Café Capriccio — Restaurant in City of Albany

Had a terrible experience about a month ago, over $14.00 worth of risotto. It might sound petty, but bear with me.

A brief backstory first. I came here with two friends last winter, one of whom was from out of town and had never had good Italian food before. He was so enamored with the food here he literally started tearing up. We came back the next night just us two, and had a lovely date night. He loved it almost as much the second time, and talked about Cafe Capriccio being a non-zero contributing factor to why he's considering moving up here. TLDR; he fell in love with this place, hard.

Cut to a month ago. My friend is back in town, and insists we have to go to Cafe Capriccio again. We go, and get the little table in the corner of the upper dining room. We have a lovely evening, and he wants to come back again. We make a reservation for the following evening as we leave, and the wait staff seems delighted that we had such a good time.

The second evening, things seem fine at first. We have one waitress who helps us, and takes our order. I see that risotto is $7 to order as a side dish, and we're both thinking about ordering it. We both order the special, a white fish with mashed potatoes, and ask if it's possible to substitute the mash for risotto. The waitress assures us it's possible, for a small up-charge. We say that's fine, and order both with a risotto substation.

We work through our appetizer, the lovely eggplant dish, and the entrees arrive. At this point, a second waitress has transitioned to taking care of us, and brings us our fish with a little blob of risotto each of our plates, and shortly afterward comes out with two sides of risotto--each a sizeable full bowl of the stuff. She says, "I'm sorry, they put the ticket in wrong and entered your order as regular, with two sides of risotto, would you like to take them or have them taken off the bill?" We've got risotto, so we thank her but ask her to take it off, and she agrees. We think that settles things.

We wrap up our meal, and by now a third waitress has started taking care of us. She brings us the bill, and I notice we've been charged full price for our specials ($47 each for a piece of white fish, mash, and a few green beans, yikes), as well as two separate entries for $7 sides of risotto. We think they forgot to take it off the bill, and eventually flag down that third waitress again and explain that we were told it would be taken off by the second waitress. She says she's going to go check, and vanishes for a while. The second waitress returns and explains that it was their understanding we had a conversation about being okay with the up-charge. We explain the course of events, and that if we had known we were going to get charged for the price of two full sides of risotto, we would have taken the other two bowls of risotto to go. We also explained that if we knew the "up-charge" would be the cost of a full side, we would have just ordered one side originally, and gotten our mashed potatoes as well. The waitress acknowledges that the miscommunication was on their side, and leaves again, to talk it over with someone.

The second waitress returns with the check, explains that the misunderstanding was theirs, apologizes, and puts the check down, and races off. I open the little black check holder and sure enough, both risottos are still on the bill.

We paid and left. The whole experience left a terrible taste in our mouths, and my date has refused to ever return. We spent around $150 each of the four times we were there, and would probably have made a point to eat there every time my friend was in town. They absolutely tanked any chance of us ever going back, over $14.00 worth of risotto, after some manager hung their waitstaff out to dry by refusing to take that risotto off the bill. And honestly the service kind of stank that time too, since we kept having different people working with our table, who were clearly more concerned about placating whoever was in charge over providing a...

Let me start off by saying that the food was UNBELIEVABLE. Seriously, just so wonderful. If I were to base my review purely on the food, it would be 5 stars, no questions asked.

Unfortunately, the service was abominable and the atmosphere was all wrong. While the restaurant gives off a beautiful Italian vibe, it's ruined by the mismatch of pop and hip hop music playing in the background. Where's the Italian music? Or classical music? The whole restaurant feels like it's been taken over by a bunch of hipsters, and the staff clearly back up this theory.

Most of the staff were horribly underdressed—wearing outfits that you'd wear on your day off, while running errands, or just lounging about at home. The only thing that they wore that was appropriate were aprons. Our main waiter was wearing a casual (not to mention dirty) disheveled button-down shirt with sagging shorts and tennis shoes. I say "main waiter" because there were multiple individuals coming to our table. The most annoying part of having all of these different people serving us is that they all asked the SAME questions. We were asked FOUR TIMES if we wanted to order drinks. Multiple times the staff tried to take away our plates when we weren't done with them, and we had to repeat the same statement to each of them. How about communicating with each other instead of bothering the patrons over and over? It's a small restaurant, guys. I'm pretty sure while all of the staff are standing around they have the ability to communicate with each other to stay updated on what the patrons want throughout the meal. Just a really disorganized and lazy approach, which was extremely off-putting. But I digress...

