Ristorante Di Sopra — Restaurant in Colorado Springs

This is going to be a long one. Forgive me, but I have to be liberal in my praise tonight.

The food here is classic Italian with plenty of choices. These are dishes you would expect to find on a menu back East in New York or Chicago, and everything is prepared and presented with care and a true passion for the cuisine.

Certainly the best Italian food we've had in the West, and we've been out here for decades! Everything was flavourful and authentic.

Back to the food in a minute. Here's what truly made our night:

We had not planned on dining out, as we were down from Denver to see our family members who live in the Springs. It was Saturday night, the night before Mother's Day. This is a big weekend, perhaps the biggest in the hospitality industry. We have plans in Denver tomorrow, so we were not planning on celebrating tonight; we weren't dressed-up, and were just out for something simple and quick, as the kids wanted to get to the music festival.

We had gone to several restaurants, including Paravincini's downstairs, and were not having any luck getting a table without an hour's wait. Our bad, we just had not planned.

Phoenix, the Host, greeted us warmly and professionally, and as kindly as he could, let us know that there were no tables available. We were disappointed but knew a table for five without a reservation on a busy night was a long shot. As a consolation, Phoenix gave us a coupon for a future visit, which was very kind.

We checked our phones for other options as we headed back downstairs to our car. Just as we were about to pull away, Phoenix came to tell us that a table was opening up, if we were willing to wait a few minutes.

Of course we were!

So. That was the start of our experience: A host who could have easily let us go and seated another party, ran after us to invite us back inside. "Above and beyond" almost seems inadequate.

The staff is remarkably attentive: As we walked in, we were either verbally greeted or acknowledged with a smile or nod by each staff member we passed -- bartenders, bussers, waitstaff. Our servers, Natalia and Ryan greeted us once we were seated, and introduced themselves. It was clear from the outset that Natalia was experienced, knowledgeable, and on top of her game, and I knew we were in good hands.

I will stop here for a moment to mention the atmosphere -- lively but not overwhelmingly loud. The restaurant was at capacity but you could hear your own table's conversation. The music was appropriate for an Italian restaurant -- Pavoratti and Bocelli but played at a mild volume. We were seated on the patio and the view was stunning!

We had already decided what we were having, and Natalia praised our choices. However, she quickly let us know about the octopus special, and we added that to our antipasti order. It turned out to be the table's favourite.

Everything was on point, from the fresh-baked rustic bread and focaccia with pesto and tapenade, to the three antipasti, the mains, and dessert. We were driving back on a rainy night so decided not to have wine, but one of our party had a cocktail and loved it. The support staff were on top of water refills, silverware, etc. Perfectly seamless service.

For an unplanned, last-minute dinner, it turned out to be a treat, and one of the best dining experiences we've ever had, which is saying something.

Now, a word to the wise, make reservations. ALWAYS. Don't be like us. But these things happen, and this staff accommodated us with warmth and a professional attitude that is all too rare these days.

The food was exquisite, and the overall experience a delight. The high level of management and staff's pride in their work was apparent in every aspect of service.

We will certainly be back (with reservations, and dressed more appropriately), and highly recommend this gem of a restaurant.

Thank you, again, for making our visit to Sopra a truly...

We're big fans of Paravicini's, and this is their sister restaurant on the second floor right above. We decided to give it a try as we've been to Paravicini's several times and have really enjoyed it. Dinner started out with a complimentary bread basket served with a fennel pesto and olive tapenade, which was fantastic (if you're listening, Paravicini's, take a cue from upstairs on the bread!). Unfortunately, the remainder of the dinner was rather uninteresting and expensive. We started with the Artichokes Francese, which were described as lightly battered with a lemon and butter wine sauce. It turned out that it was drowned in egg with hardly anything resembling "batter". Now, if you like egg, this is fine, but it should have been mentioned that what we were getting was essentially an artichoke omelette. The butter and wine sauce was the only saving grace for this dish and would turn out to be the most flavorful offering of the evening. For our mains, my wife ordered the Cacio e Pepe, which was overcooked and mushy with hardly any flavor, not to mention crazy $$ for what is essentially pasta, black pepper and some Parmesan. It is unforgivable that an Italian restaurant would treat pasta this way. It was literal MUSH. My dish was equally bland. I expected a much more flavorful offering when I ordered the Caponata, an eggplant mixture served on top of either risotto bianco or polenta. I chose the polenta, which could not have been blander. There was absolutely no taste to it at all and it seemed like it was only ground cornmeal and water. The eggplant with capers, sun-dried tomatoes, olives and some herbs was trying hard to stand out, but it ended up being only a little more flavorful than the polenta itself. Our verdict: Sopra is attempting to offer a finer class of dining than their downstairs relative, but the food just turns out to be more expensive, all show and no substance. The offerings we ordered had very little flavor and quickly emptied my billfold. Sorry, but I cannot...

Attended a wedding rehearsal dinner at Ristorante Di Sopra, the sister restaurant of the place next door, Paravicini's Italian Bistro.

My oh my. Wondering where people are eating if this place had such a good rating. Either people don't know what good Italian food is or they're being generous. I've been to Italy several times, come from an Italian family and I know what I tasted here was not even close to authentic.

They first served calamari while we were on the rooftop deck during coctail hour. It had been sitting too long. It was soggy and swimming in oil. Then, when we came inside to have dinner, 4 full baskets of bread came out to a table with 4 guests sitting at it. A cheesy garlic bread was brought out and a plain bread with no seasoning was served. A few other unknown varieties were also there. The bread was decent with some flavor.

I asked for butter, was told it would be right out that they had just forgotten to take it out of the fridge that they were getting it from downstairs. Butter never came. The staff was apologetic and friendly, however thoughtout the meal my chair was repeatedly bumped into, more times than I could count. I continued pulling it in but this happened continuously.

First a salad was served that didn't have a lot of flavor. Then penne bolognese and some sort of fettuccine covered in cheese. I was so disappointed when I tasted the bolognese. The penne pasta was mushy, falling apart and red sauce was tasteless and watery.

Person across from me compared it to the storbought brand, macaroni and cheese. Covered in butter and also soft with no seasoning or anything. Just butter and bland uninteresting cheese.

For desert tiramisu, panna cotta. Very uninspiring. The person at my table ordered an expresso and it took over 20 minutes to arrive.

Staff seemed disorganized and stressed the entire evening. Very sad to say, don't waste...