Il Cervo — Restaurant in Milwaukee

Short Version:

The only reason I am giving five stars instead of two stars is because of the exceptional service Gia provided.

Gia deserves all the praise, recognition, and compensation Il Cervo can give her.  She saved my grandmother's birthday dinner, and I appreciate her fun spirit, attentiveness, and consummate professionalism throughout our meal.  Thank you for your wonderful service, Gia!

Long Version:

Il Cervo did not make a good first impression.  Our party of six had reservations for 4:00 PM to celebrate my grandmother's birthday. -My uncle, aunt, and I arrived first at about 3:50 PM, and the elevators would not allow us to access the ninth floor (where the restaurant is located). It took 15 minutes, multiple conversations with hotel staff, and a staff member overriding the elevator to allow us and another party to get up to the restaurant.  The issue with the elevators persisted for at least half an hour as parties arrived and voiced their troubles. -When we did arrive at the hostess at 4:05 PM, our table in the empty restaurant was "not ready." -When the table was ready, they tried to put us in a high traffic area, despite requesting a less congested location when we made the reservation.  My grandmother sits in her wheelchair.  We like to request a table out of the way to not inconvenience other patrons and waitstaff and make my grandmother more comfortable.  We did eventually get a more suitable table in line with our special needs request.  But at this point, we were approaching 4:20 PM. -As we were seated at the new table, the hostess informed us our waiter had not arrived at work yet and that they would be arriving at 4:30 PM.  Our "actual waiter" did eventually arrive at our table...at about 5:00 PM.  It was only after we had all ordered cocktails and about $150 in appetizers with another member of the waitstaff.  I had the distinct impression our "actual waiter" was trying to poach our table for tips upon realizing their mistake in ignoring us. -My first drink arrived at about 4:40 PM, the "Friend, Lover" cocktail, with an orange peel spiral garnish...and the whole fruit sticker still firmly planted on it front and center.  Wish I took a picture, but I yeeted that orange peel from my drink so fast.

Now, I hate Karens.  I was not going to make a scene at my grandmother's birthday dinner.  I understand there is a balance between quantity and quality in food prep.  Mistakes get made.  But this was mistake five at a supposedly high-end restaurant.  And for $17 a drink, I expect there not to be barcodes blatantly floating in the middle of my liquor. At this point, I planned to order the cheapest option on the menu and never return.

This is where Gia comes in ❤️.  Gia was the kind waitress that took our drink order when we were seated and waiting on our "actual waiter" to arrive.  Despite her section being on the opposite end of the restaurant, she decided to continue serving us when it was apparent our "actual waiter" wasn't coming.  And I am so happy she took care of us.

Gia's excellence and the well done appetizers are the reasons I and my party stayed around to order additional drinks, entrees, and dessert drinks.  She was extremely attentive.  Never missed a beat.  And made sure my grandmother felt special as the birthday girl and guest of honor.

Now, I would be remiss not to give kudos to the rest of the waitstaff who served us as well.  Our water glasses were filled when we asked, our dishes cleared away, and our leftover food was packed up and labeled beautifully.  I never was left wanting or crowded at the table once our meal was underway.  The timing on the food was impeccable.

Do I think the food and drinks are worth the price?  Everything was well done, but it wasn't $100+/head worthy. The appetizers and cocktails are creative, but there is definite room for improvement. You are paying for the location. I would be willing to return here and give them another chance in case I caught them on a bad day.  But only if I was seated in...