As for our main waiter, this guy was dressed like he should have been working a food truck instead of a high-end Italian restaurant. Now I could have disregarded the underdressed outfit if he hadn't been inappropriate while serving us and others. He tried to act like he was our best friend and said that we were his favorite table. I asked him why the other booths in front and behind us weren't his favorite and his reply? "F those other people". Only he didn't say "F"—he full out swore about the other patrons. Mind you, the booths aren't far away from each other, so both parties heard him. That's so unbelievably uncouth—not to mention incredibly uncomfortable and rude. As if that wasn't bad enough, the waiter then proceeded to have some sort of Alpha vs. Alpha confrontation with the patron behind us. The patron, at one point in the conversation, nervously laughed and said "is that a threat?" These are not the types of conversations you should be having with patrons. Cafe Capriccio presents as a FINE DINING EXPERIENCE, yet we have received better service at fast-food restaurants.

My boyfriend was incredibly frustrated because he had spoken highly of this restaurant for years and had hoped to treat his girlfriend to a romantic and intimate evening. However, this thoughtful gesture was completely spoiled by the dreadful service. He sadly stated that what was once a proud establishment has now been marred by the deplorable service it offers.

Treating patrons in such a manner is unacceptable, especially considering the amount of money we spent. At this price point, our expectations were far higher than what we experienced.

Although the food received a glowing 5-star rating from us, the service was a dismal 1 star. It was grossly unacceptable. Any true fine dining restaurant astutely knows that you don't swear at guests or act abrasive and rude towards them.

Lastly, I want to highlight that both my boyfriend and I were within the same age bracket as the staff. Having previously worked in customer-facing roles, we grasp the importance of delivering a pleasant experience for customers. Moreover, my boyfriend's extensive experience in the restaurant industry left him deeply dismayed by the waiter's lazy, disrespectful, inappropriate, threatening, and verbally abusive behavior.

A truly...

Update : This is a response to the manager who reacted to my review which I presume all can read below. Never in my life have I received a call from a restaurant questioning a tip. You may not realize how customers react to such a call, but the tone of the call is critical. You sounded a bit angry, demanding and intimidating that the tip was not at least 18%. The tip was 16% which was adequate considering the service provided. I wrote this review in the hope all would learn how cutomers react to the policy of calling within minutes of departure to ask why the tip was in your opinion, inadequate. If a customer leaves 15%, perhaps they feel it is adequate? Why question it? I understand your explanation for calling so quickly but I disagree with the need to so quickly engage a customer. Do you think you build a business by making customers feel intimidated by their tip level? Do you think any one of the customers you call in such a manner will return? You need to realize that your tone was abrasive and insulting. I stongly suggest to you and the owners that you never call any customer regarding the tip level. Wait at least a day and try to sincerely ask about their experience without bringing up the tip. Maybe they will return after such a call because of demonstrated sincerety, ie, what could we have done better. A final note about customer relations. It takes years to gain a customer but seconds to lose one. Stop the quick calls, change the tone and make customers feel you care about them and the experience you provide.

A night of firsts. First time at this restaurant and first time getting a call from a manager wanting an explanation for a 16% tip that generated what felt like an angry inquiry as to why? The call came within minutes of returning to the car creating an akward experience for all in the vehicle. Ironicly, it was the first time any staff asked us if everything was ok or did we need anything? Instead of writing about the food, we dwell on the attitude of a manager who was hardly serious in seeking to know what might have caused what she felt was a subpar tip. To say the phone call was intimidating is an understatement. My advice would have been to wait a day to reach out instead of a speed dial leading one to conclude the manager was ticked with the tip. The usual courtesies of have a good night or please come again were also absent. Yes, the food was good although other local Italian eateries have provided a better experience. Adding to the difficulty of the evening was a loud foresome next to us that prevented us from hearing the server's daily specials. They did try to reseat us but we were told it was too busy and we couldn't expect the server to tell folks to quiet down. You'll notice I have never submitted a negative review, prefering to say nothing when things were not enjoyable. Everyone can have a bad day and public reviews can be harmful if done with animosity. So instead, this criticism is offered in the hope people will learn from the experience. Anger from a manager is hard to diquise and should be tempered by a thoughtful followup that generates a tone...