Agio Italian Bistro — Restaurant in Palatine Township

I visited here one month ago. My friend & I walked into the restaurant and it was beautiful and told the waiter it was our first time here. He ignored this comment. We said we came for happy hour (from 3-5pm). He told us there wasn't one. I said I found the hours on the website. He told us we were right. We asked to sit on the patio -- it was a beautiful, sunny, warm day. He told us we had to be off the patio by 5pm (it was only 3:15pm). I was now taken aback since there were already three rude comments! I didn't have a good feeling. We still said, no problem -- we should be done by then but we could always sit inside if we go past the time limit.

We got out onto the gorgeous patio and there were only two other tables occupied. I didn't understand why this man was so abrupt early on. My friend and I were happy to be there and we were pleasant! We ordered some wine and chatted and then a second glass. When we had to stop our waiter to ask for another drink as well as ask if we could have some bread and oil, he rolled his eyes at us and seemed annoyed. We honestly were not giving him problems! We ordered several items off the happy hour menu and my friend ordered off the regular priced dinner menu. The food was mostly delicious and we were very happy with the other waiters who filled our water glasses and cleaned up the table. They were very pleasant!

We were conscious of the time but around 5pm we didn't see our waiter for about 15 minutes. The patio was still not filled up yet but they were preparing for a larger group to arrive and getting the tables put together and set up. We waited. We got our check. I did not receive one of the items for my meal, however, I didn't want to bother our waiter about it. However, he charged me for it so when I told him I didn't receive the chicken wings it was as if I wasn't believed. He sulked back and updated our bill. I was already verbalizing to my friend I would never return here ... and it's such a shame because the patio was gorgeous and the restaurant was even nicer insider and I would have liked to return in colder weather and enjoy that setting. The outside of the restaurant belies how pretty and large it is inside!

I ordered the Meritage wine, which was excellent! The small plate happy hour items I ordered that were excellent were the buffalo shrimp and caprese salad. The items that were mediocre were sausage and peppers (sausage was overloaded with fennel and overcooked, but the peppers were delicious) and the calamari (four small, rubbery pieces on a small bed of lettuce). The bread and oil mixture was excellent (but we had to ask for it)!

My friend and I are very generous tippers and I absolutely HATE giving less than 20% unless the service is really poor so I didn't give my 20%.

My friend ordered the antipasti tray, which didn't taste fresh and another item (sorry -- I cannot remember what it was but it wasn't pasta) that she enjoyed. At the end of the meal she asked about what the desserts were and our rude waiter quickly said they didn't have time (we could have got it "to go"). :(

I was very mad now at all this and just wanted to leave. We paid our bill and left, but my friend ended up calling the manager (Mike) on the way home. She reiterated our experience and we said we know the waiter was most likely busy now because of the larger group they were expecting. He said yes they were expecting a large party. He didn't acknowledge much about our waiter, just that he would speak with him, but did not apologize to us on his behalf. Then he hung up on my friend!

I would never again visit Ago Italian Bistro AGAIN. And it's not because of the food or the atmosphere or the kind waitstaff!! So disappointing about this little gem of a place!

One more thing, "Gallary" is spelled incorrectly on their website. :(

Since I cannot comment on your response, I have edited my review to make this comment: My review was not a commentary on the time limit for the patio (please see last sentence in first paragraph). I also understand business. I...

The restaurant is very clean, proper and has an very nice interior. The service at the bar was phenomenal. The service at our table was a train wreck. I ordered the veal special and my wife had the chicken picata. Our server was so inept at knowing the menu, the specials, the ingredients, or pretty much what was going around around her. The vegetable of the day was described as wilted lettuce. I was served a plate of broccoli with a pork chop and my wife's chicken was SO tart due to the lemon, it was 90% inedible. Our waitress noticed my plate being pushed to the side and came over to pick it up. She immediately knew something was wrong but didn't notice that the plate was missing the gnocchi and that it was a pork chop instead of veal! She assured me it would be fixed and was back in a few minutes with my same pork chop (and the single piece I had cut and took a bite out of) but now with fresh broccoli and gnocchi with harsh grill marks. Later, the waitress came back to check on us and noticed I hadn't touched the dish and took the plate away insuring it would be taken off the bill. Although my wife had eaten her wilted lettuce and mashed potatoes, she had only eaten half of one of the chicken breasts. When we turned down a to go box, she immediately apologized for everything and pleaded for us to please come back. Once our bill was paid, we were pretty much on our own. I personally went back to the bar for refills and we decided to skip dessert. Also to note, we were never asked if we wanted soup or salad with our meal (which we did) and we were never offered dessert (we probably would have gotten as we definitely were not full from dinner). Most of our negative experience could've been avoided or supplemented with basic restaurant management. We easily noticed who was stearing the ship as he was the host, drank plenty of wine and hung out with the loyal locals. This is the second time we have come to this restaurant and the wait staff hasn't changed it's practice in over a year. Although convenience was a factor in our visit, it won't be in the future. Last night was the last time we will act as patrons for this...

We decided to try this place again after a terrible experience a couple years ago. Back then the service was terrible and the food was very salty. So about tonight. We arrived and sat at our table for probably 10 to 15 minutes before our server came to the table. We ordered drinks and waited 15 minutes before they arrived and the ice was almost completely melted meaning they sat on the bar waiting to be brought to our table way too long. To make matters worse you could barely understand the server because of his poor English skills. Then the background music was so loud you could barely carry on a conversation without yelling. After almost an hour the server came to take our order. We then waited over an hour for the food to arrive and the server kept saying it was coming. When it came a few people at our table got their food and the rest of us waited at least 10 more minutes for ours to arrive. Mine came out wrong and I had to send it back. It was very hot today; almost 100 and the temperature in the small room we were in was very warm, almost hot even though there was a thermostat in the small room which should have been turned down. Others in our party ordered drinks and had to wait at least 10 to 15 minutes for their drinks to be delivered to the table. Bottom line. We were in this restaurant for three hours. Most had no salad or soup and just an entree and no desserts. It should not take that long to have a dinner. It also looked like a manager or maybe even the owner was present and did nothing to move the service along. We will never go to this restaurant again and will let people we know about the experience we had. It was, in a...