Bacco — Restaurant in Lower Allen

Easily the worst dining experience I have had in recent memory. To begin with, our server was new, which isn't a problem as you really couldn't ask for a more easy-going couple to have as a new server. Don't know the menu well? Fine. Timing off with inquiring at the table? Cool.

This experience, however, was not that.

We got seated and were maybe one of three tables in the restaurant. Our server came over roughly two minutes after seating us to ask us if we were ready to order. We told her we needed some time, and when she came back, we ordered drinks. When she came back again, we put in our order for an appetizer (sesame crusted tuna) and our entrees (grilled chicken caesar salad for my husband, shrimp and scallop scaloppini with broccoli for me).

A few more (3) tables were seated.

10 minutes later, the appetizer and salad entrée were served. Our server let me know that my entrée would be out shortly.  I picked at the appetizer while my husband ate his salad. We watched as the other tables received food, and our server came back a time or two to hurriedly announce that my food would be "right out."  She told us that the kitchen was short-staffed.

My husband ate as slowly as possible.

20 minutes later, the appetizer and salad but memories on their plates, my entrée was brought out. The scallops were terribly small, the shrimp curled around each other (overcooked and hard), and the broccoli was.....ASPARAGUS. Cool, actually, because I'm an asparagus girl. But the ends were dry and curled, a sign that these were long past their peak. The woody ends also hadn't been trimmed.

The server didn't even come back to ask me how my food was (maybe she could sense my disappointment). I did tell her that the asparagus was supposed to be broccoli, and her response was "was it?" I showed her the menu and she said that she would let the kitchen know.

We asked for the check so we could salvage was what left of our night. The server brought us the bill holder and turned on her heels to leave, my husband opened the holder to discover that it was empty. We called her back, she she went and, after some time, brought us back our bill.

Except it wasn't our bill. Or, it was, but it was also some other table's bill, to the tune of over $200. My husband went to have it fixed, and she brought us back another version. This, too, was wrong.

My husband walked the bill up to the bar to tell them exactly what we'd ordered, paid the bill, and we left.

I texted the person who recommended the restaurant to us that they...

Unfortunately our time at this Bacco location will be one and done as we had a similar experience at another location. To start, we ordered unsweetened ice tea and had to hound for sweetener, which was fallowed up with 2 sweetener packets for 3 people. Our service stayed the same most of the evening. We ordered apps, dinner and dessert.

The calamari was cold, the scampi was oily and the shrimp stuffed with crab was shrimp topped with some cold crab with no pasta or sides. When the dessert tray was offered we were told that all desserts were made in house, while the waitress behind us said only 2 were made in house. We asked about the discrepancy and were told that the other waitress was mistaken, Maybe the server was new, but I’ve seen that rainbow cake a lot of places. The dessert tray was not very clean or presented well. We got the lemon cake and crème brûlée. Cake was dry/stale and the crème brûlée was over cooked.

Overall the atmosphere felt lack luster, as the cold air from the side door chills the whole room. They happened to clean the restrooms during dinner service, we were next to them, the smell of cleaning products was overwhelming. The service is lack luster and the food leaves a lot to be desired….Maybe our experience was not the norm and I hope others have a different one but we won’t...

We ate at Bacco tonight. We got a shrimp scampi, eggplant parm, salad, and lasagna. Each dish was pretty mediocre. There is nothing special about any of them. The shrimp scampi was swimming in butter. The salad tasted flavorless and old. The red sauce on our dishes tasted out of a can. Also, we got our two alcoholic beverages at the same time as we got our meals. It would have been nice to sip our drinks before eating our meal. If you get dessert, be prepared to wait as it takes just as long as a meal. The service was pretty poor. We didn’t get any water refills, we also received the wrong drink and salad dressing. Our waitress did say she was new, though. Atmosphere is fine. The restaurant does seem more open and bright from the previous restaurant. Definitely won’t be coming back, but i’m glad we were able to try out a new restaurant in the area. Hopefully your trip to Bacco will be...