Lazia — Restaurant in Kansas City

We ate at Lazia last night for dinner to celebrate my birthday. First, the food was stellar. Truly delicious. However, the service was atrocious. We waited for our table for quite a while, despite having a reservation. Once seated, our waiter, who was also the bartender, came over and rushed us to give him our entire order without even giving us a few minutes to look over the menu. I asked him twice to bring us the menu for bottles of wine. He replied the first time that "the wine list is on the back." Which is sort of true... except we wanted to order a bottle. I asked him for his recommendation on primi and secondi dishes, and he suggested a cichetti. We finally got our order in, and things seemed to be turning in the right direction as we received our bread promptly. The waiter then informed us that there was a few tables ahead of us for tableside mozzarella. No problem, we didn't mind waiting. He then told us that he was going to start our pastas. I told him repeatedly that we were in no hurry, and we were fine to wait for our pasta until after our tableside experience. He apparently didn't listen, because a few minutes later our primi course arrived. It was divine, but also frustrating to eat our dinner out of order, particularly when we explicitly and repeatedly told him we wanted to wait. We then had our mozzarella experience, which was AMAZING. However, just seconds after the lovely young woman made our salad, our secondi course showed up at our table. Another waiter set it down and left before I had even taken a bite of my salad. As you can imagine, the secondi course was cold by the time we got to, which was a real shame because the flavor was simply divine. We asked our waiter twice for dessert menus, and had chosen a dessert, but he took so long to return that we had had enough and decided to end our dinner instead. I don't know if the problem was because our waiter was also working as the bartender, but our service was really lacking. When a restaurant bills itself as having the true italian experience, it shouldn't be rushing and bringing courses out of order. And when you're paying several hundred dollars for a nice dinner for two, the pacing and experience should match the price. A real shame because we loved the food, but don't think we...

We arrived on time for our 6:15 reservation and we were seated about five minutes later after being given a complementary apéritif.

Lazia has a very impressive interior! The tables are far enough apart that everything is nice. This gives it a sense of intimacy and you don't have to listen to what the people next to you are saying. I love the layout and decor of this place.

The star of our evening was our server, Debbie! She was a delight from start to finish. She never rushed us. She couldn't have been more lovely.

We started out with focaccia bread. It had this kind of onion jam which was delicious. My wife didn't care for it, but I loved it.

And next, we ordered the salad with spring vegetables and guacamole and burrata cheese. It was kind of weird, mushy and spicy. Neither of us loved it.

The next thing that came out was the squid ink pasta. The flavors were great! But the dish was lukewarm at best. I wish it would've been hot. It was spicy.

Next, we had the vodka pasta and all of the same comments apply. Great flavors, spicy, not hot. By this time, I was irritated and decided not to eat it but rather box it up and take it home where I could heat it up.

The wine selection here was lovely and we very much enjoyed Debbie's company and the information she gave us.

Our dining companions had the lasagna which was also weirdly spicy. They also had the pork shoulder, which was good, but they said it wasn't as good as the fall version.

For dessert, my wife and I had the mint chocolate mousse cake and our friends had the strawberry rhubarb tiramisu. Both were delicious.

Lazia was hit and miss for us. It has the potential to be excellent, but tonight it wasn't. Almost everything we ordered was either too spicy or too salty, which kind of has me wondering if the chef is a smoker. It happens.

I like spicy food, but both my wife and one of our dining companions found several of the dishes to be too spicy to really enjoy, which is kind of crazy at an Italian restaurant. I wish...

We started with a complimentary shot of the "house" aperitif, which was nice. A little sweet, but still pleasant. We started with the fondue with pita bread. It was absolutely supreme flavor and texture. We ordered a bottle of prosecco so the match was very nice. Next, we ordered the tableside mozzarella. The presentation was pleasant, but not real energetic. Not sure why she flattened the mozzarella. The salad was a great attempt at new fun and exciting. Just way too many flavors and textures going on in that dish. It completely took away from the mozzarella. They could calm that down and it would be devine. Next the arancini with chili sauce, that dish was also a nice presentation and a treat to eat. Next the wheat tonnarelli which also confused me. It was just ok, again, too much going on and I can not quit put my finger on "the why" that did not work for us. Next the cannelloni with rabbit. So, I personally was excited about trying this dish, but it truly was way way too sweet. The sauce on the bottom just overwhelmed the taste of the rabbit. I did take that dish home, got rid of sauce and it was much better without it. No time for dessert. The waiter Davey was quit pleasant and extremely informed and educated on the menu items He was professional and had a nice sense of humor. Having key folks in place is always a plus. The atmosphere was elegant, the table setting as well. The music (even though we were informed was a tradition of the owner) was way too loud. Very difficult to hold a conversation over loud rap music. That really ruined the experience overall for us. If I were in my 20"s, it would of been acceptable. Overall, there are so many outstanding restaurants in KC that are the across the board top notch, without these small but...