Cafe Alfresco — Restaurant in Dunedin

Rating Cafe Alfresco is difficult as some elements better than others. We entered and walked to a seating area that was only about 15 percent occupied although many empty tables placed very close together. We intentionally picked a table in corner and out of the way of others. We asked for a high chair and placed the stroller between our table and an empty table, that entire row of tables empty. There was another couple with a stroller on the other side blocking an entire “aisle”. We were rudely told fold up the stroller. We said we can’t our belongings and items purchased are in the bottom. The lady with short dark hair said rudely that it would have to go outside. I could understand if the place was packed but it wasn’t. Of the three seating areas only one had several tables filled and we were not near that area. Additionally the other couple wasn’t asked to move anything. Our server had already taken our drink orders so although we should have walked out regrettably we didn’t. Our server was good but perhaps unaware of our prior treatment or even that the stroller was moved outside. The food was lackluster, grilled cheese for the toddler, potstickers for my friend which were not bad but your basic frozen variety steamed with one of the three surfaces slightly crisp. I ordered the blackened grouper sandwich which was a decent serving of extremely dry fish on an even drier bun. The only condiment was below average tarter sauce. My niece was so upset about the rude treatment she didn’t even order. The average food alone I wouldn’t review the cafe one way or the other. As we decided to just ask for the bill and leave my niece went outside to get the stroller, apologizing for being in another servers way who answered “ I’m just holding the door for you” My niece said wow you are much nicer than that lady gesturing towards the one that was hateful. The server made a that’s management comment. Lesson learned. Will not be going back although some servers seemed both welcoming and kind the initial rude treatment indicates why not just say families and those with toddlers are not welcome at alfresco. We visited Wednesday September 17th just...

The food is exceptional. I have my favorite go to is chicken Parm. The scallops are one of the best I've had. My mother loves the chicken livers. The staff is always professional and attentive. Now my biggest disappointment. The deserts. They have cheap store bought desserts. Their fruit pies are alright. The cheesecake has no cheesy sour flavor. It's blank. The gramcracker crust was terrible. No flavor of buttery gramcrackers. I ordered their toffee Bundt cake. Just awful. The cake tasted like hostess doughnuts. I got it to go and it came in a plastic store bought plastic mold, sealed in plastic. Perhaps purchased at Sam's Club or Costco. The last dessert I purchased was supposed Chocolate bread pudding? It was a ball of chocolate cake with inserts of chocolate lava. Not a bread pudding and also not overwhelming. My thought, you have elevated meals and are a bit pricey but delicious. Well worth the prices. They charge $7.50 per dessert across the board. You would think if you are not going to have in house baking, get high price desserts worthy of the elevated food. Check out the "Nothing but Bundt" cakery. Their Bundt cakes are the best I have ever had. Publix has a decent cheesecake, better then what they serve and will make a decent profit point. The "Pie Factory" sells decent desserts. Does anyone taste the desserts before they serve them? If you can't get decent flavored dessert, don't serve them. Sorry but I have purchased them before and they were fair. I will not ever get dessert from the restaurant again. I'll stop at Publix and spend half the money, I don't have to tip anyone for doing thier job and I have not been nearly as disappointed with their products as I...

We live in townhouses in downtown Dunedin. We walk and support all local businesses eating all our meals out every weekend. Tonight we sat at the bar (4 seats) and ordered two well vodka sodas and two entrees. It took over an hour to get our food and after asking about it the bartender said it’s just going to take longer. Next thing we hear is the cook team saying both our entrees and on the fly. She messed up which happens but didn’t just say hi, I’m sorry there was a mix up and we are making as quickly as possible. The food came out too fast at the point and the chicken was dry and the food was subpar. We didn’t complain and asked for the check. After a quick review of the check, we had a question on why our 2 well vodka sodas which came $14.00 has another additional charge of $4.00 (total per regular well vodka $9.00) which said rocks. We said what was the additional charge as our drinks weren’t on the rocks it was just a shot of vodka and soda water, she said anything that isn’t on the rocks and is a shot of vodka you get charge additional. I said that doesn’t make sense and she walked away. They have cameras and should watch the footage. Like I said we are locals who support all the locals but the service, experience, and cost aren’t what we want. The same owners own Bon Appetit and it’s not much more in cost and worth the extra due to better service, food, and experience. Sad, but this is the second time in and both have been bad experiences. This bartender left us with a bad experience. If the drink is $9.00 fine, but don’t put the drink is $7.00 and charge $2.00 for rocks when it was just vodka on ice. That makes one feel scammed and the...