manager and when he returned he said the manager was “unable” to do anything. The manager did not even bother to stop by our table to apologize for the inconvenience that they were responsible for.

This is the worst part- one of our party has Celiac’s disease. She ordered her entree with gluten free pasta and the waiter said it would be penne. When her dish was placed in front of her by a busboy, he explicitly said “gluten free special.” When she asked for clarification they first said yes that is GF, only for the waiter to come out and say no that was the wrong dish. The only reason we realized her dish WAS NOT gluten free was because she was expecting a penne pasta. She could have gotten very ill had she eaten the pasta after receiving false confirmation that it was GF.

The food was delicious but the...

Fairly good atmosphere, lots of space to accommodate a lot of diners, but there are some places to improve.

Costs are high and they’re very precise about not wanting people to share entrees. Bread is weak and industrial, not warm or fresh. A real failure. It’s BYOB unless you buy a whole bottle of wine which is interesting.

Prices are also pretty high, which should pair with good quality — but while service is relatively professional it is not prompt or entirely welcoming, no matter your party composition.

Food: the soup was thin, the risotto was undercooked and lacked flavor. Pastas were fine, nothing to write home about - probably a safe option. Another review mentions avoiding the chicken parm - so we did. No new info to report there; I guess take their advice?

The salad here one of our guests got was actually quite interesting. Some nice fresh fruit and arugula and balsamic, kind of a unique twist. I suppose I should have gone with that.

And look: Octopi are smart as heck. Don’t eat them. We didn’t. (Polpo is Italian for octopus) Calamari (squid) is much more sustainable and the preparation here was ok. Not bad not great.

The floor was oddly slippery I think due to the cheap vinyl and how they cleaned it, in part of their outdoor patio. Worth noting though. Quite weird.

A comfy 4 stars but you’re going to pay like you’re getting more than you really are. It’s not dangerous or offensive or going to ruin your evening, but there are better options unless you really have to have some of their pastas or like the available wine service.

Parking is mostly ok nearby. You may walk a minute or two. Common for the area. Restaurant is nice and accessible, no stairs anywhere. Chairs weren’t overly comfortable but weren’t bad for an hour or 2.

Would love to see this experience at a lower price point, or see a bump up in food quality...