Acquario Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Keller

Last night the wife and I went to Acquario Italian Seafood, a new addition to the Keller scene. *be advised, you may need a reservation. Call ahead and ask!

First off the dining room is not huge. Not small. Lots of natural wood and white which gives a coastal feel. It is a loud place though. Hard surfaces all around which add to the aesthetics but don’t help the acoustics. (We witnessed several older people complain about the noise) But it actually reminded me of being in a busy and trendy night spot in NYC, DC or Chicago. I forgot I was in Keller!

The menu is not all seafood. There are some meat, vegetarian and even gluten free options. The pasta tastes fresh made that day! The service was a little slow from the server and his attention, however, if you’re wanting a non rushed European experience, then they nailed it!!

Bread served with whipped butter to start. We shared the aranccini for a starter and it was fabulous! She had the Papardelle Verde (spinach pasta with shrimp in a buttery white wine sauce), I had the Caserecce con Brasato di Manzo (which is slow braised beef ragu with pasta in a wine reduction). Both entrees were absolutely amazing. Some of the best food I have ever had in Keller, certainly in a long while. The flavors were fresh, bountiful and exploding on my pallet. The portions were just right, and had I a larger appetite or not had an appetizer I could have finished my ragu. Entrees are delivered with an option for parm cheese after it’s in front of you.

Excellent selection of wine and cocktails. Coca Cola is charged by the glass. Even the tap water tasted great. (As in tasted like nothing!)

Would I recommend this place? 100% yes. It’s more a date spot or definitely a place to go with adult friends. Where you can dine, laugh, drink and eat all the good things! There didn’t appear to be a kids menu, and honestly the ambience is not overly kid friendly. There is a giant TV over the bar which honestly I hated, as it took away from the charm of this little new hot spot.

But the place was jumping. The owner was super friendly and wanted to get us served. The food was amazing. Prices were very reasonable. But the value is there in the money spent. It’s also not a chain, so you can feel and taste that in the food presented.

Make a reservation. Go. Enjoy some amazing Italian food like you haven’t had yet here in the North Tarrant area. Keller is lucky to call...

We went for dinner, we had a reservation and arrived a bit early and asked if they could accommodate us early, they seemed offended we would even ask - said no that we would have to wait which was fine they could be busy (there were tables open and still availability online for the earlier times for reservations that had openings) I thought about just moving the reservation up but didn’t want to cause more issues with the already not great start, so we waited until our reservation time. We were sat at the same open tables that were there previously. We placed our order for entrees and the waiter made somewhat of an annoyed face when we didn’t also order appetizers. The food came and was relatively good however all the other tables were offered pepper and cheese for their meals and we were not. It seemed that they ignored us assuming we would not spend an adequate amount of money. We ordered dessert and I ordered another cocktail - a golden agave - which was listed as 10$ on the menu with a predetermined alcohol, also on their website for that cost. The dessert came which was their twist on a crème brûlée which stated it had a crispy top, which there was none when it arrived, when we asked they stated the person doing desserts was new and took it back to adjust. They brought it back much better and also brought us champagne- we were happy and it seemed to make up for the issues with dessert. We get the bill and they had marked up for cocktail to 50$, which had a special “rare” tequila that I didn’t ask for. Obviously this charge more than made up for the “complimentary” champagne…. Needless to say we won’t be going back based on service alone, being judged off the back based on some impression they had of us was very off putting, we also weren’t dressed differently than the rest of the crowd though a bit younger than the average...

Our Vist to Acquario on Saturday evening started off pretty good. We did not make a reservation but they were able to seat us right away. The service started out great with the waiter introducing himself, listing the selections of waters (?) they have to choose from and telling us the specials. He left and returned with the waters and started to leave again before we could order our appetizer and wine selection, we stopped him to let him know and this seemed to annoy him. The rest of the experience would go down hill from here; many short visits from our waiter with long waits in between. The place got busier and he got busier so it appeared we were forgotten for long stretches. The food runners were very pleasant and the food was beyond excellent and we did enjoy ourselves once were were eating.

Until the restaurant filled up. - The atmosphere is nice and understated but once it fills up, the single large room becomes very loud. What music there was disappears and I could barely hear my wife sitting 2 feet from me. But again, the food was excellent.

Once we finished our meals and wine, we waited a good 15 min before our waiter finally returned, he took our plates to box up the remaining food and started to rush away again...we had to flag him down for a desert menu. The desert was delivered by the manager (I believe) and it was perfect.

Then we waited...again...for our check

I understand that Acquario is new and they are still working out the kinks, but they need to figure out who they are. The place turns into a loud dining hall for most part and the the large TV over the bar says it trying to be a local sports bar/hangout kinda place. But the amazing food and the sky high prices says fine dining.

Maybe try it on...