Alta Strada - Foxwoods, CT — Restaurant in Ledyard

I very seldom write poor reviews, but this one is merited.

First, I will start with the positives: the floor was flat, cutlery & plates were clean, and our table & chairs worked as one would expect.

Upon arrival 15 mins early for our 6:30p res for my wife's bday, the hostess confirmed our res time and told us "then I will seat you in 15 minutes". Umm, okay. Not a big deal to wait for the time we booked, but the dozen or so available tables seemed rather lonely. Nonetheless, we waited until our lucky number was called and had the luxury of sitting at one of them.

We waited 10 mins at the table. A server approached and told us she would take our drink order as our server was busy. Totally fine -- we ordered wine. 10 more mins go by. Wine arrives. When we grabbed our empty glasses to prepare for the pour, they were hot. Not warm... hot. We asked if we could have room-temp glassware and our faux-server told us the restaurant had no more wine glasses... at all. Wow, AS at Foxwoods had no wine glasses other than the cookware we were provided... none! She said this with a straight face and expected us to believe her. I would've laid a paycheck bet that I could stroll behind the bar and find two that weren't fresh from the dishwasher, but chose not to expend the same amount of energy she was unwilling to. Then. she was going to continue to pour into the scorched stemware, but we declined and waited for them to cool and poured the wine ourselves. Awkward, but at least we were on our way...

10 mins pass and no server or faux-server. We flag down the faux-server and asked if we could order dinner seeing as we were on the clock for a sub-90-minute dinner in order to catch the show at 8p and it was already after 7p. We ordered with our faux-server. I do not eat cheese, so I ordered the eggplant parm without cheese. Our faux-server mentioned there is some parm in the sauce to ensure it was not an allergy. I confirmed it was not an allergy, realizing there are obviously limited options on an Italian restaurant menu without cheese. So, the no cheese eggplant parm was ordered with the understanding she would bring me an eggplant parm dish without the cheese (except that which was cooked into the sauce). All good.

15 mins later the mushroom app arrives and it was fine... nothing great, but not poor either. 20 mins later the meals arrive. As I peeled at the layer of melted mozzarella draped over the top of the dish, the faux server said the eggplant parm was pre-made and they just heat it up, so the cheese can't be omitted. That would've been brilliant to know when I ordered and she confirmed my order. I ate the broccoli and set the rest aside. Upon her return 15 mins later, I indicated I wished to send it back and asked for the manager seeing as I was expecting what was ordered and confirmed as a customization by our still faux-server. She took it away and came back to let me know the manager just took it off the bill since I hadn't eaten any of it. We never saw the manager at all, nor was I asked if I wanted something else... for dinner... you know, the reason we were there in the first place. We requested the bill seeing as we didn't want to be late for the show. My wife's dish was somewhat edible, although the diced squash was still hard -- as if raw squash was microwaved. She indicated the rest was good enough just so we could get the hell out of there.

We paid, tipped, and left because we didn't have any more time to waste. Glad we had 90 mins to start because our meals were in front of us at the 70 min mark and only one of us ate their entree. AS was not booked to capacity -- but the hostess, MIA server, faux server, kitchen, and manager couldn't get out of their own way. Because they missed the mark that poorly, we will never be back... I work too hard for my money.

But, hell, if you win big and are looking for a way to piss through it in exchange for lots of time waiting, lackluster service, warm wine, mediocre food at best that you didn't order, and management who couldn't care less,...

Let Me start by saying this is the first negative review I have ever written. I am compelled to write this, never got to dinner left after 15 minutes...arrived 10 minutes early for our reservation. Greeted not warmly by the hostess who said this way and took us to our table right in front of the bussing station. My husband who really dines for the experience asked if we could have the empty booth not 20 feet away. She said "no we only have one server you have to sit here".Not sure why that mattered as I said the tables were very close. He then asked if we could sit in the dining room out back, she said "no it was closed". We reluctantly sat, I kid you not we hadn't even met our waiter when the hostess walked by and sat another party at the booth we had requested. My husband went to the hostess inquiring why? She stated that was a while ago, he said it was less than 5 minutes, she said well another server came on. OK... so he sits back down and like a comedy the hostess walks by with another party and sits them out back! My husband asks why she said they were sitting a large party, at that moment the manager came over asking if she could help. My husband told her what was happening and that she had also told him the back room was closed. To which the mgr asked her did you say that? She replied yes and when asked why she said that she said "I DONT KNOW " at that moment we were told that CEDARS STEAK HOUSE could sit us right away (a member of our party had called them while this was happening) so we told them we were leaving the mgr tried to apologize and said she would sit us out back but it was too late. Not sure if it was my age or color of skin but she didnt like something about us and we are fun people. Anyway will absolutely never go back and will be submitting this review on...

We made a reservation to eat here on Friday night, unsure if it would be busy. Turned out to be unnecessary but that might only be due to the fact that everyone is burned out from the holidays and so Foxwoods is a little quieter than normal.

The waitress was great. The martinis were delicious. The rustic bread and basil-infused dipping oil were delicious. We ordered the crunchy eggplant appetizer and it was incredible.

For our main course, I ordered the pappardelle with duck, cherries and rosemary. My husband ordered the maltagliatti with spicy pork and herbed ricotta. Both were super delicious!

We looked at the dessert menu and there were appealing choices, but we were both craving ice cream and decided to skip trying dessert here.

The first primary negative is the portion sizes. Our eggplant appetizer was only two relatively tiny pieces of the eggplant. Our pasta dishes were very reasonably sized but his did not contain an abundance of the pork/ricotta mixture. However, we are just accustomed to going places where they give you an absurd amount of food and you easily have enough to take home for lunch the next day. As long as you come here with a “quality over quantity” mentality, you won’t be disappointed. The flavors were exceptional.

The second negative is that my husband’s negroni was only $2 less than his meal, which just seems a bit much. Overall we paid slightly more than $100 for two martinis, an appetizer, and two main courses.

I highly recommend eating here if you want to try something new and if you appreciate flavorful, well crafted meals. Great...