Il Terrazzo — Restaurant in Portland

TL:DR The experience was lackluster, menu lied, tables totally uneven for eating, cold food, pesto dish drowning in oil, service was unprofessional and was ignored/forgotten about, the food was very basic and not worth the price.

So I've worked in the restaurant industry for over 10 years, both front and back of house, high and low class, and overall had a lackluster experience celebrating a birthday dinner. First off, we walked in and asked for a table and immediately was told to wait 10 min because they're behind. What should have been done is to politely state that they'll be with us shortly or say we have a 10 min wait, not sound like we're being shoved away because they can't handle the current pressure.

Second, we sat down and one of the chairs was practically on the verge of collapsing and potentially injuring us or a future patron. This is unacceptable for an upper dining experience and needs to be addressed. Detail should go into every table set and aim for perfection as first impressions matter at this level.

Third, the brussels sprout salad specifically stated "roasted" sprouts only to bite into them as a very watery, almost steamed brussel sprout. We immediately returned it to the kitchen and the server acknowledged that they were pan fried, aka sautéed, which IS NOT ROASTED. To LIE on a menu is an ultimate disgrace to the customers, a waste of money and effort of the chefs.

Fourth, we ordered a family style salad (which was a bit of a boring experience) with a plate that wpuöd spanned across two tables so that everyone could have a access to it. Unfortunately the tables were so uneven, you would have thought it was an earthquake fault line spanning the two tables. Our salad was half hanging over precariously over the cliff of the table like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible! We asked our server about it and said they couldn't do anything about it, which was disappointing. Knowing myself for quick fixes, I used the 1.5 inch thick bar menu to bridge the cliff so no one would fling the salad plate across the room. Another server actually ended up complementing me on my "Engineering Skills", which was not flattering at all. I'll be sure to ask them to hire a rocket scientist next time.

Fifth, after placing our salad and Brussel sprout salad, our server walked off without asking about our entrees. She the brought our drinks and I notified we were ready to order after she dropped another tables drinks. 10-15 minutes passed before she came back to take the order. Later on, she came to take our plates away after we finished the entrees, and didn't drop off the bill or the dessert menu and ran off to serve a larger party that had come in after we did. Not sure if it was a snub to us or if they didn't want to deal with out table anymore. It just felt like we were being ignored or forgotten. I had to get up, ask someone at the front desk/bar area to help me get the bill and pay for it. This was not worth the mandatory 20% service fee the service deserves. There is no effort in making the best experience while scooping an easy 20% tip (I made a effort to remove the tip and give a custom tip instead, I understand everyone can have a bad day on the floor). I highly suggest a more structured service protocol, especially at this higher level of dining.

Sixth, we ordered a pesto dish and the first time it came out so cold, the parmasean cheese on top had soaked in all the oil and it moved like Han Solo in carbonite: as an entire piece. The pasta was hard and already cold with barely any heat. We asked to have it sent back and the server asked if we wanted another one. We clearly stated NO, but 10 min later they did bring another pesto pasta dish for us, against our wishes, and regrettably decided to try it. It was pretty bland and had sooooo much oil in the plate, any more and you could have had America leave the middle east and drill for oil on the plate!! Just Google any pasta dish with pesto and you'll see how it should have looked. (we did get this comped in the end).

Overall, don't come...

We had a reservation for 5:30pm on Saturday night. We specifically made a 530pm reservation (for 4 ppl) because we had to leave the restaurant at 7pm in order to make it to our next obligation. We arrived at 5:29pm and were seated immediately. Wonderful. We were given waters and menus and then could not get anyone to come to our table, no matter how hard we tried, for 18 minutes. When the waitress finally came to take our orders we told her that we needed to leave by 7pm latest. We had to order everything at that point to make that happen: drinks, apps, meals. We did this with as much promptness as we could (and were already bummed out that we couldn't actually enjoy any of it because it was clear that leaving at 7 was now going to be a close call). We got our family style salad before any of the drinks. So now we had salad and water. Then 2 of the 4 drinks (one of which was an old fashioned with tiny cubed ice in it - blasphemy) came and we were told that they didn't have the wine we ordered. We had to make a different wine selection. The salad was consumed and eventually replaced with our meals and the wine (that all came at the same time). We don't know if this is standard at this restaurant but nothing was added to the meals --- we were not asked if we wanted any grated cheese on our dishes (we got pasta) or black pepper. Also, the bread would have been $8. No bread with your meal and no fresh condiments on your food (for a very high price for pasta I might add)? Shame. At 6:55 the waitress asked us if we wanted to see a dessert menu because we had just managed to scarf down our food. No. We did not. We had to leave. We paid our bill and were on our way. Also, the food was just okay. The four of us agreed on 2/5 stars. We will not be back and we won't be recommending this place to anyone. Go to Mingo if you want amazing Italian food and service.

Forgot to add: there is an automatic 20% gratuity regardless of service....

The location is lovely. Unfortunately, that's where the compliments end.

It started with a frantic staff shuffling around front of house, including one person calling out across the front of the restaurant to another staff member that "there a woman at the door!" Our server was very thoughtful, offered recommendations, and gave us time to look at the menu after ordering our drinks and appetizers. However, other servers seemed very eager to move us along and regularly cane by to ask if we were still enjoying our dishes and hovering to swipe away plates. I understand the need to turn over tables, but there were a number of empty tables and we were there there for less than an hour, and less time than other parties that were seated before us and still there when we left.

And then there's the food. We ordered the bread service, Caesar salads, pesto pasta and stuffed butternut squash ravioli. The bread was barely warm and very dry and dense, seemed like a day-old store loaf from the grocery store deli.

The Caesar salad didn't have any croutons. When we asked our server about it, she said that the kitchen was out of them and remaking them but it would be more than 20 minutes. She shrugged and apologized. If we had been told when she put the order into the kitchen, we would have switched to the other salad, and we wish we had. The dressing on the Caesar was excessive, very watery and extremely acidic, lacking any richness or creaminess and causing both me and my dinner partner to cough (no, it wasn't the cracked pepper) and tear up. It was almost comical.

We were really hopeful about the pasta dishes. Both had excellent flavors but tasted as if they'd been cooked and then rewarmed: the edges of the pasta were dry, over cooked, and overly oily as if to cover up the dryness. It tasted like leftovers from a good restaurant.

I hope the restaurant can get the kitchen and...