Alto Cinco — Restaurant in City of Syracuse

Underwhelming. My table ordered only apps, and all three missed their mark. This was my first time at Alto, two in my party spoke very highly of your establishment. For perspective on that night, the very same two that recommended your restaurant could not finish their order of jerk chicken nachos; nor did they opt to take leftovers home.

Please refer to my photos, sour cream was presented in such a fashion that it resemables a familiar Brown emoji friends would send to each other. I imagine the sour cream was piped onto the plate via a pipping bag, use a spoon or an ice cream scooper next time please.

Our orders of cheese fries and jerk chicken nachos, a tale of two appetizers. One did not have enough cheese to meet the NYS mandate to be consider nachos, and the other had enough cheese for another order. The nachos, many of the corners of the tortilla chips were charred black; they're tortillas not a piece of steak, they should be toasted at best. You shouldn't have to fish for toppings on nachos either. The cheese acts as the binding agent that helps keep toppings on the tortilla chips. Guess what happens when you have too much binding agent? That was the case for the fries--one big ol' wad of potato. Cheese fries represents the pinnacle of finger foods, you shouldn't need two hands or a fork and knife to eat it; picking up one fry shouldn't drag half the population of fries with it. I did not have any chicken quesadillas, but I'm sure it suffered from a common theme with the nachos and fries. They weren't served to the table pipping hot, and the cheese was allowed to harden and set at room temperature.

Alto Cinco isn't entirely to blame for the experience. I understand wholeheartedly that my party showed up 40 mins before closing. As customers, we asked if it's okay to be served, and would've been okay if we were denied; we can empathize with staff as to why we're being denied. What's not okay is accepting customers and be willing to blink on the quality and consistency of your food. Judging from mere photos of other reviewers, Alto can surely be better.

Edit: My party and I were...

Food is delicious, and it deserves it’s own 5 stars. Service is awful. The restaurant wasn’t at all full and were sat quite quickly once arriving -just myself and husband. The host brought us to our table and said he would be back with our water, but never returned. However- he did manage to seat several other tables around us and bring waters to each, and glance at us a few times in the process. Okie dokie! So we sat waiting for our server. After 12 minutes he finally acknowledged our presence and said he would be right with us....another 10 minutes later he was- but not before he took the order of the table sat right behind us and a solid 10 minutes after us. To start he seemed bothered by us even being there and very pompous. We were asked if we would like to start with a drink, which we just requested waters. He questioned if we were getting any appetizers, which we declined and placed our meal orders. He told us he would be right back with water- another 8 minutes pass, still without water. Finally they are brought out, and shortly after our food arrived. Again, the food was delicious and always is. The waiter checked back once to see if we needed anything and refilled our waters as requested. The restaurant had filled in a bit, though this is quite a small place and the 5 & 6 table sections should be manageable. The rest if the time there was tolerable and the check was brought to use and processed promptly. I was a waitress for 6 years- both private and corporate owned restaurants, and completely understand that times get busy, some things can be forgotten, or we have bad days. But this was the 3rd consecutive time we’ve had terrible service at this place. Carry-out is clearly the...

I have been to this restaurant 2-3 times before and it was fine. However, I will not go back after my experience this evening with my family. We had a wait for a table of 40 minutes, which is not unusual for a Saturday night, but while we were seated in the waiting area I overheard a server ridiculing potential customers who were out on the street considering entering the restaurant and he used a mocking tone and very inappropriate language. A person in our party ordered a shrimp burrito. After he cut into it, he noticed the shrimp had a grey/green tint, which gave the shrimp an appearance of being spoiled and looked quite unappetizing. After several attempts to get our waiter's attention, he came over and I asked for our party's dish to be taken back. He said the shrimp look grey/green because of the sauce the chef uses. He took the plate away to the kitchen and brought the same food/plate back and informed us that the chef said it looked fine. This has never happened to us in a restaurant before. The person in our party did not eat the shrimp burrito and it was not taken off our bill. Alto Cinco's entrees and drinks are pricier than comparable restaurants in the area. A draught beer is $7 compared to $4 at The Mission and $6 at Munjeds across the street. But what bothers me the most is the attitude of superiority of the waitstaff, the fact that I've never seen a woman server, and the fact that they did nothing, and adopted a patronizing manner,when someone in our party was unhappy with their unappetizing entree. I recommend The Mission downtown or Papa Gallo's in...