Locals Trattoria, Bar & Venue in Fairhope — Restaurant in Fairhope

Food was okay, but service was bad. Food arrived cold to the table.

I will be coming in to speak with management again following their snide response to my review. Seems the restaurant’s approach is to be rude to customers, even after providing bad service and charging full price after a complaint is lodged. I will also note for future customers that the prices posted on their web menu are inaccurate—as I received the shock of a 25% mark up on the paper menu when I received it.

When I arrived, the hostess had an attitude as to why anyone would eat as a single person. Upon being seated, the hostess acted as if there was no appropriate management of the table tops and did not know who managed the section I was seated in, then came back over with an exacerbated attitude that she would have to also be my server. Very welcoming family business. I ordered immediately, having pre-selected my meal from the inaccurately priced menu posted online, at approximately 12:25 pm. In a restaurant where all the tables were finishing meals, and before a new rush of guests arrived, I waited no less than thirty minutes to be served. The food arrived at 12:55 pm, and when the hostess set it in front of me, she stated without prompting — “there were two tables in front of you which is why it is delayed.” After she left, I ate discovering the food was cold now. Having already waited thirty minutes, and about five new tables sat and ordered in front of me—asking for fresh food could have taken at least an hour. This also would have depended on the hostess coming back to check on the meal—which did not happen.

I did indeed eat the whole meal. I arrived hungry, waited thirty minutes for the meal to arrive, and thankfully shrimp and french fries are edible cold. I give credit to the chef, as the shrimp were not over cooked, but I feel bad his dish had to wait on poor service.

Finally, when the hostess returned after I finished, she brought me my check. When I handed her the card, I told her, the service was bad and my food was cold. I also let her know I was going to leave a bad review. It seems this did not phase her because she proceeded to charge me the full cost of the meal—which I paid, including a bad tip to show my unhappiness with her service, as the snide manager has pointed out rudely, I ate the whole plate “not a crumb left”. Unfortunately, the food is not the service, and the service still deserves the review.

On a last note, and I am certain that the hostess did not relay this to you—as I complained, other patrons also commented about how they had not received their food and how bad the service was at this time. I recommend that management get a full reporting of incidents with customers before being rude in public on a review they...

My group of girls spent our first dinner of my bachelorette trip here. My MoH made a reservation 3 weeks in advance, yet they still seemed surprised when we arrived, and they ended up putting us in some random corner indoors next to their wine storage and closet area because they didn't know we wanted indoors (my MoH specified indoors when she reserved). Their bartender is the only reason why I'm giving 2 stars for service instead of 1. They overworked her, she was going back and forth the whole time, and she was having to tend the bar while also serving us/taking our orders. She did her best, given the circumstances. Some girls didn't even receive drinks, we waited 15 minutes for 2 of my bridesmaid's orders, yet only one came out. We had to remind them about the other order. She had to wait an extra 20 minutes for her order. One of my bridesmaid's pasta orders was watery. They did cover our drinks in the end, but some of our girls didn't even receive their drinks, so that is genuinely the least theu could have done. Also, because of where they seated us, they made two of my girls move their chairs out of the way to get to the wine storage. The same woman who made them move their seats also snapped at us when we wanted to take photos in front of the bathroom doors because they looked nice. One of my girls asked her if she could move to the side for 2 seconds and she responded "I have a job to do, you're gonna have to wait". I was just trying to take some nice photos outside to try to make the most of it after everything we went through, but the energy here was just not it. Probably the worst part of the trip but I am so proud of my girls for handling it really well. This place is a mess, and the food wasn't even all that great. I feel sorry for the...

No, no! What happened to the Alley Bistro? Before COVID-19, my husband and I loved to settle in every Thursday night at the alley bistro. We would easily spend $200 on appetizers & drinks alone, without any hesitation. That's because everything was that great. Last night we returned for the first time since quarantine. We invited our new neighbors to join us, because we felt that would be a proper intro to the area. Thank goodness we arrived an hour early. Our first drinks were watered down Moscow Mules; what used to be my favorite MM is now my least favorite. I'm not sure why they used water? Then, my husband ordered an old-fashion to forgot about the MM. Unfortunately, that Old-Fashioned was also watered down. What is going on? Does Fairhope have a shortage of liquor? They don't, because we left and found out that everyone else still knows how to make drinks in Fairhope. Trying to forget about the drinks, we ordered the stuffed mushroom appetizer. Y'all, I wish I took a picture. There were five tiny tiny tiny flavorless stuffed mushrooms. Needless to say, we had to tell our neighbors to meet us somewhere else. We had been talking up the restaurant for so long & could not disappoint them. What happened to the alley bistro? I'm so disappointed. Is there a new owner? Can we do something about the lack of flavor? I won't be going back & I have a sad feeling the new restaurant will not last long. If the owner is out there, can we talk?

• This is the only bad review I have ever written. I have traveled all over the world & eaten at so many restaurants. It's too late now, but I really wish I could have written a good review a year ago so that you guys could see the comparison. I truly am going to miss our Thursday night date...