Alessa — Restaurant in Laguna Beach

Let me tell you, the staff and management here are entitled and have no ounce of hospitality in their body in my experience. I don't know how it is with other guest but listen.

I come in and they sit us immediately at a table right next to the door right, ok cool no big deal, I'm sat on the aisle chair right next to the door. As I'm reading over the menu a bus boy comes storming through behind me and in his wake drops a marinara covered used fork onto my white linen shirt. Now I understand accidents happen, though as someone who lives in Vegas and is used to amazing hospitality the following events that ensued were less than tasteful.

After the bus boy drops the fork on me, he ofcourse apologized which I appreciate but doesn't really solve the problem, so then our waiter and a hostess come over and are like oh gosh let us get u some club soda. That's fine, whatever, so then when they get the club soda the hostess comes over and while I am wearing my shirt starts dabbing my sleeve with club soda, which then does not seem to take the red stain out of my white shirt. They then get salt to help as well which also does not get the stain of my now soaking in club soda sleeve. They then all walk away and just leave me to rectify my now stained shirt still sat at this table next to the door.

Now listen I am not one to make a scene, I don't like to have to be upset with staff and I understand accidents do happen. I'm not snobby about my clothes, it's a shirt it can be replaced if I so need it. But, that doesn't excuse the actions that follow suit. Our waiter comes back and my friend decides to speak up for me and is like hey listen we are having a bad experience coul u please get a manager - but before she could even finish that sentence our waiter has already left to get the manager from the back. Ok cool so usually managers come back fairly quickly when they hear a problem is happening, not ours. Our 'manager' 10 minutes later - who I have no idea if he is or isn't one because he did not introduce himself - comes over puts a pen and paper down in front of me, refuses to listen to us and doesn't apologize to us, and tells me to write down my name n number so they can call me to pay for my shirt. Now listen - all of us know this resteraunt was not gonna take down my information and call me. Especially with the way they were going about this whole interaction - listen I don't expect my shirt to be paid for while great - i expect that u listen to us and apologize for our bad experience n then try to do something to rectify the situation.

As soon as my friend then tries explaining for the second time and partly mentions we were not apologized to - who comes in from outside and has something to say? The bus boy interjects leaning over the table and says in a very entitled tone 'no I did apologize actually'... I'm sorry ?? In front of the 'manager' who does nothing to correct this behavior. Mind you I am from Vegas, I have 2 hospitality college majors with me, I grew up in a place with such amazing service that I know this was completely inappropriate behavior from every single staff involved. So I gave the paper back to the 'manager', looked at my friends n told them lets go. Because how could u do literally nothing to actually resolve the issue? I don't need you to comp my meal but atleast offer to move us to another seat away from the door way where someone could drop a plate this time on me.

I wouldn't recommend going here, from my experience it was extremely unprofessionally handled and the resteraunt wasn't even very busy. Insane situation. Hope they improve n train...

Let's get COVID protocols out of the way first. At time I dined here, no indoor dining. There is limited patio seating just outside the entrance check-in desk. Since the streets are closed at Promenade on Forest, dining is outside in a sort of patio tent on street, tables are socially distanced with hand sanitizer on the table. Must wear mask until you are ready to eat and drink.

Our server was very friendly and patient. The menu has a number of very interesting choices, including prosciutto and mozzarella bar, carpaccio, da dividere (soup), insalata, pizza, gnocchi, risotto, pasta and sides.The chef here is very eccentric. placing recommendations and other, shall we say, disclaimers in red about each dish. The wine list contains a section called simply "Interesting Wines", and another of chef recommendations. I was in the mood to try something different, so I chose Italian Cherry Prosecco, which paired well with my dinner.

My husband wanted something simple, so he chose Cacio De Pepe - he was quite pleased, and it satisfied his craving. As the portions are generous, he wasn't able to finish his meal (And paired well with the Cabernet he chose).

I chose Seashell Pasta. The shrimp was fresh, tasty and cooked just right, the zucchini quite generous. I quite enjoyed the lobster cream sauce, and was quite full by time I was done.

While I would rate the table service and food as excellent, I encountered a slight issue with the manager on duty, who was a bite rude to me over taking photos inside and the view from inside (showing the tent dining outside). She cited privacy and need to get permission from every customer. While she is partially correct, in my experience as a travel blogger/writer, I am very conscious not to be intrusive taking photos at restaurants while others are dining. When I am focused on interior or other design elements, I make sure to frame the photo above patrons as a courtesy and respect for any privacy they may want to assert. Believe me, if a patron doesn't like that I am taking photos, they will tell me. As I was taking photos of interior and outside at this location, no patron objected. It was the Manager who chose to make an issue out of it.

In this case, I asked the server who was walking to a table if it was okay. She acknowledged it was okay, then her Manager stepped in and proceeded to made a bigger issue. I gave the server the benefit of the doubt by stating she may have misunderstood, to which she stared at me and did not respond. It was the Manager who proceeded o be rude and unprofessional by interrogating me about why I was taking photos. I apologized for confusion but she rudely stated I was "JUST a customer". Yeah just a PAYING customer who now is writing a review to warn patrons about the rude Manager.

I can only say that now that the table service was excellent, but if you want to document your visit with...

Went there on a Sunday night with my wife and three children. We had initially walked by and I saw somebody eating a pizza and as we went out in Laguna and shopped, I could not get that image of the pizza out of my head and I realize that’s what I really wanted for dinner so we went back, we ordered for adult entrées, a large Caesar salad, and an appetizer along with four non-alcoholic beverages. The waiter seemed very antsy when he took our order as if he had something better to do. They had also seated us at a table that backed up right into another table, and when they seated that table, I could not back my chair out without asking the other customer to move his chair and stand up while I got out. I requested a new table that would give us more space. The restaurant was not full. It was fairly light as there were only about five tables inside eating and about four tables on the patio after 25 minutes of waiting we did not even have our drinks. I watched our waiter go to another table take their order and go get their beverages. Then that waiter went to another table where they were in the middle of their meal and asked if they wanted more bread. He didn’t bother to offer us bread or get our beverages or even update us on our appetizer and salad. With that I told my wife and kids to get up and we left. I have not experienced such poor customer service in a long time. We are a family that enjoys going out to dinner as a family And what we most look forward to is good customer service. We have been to restaurants that have not had the best food but great customer service and we will always go back unfortunately for this restaurant they probably have great food but horrible customer service, and we will not go back. Just a sidenote to the owner. I’ve read your recent reviews and they’re all the same as what we experienced. it seems you have worked so hard to put together a great menu and a beautiful atmosphere in your restaurant. Unfortunately it’s going to be your staff that puts you out of business and run you out of town. I’m sorry to put down such a bad view, but it was a big waste of our time and energy coming in trying to eat at your restaurant .

Side note, I was contacted by the owner and he is a great guy. Very understanding and is respectful toward all his guests. I was very happy after talking to him and will “in fact” give him another shot and bring my family back.

I really dislike giving negative reviews and withdraw my previous comments as I do believe this will taken care...