Locanda Del Borgo — Restaurant in Denver

Our experience started ok....our server, Emily S. is quite inexperienced. I'm retired 45ish years with the food and beverage industry and I watch the floor, the flow, etc. When I asked what non alcoholic beers they had, she said none! I said you have no non alcoholic beer? She then said all we have is Heineken Zero.....I told her that is non alcoholic, she then said, oh! I ordered that with a small glass of ice and my husband ordered a beer which is another great example of not being familiar with the beers that are available. She didn't ask if we'd like to know about the specials, we had to ask. We opted out regarding the specials. We ordered our beers and appetizer, the clams & mussels. When we asked if it came with garlic bread she said no,(which is fine), however, we said it comes with no bread? She said, oh, it comes with toast but it's not garlic. We ordered that. We were about done with the appetizer and she asked if we were ready to order that she would space the timing.....it didn't matter at that point. We ordered. My husband ordered the short-rib ravioli and I ordered the 3 fish chef choice plate with roasted vegetables. Mine was very good but my husband didn't care for his.....when she came by to ask how it was, we hadn't started yet and I told her so far so good, what most people say before eating. She came by again and I asked for a box.....when she came back with my box she asked my husband and he said no to which I told her he didn't care for it, she said, I'm sorry, that's my favorite....well she didn't ask if he might want something else or offer to see if she could adjust the bill. I filled my box, she took the plates and came back with the check. I told her we were not quite ready to leave. She said because we told her my husband didn't care for his that we were ready to go. Very unprofessional! I told her we were thinking about having another beer and maybe share a dessert. Maybe we might have wanted a coffee, anyway she apologized and told us what was available for dessert. My husband wasn't crazy about the choices but that was fine and he told me to get the tiramisu so I did. We didn't order another beer or a coffee.I had a few bites and asked the busser for a small box, it was good, I was just full, too much for one person. We had just gotten the bill ready and hadn't put it on the empty side of the table yet. She didn't bother to ask "May i take it?"she reached across the table, across me to grab it! I was in disbelief to say the least!NEVER ASSUME THAT THE BILL IS READY TO BE TAKEN! NEVER! For all the bussers & food runners I'd expect a little better service.... Very disappointing 😞... I had to ask the hostess for a to-go bag, she looked at me with empty eyes. Don't know if I will recommend this establishment... We were here Father's day and none of the staff acknowledged that 😕, just saying for future reference. If our server was more knowledgeable we may have stayed longer. As a result she lost out on a higher check...

Bad feeling after tonight’s visit! Not that important because I’ve enjoyed this restaurant for two decades . I’m in my sixties and I have written about four reviews in my life . I very rarely have issues with restaurants, and if there is something not quite right , I always address it graciously with the employees or , manager which is rarely necessary. We often dine at a table here, but very comfortable, if alone , to eat at the bar My bartender tonight has always been very good, but I’ve never had an issue. However, tonight I ordered a simple dinner with asked for side dish of penne with butter to go for my young nephew, for which I was charged $16 . When it arrived, it was an extraordinarily small serving for plain pasta with butter. ( small even for a “side”) I reasonably assumed that for $16 there would be a moderately decent portion of completely plain Pasta with a little butter.We’ve gotten a side of pasta with marinara here, that was less expensive and portion At least twice has as generous, and I reasonably assumed that simple pasta with butter sauce for $16 would be the Same portion size. Laconda has no Children’s menu. When the pasta arrived, I asked the bartender if this very , very small portion of plain buttered pasta was truly $16. The people next to me couldn’t believe it either! Instead of trying to even pretend to care that something was weird , the usually good bartender responded, “You knew when you ordered that this was a side dish and the menu Said it is $16.” Okay, but any reasonable person would assume that a $16 side of plain pasta would be considerably larger than this, which was far smaller than any other restaurant’s Kids pasta. I considered for one minute ordering a second $16 order of plain pasta to supplement this to supplement this meager portion but the idea of $32 for plain penne noodles was ridiculous ! The response and attitude were not appropriate, in my opinion, and i Didn’t feel like pushing this with an owner or manager. Instead I left the bartender a very generous tip based on her past service….. but I left with a bad taste in my mouth. Kind of nickel and diming . My tab was $81 plus over 30% tip for one person, with one glass of wine. STill going to return because food is very good, but….I’m Long winded...

Long time client of the restaurant. Always a great, consistent go to for us. Haven't been there for a year. It was a disappointing experience, unfortunately, and I it will be some time before we come back. We might instead just get our favorite salad (the grilled seafood salad) as a to go item and leave it there. Why were we disappointed during our recent dinner? The prices have gone up a great deal. We would have been less disappointed about that fact had the food and service been at least at the same level that there were at in the past. My husband had cioppino, which was just a sloppy unappealing mess--pasta VERY overcooked, loads of tomato paste without any sort of soupiness that is typical and desirable in this dish; very little shellfish, and bland, At over $30 for the dish we expected far more. Our guest had the short rib ravioli-always dependable, but it too was sloppy, bland and overcooked. Our green salads were fine-nothing exceptional for the outrageous prices (and the arugula salad, which also promised fennel, had so little fennel-it was just a pile of arugula with cheese). The split plate charges are ridiculous and unwarranted, especially in these days when people order lots of things to share. And charging $6 for a few tiny single bite pieces of focaccia and olive oil is outrageous-we were promised that the basket would be refilled, but since the waitstaff failed to ever check with your table on anything (the two people that seemed to be at odds as to who was our server were inattentive--and perhaps this is they never refilled water, asked if we wanted add'l cocktails, and failed to notice that our food did not arrive hot), we were unable to ask for a refill. The cocktail that our guest ordered was not great and did not come as he had ordered (but it was hard to find the staff to ask for an adjustment). The seafood salad was the only thing we enjoyed, though the new price for it was very high. A pity too that the whole wheat pasta dish with the feta, fave, and pistachio pesto was dropped from the menu. A real pity that our favorite spot to dine together and with friends has...