Oregano Ristorante — Restaurant in Newburyport

I always look forward to not writing about a place because usually it means I liked it. Obviously that's not the case because here I am. First off, the food is good. Second, and endemic to Newburyport, the place features Boston prices but forgets that it is not in Boston: a tremendous hurdle right out of the gate. Literally it is as if the starting gun sounds and there is a hurdle five feet in front of you...rarely is it possible to generate enough speed to clear the obstacle. And Oregano did not fail to disappoint.

Que stream of conscience: 7:30 or so on a recent (yesterday) Sunday night, busy tourist weekend in NBPT (every weekend is busy in the summertime) nice atmosphere, farmy, folksy Euro-countryside feel. Standing near the small bar before being seated, three feet of clearance between me and the nearest table, waitress walking by gives me a snarky 'excuse me' to get by, table waitress reluctant to add chair to our table due to 'access issues' (didn't' really care, but adds another thorn) bread plates on table, no bread offered, of the first four orders they were out of two of the dishes, out of real napkins, only had cocktail napkins, had to ask for silverware, kids pizza was dropped on the floor (it happens, glad my wife saw it as I'm truly not sure the staff wouldn't have debated what to do about it), drink of one of our party had a massive, easily visible hair in it, food was well received, my scallop dish was really good but only had 4 average sized scallops and about a pound of risotto, lobster rav seemed good with some nice chunks of lobster, heard staff discussing how they wanted to get out of there for the night plus other random complaining...that about wraps it up.

Running out of dishes as well as the other issues and blaming it on a busy weekend or whatever is not really acceptable; as mentioned, every weekend in NBPT is busy. I don't blame the wait-staff for any issue I've mentioned that may appear to be direct criticism. I view these issues as symptoms of an underlying problem, a problem which is the bane of virtually the entire city's retail environment. When people used to ask me where to eat in NBPT I would suggest Zabaglione's (now closed), which is in Ipswich. Either that or Jewel in the Crown or maybe Guiseppe's and definitely Lexie's (for something super casual), which actually are in NBPT. The reason is that consistency is usually lacking in downtown NBPT. And there is a concrete reason for this problem which had me putting on my detective hat and doing some poking around: sure enough, the Oregano property is owned by the same investment group that owns half of the commercial space in town. Which means high rents and a struggle to balance quality and consistency with paying the bills. NBPT is not Boston and truth be told it's not even NBPT, or at least the perception that NBPT puts forward. Prices are always outpacing quality, very common in tourist destinations which this town certainly is. What do the three restaurants recommended above have in common? Their properties are not owned by the folks who own the Oregano property (I didn't know this until I looked it up just now). The margin, ex of rent expense, on my dish must have been, conservatively, about 300%: $4 for the scallops and $1 for the risotto; with rent my guess is margins dribble precariously close to break-even. My next guess is that margins are made up with poor staff pay and lack of a restaurant manager.

Eating out is about much more than food, of course, it is about an experience, and our experience was...

I went to Newburyport with my nieces today (July 31, 2021) and we were looking for a place to have lunch, and we chose Oregano. The hostess was pleasant and very friendly, but our server was very unpleasant and she even lied to me. I'm not sure what her problem was, but she never introduced herself to us to begin with. The server asked if we wanted anything to drink besides water so I asked if the lemonade was made there and she said "no, it's bottled". So, I did not order the lemonade which appeared to bother her. From this point on , her attitude deteriorated. Since I didn't want lemonade with loads of sugar, I asked for a bottle of spring water. To which she replied: "We don't have bottled spring water". I thought it was odd that a place that had some gourmet offerings would not have bottled spring water. So immediately I felt something wasn't right so I asked for another server. When the very pleasant server came, I asked him if they sold bottled water. He said they did. I asked him for a bottle of water and he gave me a few choices, and he brought me the one I asked for. I went inside the restaurant as we were seated outdoors, and asked to speak to the manager. I reiterated this to her and she conveyed her apologies to me. I have to admit that having a server with a very bad attitude, and one that would lie about serving bottled water is something I never encountered before. Needless to say, I will not be going back to Oregano ever again despite the fact the the pizza was good, but it wasn't so good that I would go to a restaurant that has a server that would actually lie about having bottled water. She bit her nose just to spite her face, not professional at all. To note, I truly believe the manager could have done more to eradicate the horrible experience there. Her apologies did not suffice, perhaps deducting twelve dollars for the bad Cesar salad might have made me feel better. I have no pictures of the food, only of me and my nieces because we took the picture before the server ruined the...

Between 3pm and 4pm we visited this restaurant. This was an experience to say the least. I am a Secret Shopper, went into this establishment, sat at a dirty table. After sitting for a few minutes, asked waitress if we could sit at window like we were and she said yes. We said 'but it's dirty' she said 'oh' then cleaned it off and gave us⁰ menus. We sat another 10-15 minutes. My friend got up, asked if someone could wait on us. She replied 'you have to be patient' my friend answered 'we have been patient' at that point we almost walked out. Finally a waiter/bartender came over, apologized and said no one told him we were there and he was the manager. He offered us free drinks, which we refused but it was a nice gesture. He took our order, I requested silverware and napkins. He brought 2 b&b plates and 2 forks, which were dirty. I got up and took 2 place settings off a clean table. As we ate, we heard the couple next to us complain her meal was raw. The waitress offered her a refund of both orders and she said 'no, my husband ate his 'then she gave them 50% off bill. Our order came, my meatballs were very good. My friends Shrimp Scampi was not. Just tastes like wine and garlic. All this while listening to rock-n-roll music blaring. I would have thought something more fitting for the Italian atmosphere. Maybe times have changed. Our manager/waiter/bartender came back with our bill. Apologized again saying the owner is away in Maine on vacation. I said that is unfortunate because I'm a Secret Shopper, just left Maine myself after Secret Shopping a few places. He said 'Oh great' I told him if he is a manager than other employees need to tell him when he has people and communicate more effectively. The owner should be able to go away trusting his staff to represent him & his business in a professional way. I will return to Plum Island, but not...