(Warning: This is going to be long lol) My fiancé and I came here to celebrate our anniversary last night. We were excited to try this place and were hoping to be wowed. We were anything but. Our first impression of this place started out bad when we encountered the rude hostess (young girl with silver hair). While busy listening to her earbuds and not making eye contact at all, she proceeded to seat us in the bar area at the smallest, most uncomfortable table. I didn't even know there was another dining area until my fiancé discovered it going to the restroom. We would have rather sat there, as it was a quieter setting but were not given the option. After our server Emily greeted us and we ordered a few drinks, we asked her about being reseated in the other dining room with hopes that she would still remain our server. She said that unfortunately, she was only servicing the bar area, but was able to seat us at a more comfortable and quiet booth next to the window. We ordered the roasted garlic cheese foccacia bread to start since a friend of ours recommended it. While it was not terrible, it did not blow us away like he said it would. Honestly, the cheese sauce tasted like jarred queso blanco and was only given one piece of garlic with some browned fresh basil. Looking at pictures from other reviewers, their bread came with several pieces of roasted garlic, so that was disappointing. We shrugged off the mediocre bread because it wasn't that big of a deal. When we got our spaghetti dish, the first thing I said was, this looks like something out of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It looked unappealing, and the meats looked dry..... anddddd it was. The lamb sausage was so dry, it was inedible. The meatball was cold in the center and burnt on the bottom. The Italian sausage was the only thing that was good on that plate. Spaghetti sauce tasted like spicy Ragu. At this point, I told my fiancé to go find our server and cancel our grilled octopus dish. The way this was going, I was afraid to even try it. When he came back, he told me that they were just plating it as he approached the server. He explained the situation to her about the other dishes, as to why we no longer wanted the octopus. He said as he was talking to our server, the line cooks in the kitchen were making faces at him, maybe offended that he said the food was terrible. He told them they should be ashamed for even letting that dish leave the kitchen. Our server came by our table and told us that her manager told us to just give us the octopus dish, but at this point, we were turned off and were ready to leave. She asked if we were sure about not wanting to try the octopus before she took it away, so I gave in and tried a small piece. It was not tender as I had predicted, lol. The bar manager came by and gave us our bill. He said that they comped it due to the very poor experience, which honestly caught me by surprise. I commend them for rectifying the situation, and our server Emily was such a sweetheart. We tipped her what our bill would have been for making a terrible dining experience, not so terrible :) After this experience, we would only return for the drinks if we were staying at the hotel again. If you want delicious Italian food, go down the street to the Calderone Club. Come here if you want overpriced cafeteria food.

*Update: I added pictures of what our friends received during their dining experience previously. Two of their dishes are what we ordered but look completely...

I really wanted to love this place. I’d heard great things, and it has a beautiful view with all the makings of a great restaurant -- but I had one of the worst dining experiences I’ve had in a long time. I doubt I’ll ever go back, which is honestly a shame.

We were there for a birthday party and were excited they could accommodate a large group on a Monday night. That, unfortunately, was about the only thing that went smoothly.

A few of us arrived early and went to grab drinks at the bar. There were four of us at the time, and although there were multiple bartenders and the bar wasn’t crowded, it took an unreasonably long time to be greeted and served. That set the tone.

By 6:30, the full party had arrived, and we were seated. We didn’t get our main courses until nearly 8pm. Here’s what conspired:

Our server came to take drink orders for those who hadn’t gone to the bar. That process dragged on forever, even though the restaurant was not busy. When drinks finally arrived, we ordered appetizers. I was especially excited to try the garlic focaccia, but mine never came. The server disappeared, and when he finally returned ten minutes later to ask how the appetizers were, I mentioned mine never arrived. He said he’d check… and then vanished again.

He didn’t come back until we had all finished eating (except for me, because again, no focaccia) to take our main course order. At that point, I was hungry and irritated. I ordered the Mafaldi (which I’d seen good reviews about) and asked for extra ricotta.

From that point, it took 40 minutes to get our entrees. On a slow Monday? Completely unacceptable.

The kitchen is visible from the dining room, and I had a front-row seat to what looked like complete disarray. A tall guy in a hat stepped in to try to manage things, but it was clear the staff was overwhelmed. Several servers were clustered near the expo line, looking flustered and frustrated. It didn’t inspire confidence.

When the food finally did come out, it was a mess. My friend’s pizza looked like it had been sitting under a heat lamp for quite some time (I had been watching the kitchen and saw it sitting there). Our meals didn’t arrive all at once, half the table had to wait another five minutes -- and multiple orders were incorrect. My dish came without the extra ricotta. I eventually got some after flagging down our server.

The manager clearly knew the experience was off, because she came by handing out free drink coupons... but only for Negronis or Aperol Spritz. Two of the worst drink options imaginable. Salt in the wound.

We had brought in a birthday cake and asked them to bring it out for dessert. They did, but again, everything moved at a glacial pace. There was zero sense of urgency at any point during the evening. After singing happy birthday, our server vanished again, and we had to wait (again) for him to come back and take the cake to be cut.

Someone in our party later mentioned the server was new. That’s fine. Everyone starts somewhere, and he very was nice. But it was also painfully obvious he was in over his head. A fine dining restaurant should not assign a 10-top to a brand-new server with no support. It ruined the night for all of us.

The only real highlight? The manager kindly offered to take photos of our group in the foyer. They turned out lovely -- but honestly, it’s not really a night I want to...