Polpo Restaurant & Saloon — Restaurant in Greenwich

I convinced my boyfriend to take me for my birthday to this restaurant after having a good previous experience. We were highly disappointed in this overpriced tasteless food. We ordered the grilled octopus, polenta and sausage, stuffed hot pepper, and steak to share. I come from a traditional Italian family with home cooked meals. The food served at this restaurant is an insult to any renowned chef or anyone who knows what quality food should taste like. The food is not consistent from the past; either they changed the chef or the ingredients. The grilled octopus was subpar, very oily polenta with a little bit of sausage (hard to find), and the stuffed pepper was ridiculously small and not much filling with mainly cheese covering it. The steak was the worst I ever had; we ordered it in medium temperature; the texture was so dry and tough; I couldn’t eat it. When we ordered these items, I am expecting the fresh garden taste of a pepper, perfect texture of octopus and accompanying beans, as well as evenly distributed flavorful polenta and sausage with less oil. I am expecting a perfectly tenderized cooked medium juicy steak. The dessert was also not very good; we ordered the Napoleon (cream is horrible; not fresh; no milky taste; reminded me of those tasteless cupcake frosting). We also had the bread pudding with ice cream; nothing to rave about since I have experienced much more textured ones with more raisins/nuts/or other ingredients inside, as well as a much larger portion. I grew up with fresh produce/vegetables from a garden in the backyard. We have no issue spending money on restaurants, which we venture to many more expensive places. I just want to warn others that the piano player, who unfortunately forgot a few lines to his song, was the charming touch of the whole experience. Also, be aware to check your receipts. My sister came to this restaurant before I went with my boyfriend. She had gone with a group of Greenwich moms and ordered a bunch of food and drinks; they all agreed to split the bill. The restaurant charged my sister 3 times what she should have paid for her portion. She called the restaurant and they required proof, so she went in and showed the receipt. They refunded her. Imagine if she didn’t check or saved the receipt. She feels that the restaurant thought they could get away with charging “wealthy” Greenwich moms 3 times the actual cost and they wouldn’t care to notice. Be very weary of this restaurant for the poor service (waiters are not personable and seem to be bothered), bad quality food/desserts, and please check...

We arrive as a party of 7 tonight; with a reservation at 5 pm for Christmas dinner. We were told the table will be ready in 30 seconds. We wait 5 minutes in the busy ground floor dining area before rudely being told by a host that we need to wait in the foyeur. (the foyeur is freezing cold because it leads to the windy 15 degree weather outside). Ok, no big deal. Wait 5 more minutes and we were shown our table.

The restaurant is not so busy in our dining area (which has a separate kitchen) but gradually got busier as the night went on. Me and another person in my party decide to split an appetizer of eggplant rollatini and the dish arrives cold. I mean COLD. It's as if someone placed it in the foyeur we were told to wait in before being served to us.

At this point, our waiter was paying very little attention to us and kept whizzing by serving other customers. I had to stop the gentleman and tell him the rollatini was served cold. he rudely grabbed the plates and said, 'then you obviously don't want this.'

Ok.. fine. I am willing to let a lot of things go. Then we get the replacement rollatini which was obviously placed under a broiler.. with almost no eggplant in it. That's the basis of the dish. It was literally 90% cheese and sauce.

I ordered the filet mignon and at this point had ZERO expectation. The meal was already ruined for me. From the time we sat down which was 5:15, we didn't get our entree's until 730.

We even mentioned to the waiter that neighboring tables that arrived after us have been served their entree's. He said 'I put the order on the fire, for you.. It will come out when it comes out.'

Wow.

My filet mignon finally comes out. It's warm. I cut it to make sure it's medium rare. It passes all the tests. They forgot to bring my bearnaise sauce. So I wait for it to come to eat my steak. It took 15 minutes and my steak is no longer warm at this point. I throw in the towel and just ask him to wrap it up. I'm done at this point. My disgust outweighs my hunger. Another person in my party's risotto arrived cold but he just dealt with it.

We spent over $500 on this meal and how we were treated was not acceptable. The manager overseeing all the waiters/food was wearing a red blazer tonight. He never once came over and asked us how we are enjoying the food, or even knew our order was screwed up multiple times.. or to even wish us a Merry Christmas.

Everyone at this establishment that we interacted with...

Overpriced subpar food served by inexcusably rude hostile waiters who are especially aggressive and nasty to women. When the owner is not there the wait staff behaves in a deplorable manner especially to ladies. Women who have frequented this establishment for 20 years are not immune to their reprehensible and unhospitable abuse. I have been noticing the decline for a while but my last foray there with a large party made it very clear that it is not a wise idea to continue to entertain friends there. I ordered a dish very clearly. I was given something else entirely. The waiter was highly offended and argued with me about it insisting that I was wrong. The maitre'd was no better. no apology was issued nor did either one of them ask what they could do to make it right. they expected me to eat the food that they had served instead of the food that I had ordered and were very upset that I would not go along with that. It was embarrassing as I had gathered a group of people at the table, all of whom heard me order the dish. One of the gentlemen in the group had to step in and speak up for me to the waiter. Because the wait staff simply do not respect women and cannot bring themselves to be polite to them only serviceable towards the men at the table. When the waiter did bring the correct food he slapped it down in front of me to the point that the sauce got on my beautiful clothing. Then he overcharged me for a side that I requested. There was no apology for getting my order incorrect just a huge heaping serving of anger and humiliation directed at me. There was also no apology that while everybody else enjoyed their meal I was sitting there without a plate of food they didn't even care to bring a small appetizer or something else for me to have. Sad to say this used to be a lovely establishment with well-mannered and conscientious wait staff but no longer. I hope the owner cleans out the scum that is destroying his otherwise fine...