il Barone Ristorante — Restaurant in Newport Beach

My 3 star rating is the average between the the two times I went to this place and it's unfortunate that it's a night and day difference.

The first time my coworker and I went to this place, I would have easily rated this at 4 stars because the food was savory and delicious, the ambiance was relaxing, and the staff were all attentive and professional. The only reason why I would not give it a 5 star was because the waiter was overly persistent on us getting the special of the day when we have already expressed our disinterest in it.

The second time I went was yesterday and I would give the experience a low 2 star. It was a fairly quiet lunch hour but our table was ignored the entire time. When we were seated, we were not given a menu until 15 minutes later and it was only because we were able to flag one of the staff. I couldn't imagine how long it would have actually taken for us to receive our menus had we not said anything. Once more, the waitress taking our order was persistent on us ordering the special so I caved in and got the Sole special. My order was the Sole fish with a side of potatoes and spinach. When my dish came, I discovered that there were green beans on my plate instead of spinach. I turned around and the server was gone so I had to wait a few minutes before I flagged a different one to address the issue. Her response to me was "we are making you a batch right now and we substituted it with green beans in the meantime because we didn't want your plate to feel empty". This didn't make any sense to me because no one said anything to me when my plate first arrived and their response to me was that they intentionally put green beans on my plate? I don't think so.

My coworker has a few dietary restrictions and was only able to order the grilled calamari which was overcooked and too chewy. I felt bad that she spent more time chewing than actually enjoying the food. We are scheduled to come back early next month but I'm not too sure if we want to after this experience. It's a shame things went down hill because we really...

We went in so excited to try this place. The owners and servers were warm and personable. We probably went in on the wrong night and ordered the wrong things because it fell flat for us. The first warning was that the caprese starter was made with grainy tomatoes and dry burrata. They replaced it with a very simple Caesar salad. Our mistake for not saying right away, we didn't come to an authentic Italian restaurant for Caesar salad. We were trying to be nice. The main courses were just so mediocre. For desert we ordered a sure-fire lemon sorbetto made in house. How could that go wrong? Well, it tasted like lime with some kind of bitter, slightly minty flavor. I asked the waiter what was in it and he replied, just lemon. I was tempted to make him taste it and tell me what he tasted, but - again - trying to be nice. The final straw came when we got the bill and the Bisteca alla Fiorentina special, a mammoth porterhouse (come to find out when the plate arrived to the table) was double the cost the most expensive entrees (come to find out when the bill came to the table). I couldn't hold my tongue - a rarity for me...honest - and I mentioned our feelings to the waiter. He was understanding and open to the feedback and got me 1/3 knocked off the bill. In conclusion, my favorite item (Octopus, Potato and Cherry Tomato Salad) was the only dish we ordered off the menu and oddly the one dish our waiter was concerned we might not like. Maybe just bad fit or a bad night. Lovely people and probably worth...

I was excited to come here. The overall experience was only ok. We ordered the polenta appetizer, wild boar ragu and the carbonara. The polenta appetizer was, from a textural standpoint, spectacular. But, lacked flavor. The wild boar ragu was delicious but, didn't have big delicious chunks of boar and you would expect that if they're going to go out of their way to make a ragu seperate of the veal ragu that is also on the menu. That being said, the parpadelle was cooked perfectly and the micro basil was a delicious touch. The carbonara was faultless. Great flavor, perfectly cooked pasta and perfectly portioned. The reason for my lackluster rating was the service. If I'm being kind it was slow. It took 10 minutes to get drinks to the table. 15 minutes to get our appetizer and more than 25 minutes to get our entrees. The support staff had a better presence at the table than either of the servers we interacted with. This would be understandable if they were busy but, the restaurant was barely half full at 8 PM. It's been a few years since the last time I was here and, regrettably, this will be my last visit partially because of the food but mostly because of...