Andante — Restaurant in Chelan

This evening was a tad frustrating because the food was so darn close to being incredible. The ambiance was nice, staff was friendly and the right amount of attentive, the cocktails were great, but a little overpriced even for a resort town. $17.5 for a 5 oz drink is a bit excessive.

Food wise is where some self reflection on back of house management could result in huge improvement.

#1 being the chronic overuse of pre-shredded parm on everything. That doesn't need to be on fish, mushrooms, a mountain on 1 piece of bread.... replace the parm with fresh chopped parsley and you're already doing way better. If you're going to use parm at all, go with fresh off the wedge and microplaned over the dish after the pass by the expo.

#2 don't be so afraid to add salt and citrus. Any seafood dish should come with a lemon wedge.

#3 the attention to detail in prepping veg could be improved. Currently, it's very rustic for the high end "vibe" this place is going for. The veg on all dishes were undercooked because of how... chunky... they were.

#4 although the chicken parm was well breaded and crispy and the penne pasta al dente the marinara was super chunky and unblended. That sauce should have been smooth. To quote Thomas Kellar "a sauce does not go from one container to another without first passing through a fine mesh chinois"

Overall, it was a good meal, just felt tired and uninspired... the "love" that makes italian cuisine so spectacular was missing.

Also the traditional menus but the tablet for the drink list was kind of strange.

I'd give it a try again in the future if they promise to put down the pre...

We’ve been going to Andantes for years, has been one of our favorites. I believe they changed hands this year, new faces. Last time we went was over Christmas. That was a terrible experience due to the fact our server was drunk, spilled red wine on our table, broke a glass, and had to be told to go home. But we decided to give it another chance, so we went last night and again were sadly disappointed. First, it took a half hour past our reservation time to be seated. Their seating arrangement feels like a cafeteria. Rectangular tables lined up in the middle that are about a foot apart. Servers stand in between so the next table gets the pleasure of watching his rear end inches from the bread bowl. The server lacked basic training for proper service at a nice restaurant. Examples, she dropped one of my forks, and came back with a knife. Had to ask three times for bread. Cleared some of the table before everyone had finished. Then she brought our check when my wife was still eating. The food was TERRIBLE! The prawn and procuitto pasta was always a favorite of mine. This time it was a tasteless bowl of literally top ramen noodles with a few shrimp and maybe two pieces of procuitto, and with no sauce. My wife’s lasagna looked nothing like it used to, which was also used to be a favorite, and was runny and little flavor. The salads were good, although they came in these goofy bowls that kept on spilling out the sides onto the table. Didn’t bother getting dessert, just wanted to leave. It’s too bad, because Chelan has very few options for a good meal. Andante was one, but we won’t be back until we hear things...

Staff is very polite and attentive. Unfortunately overall it didn't really impress. But full disclosure - not really a fan of Italian food anyway.

Had chicken parm but their marinara is spicy, I'd say 3 on a scale of 5. I do like spicy but it seemed to build up after a bit which reflected the flavor. IMO its just not be a good mix with the pasta or chicken. The marinara is also very chunky which is not my taste either. Wife had pasta primavera with alfredo. It was good but also a strange combo with sliced carrots etc.

Portion sizes were adequate but seemed small considering the prices, which were a bit high in my opinion. The atmosphere is nice but it was super dark and the menus are black font on dark silver paper. So they are difficult to read even in the best of light.

There was no sign in front of the restaurant whatsoever and the storefront is pretty dark - not much street lighting. If there was a sign we sure in the heck couldn't see it so we drove past the restaurant and had to turn around before we finally found it.

The desserts were absolutely fantastic even though the waitress brought me the wrong one. But it was actually another dessert that I had been considering so it really wasn't that much of a concern.

All in all it's probably not somewhere I would return or put at the top of a recommendation list. But again, considering Italian is not one of my favorites my opinions are definitely skewed. If you like Italian food I would say it's worth a try.

Just bring a flashlight (or your phone 😁) and drive really slow when you come on the Block so you...