Sortino's Italian Kitchen — Restaurant in Round Rock

We were promptly sat and our waitress asked for our drink order. We ordered water and I ordered a bottle of the Montepulciano. The waitress then asked if I wanted the "Nevio or the Italy" for the wine. I do not think she was familiar with the format of the wine list and didn't know it was a "producer, region" format. I've seen this before and its no big deal, so I said Nevio and we ended up with the proper bottle of wine. She asked if we would like bread while we determined what we wanted to order and we said yes. She then walked off to put in our drink order.

We ordered the calamari appetizer, caprese salad, 3 carbonas, and a shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo. At this point, we still did not receive the bread that we had been offered. This was also the last time we saw our waitress for at least 45 minutes.

About 20-25 minutes our appetizers came out. The caprese salad was well made, but the calamari was luke warm and the breading had started to become mushy. Our entrees came out less than 5 minutes after receiving our appetizers. At this point, we had an extremely crowded table because we wouldn't remove the appetizer plates. We all had finished our water and none of the wait staff came by to refill them. We still not received the bread, so we wrote that off at this point.

One of the waiters walked by and we asked if we could get our water refilled and some spoons so we could use it in twirling the pasta on to the fork. He came back quickly with the water and said he would check with the kitchen about spoons. He never returned.

About 10 minutes later, we called over another waiter and asked for spoons. He said he would check and walked back into the kitchen. He, also, never returned. Finally, our waitress came out to check on us and we asked for spoons. She was the first person to say that they may not have spoons, but she would check. About 5 minutes later she came back with 4 serving spoons and we thanked her profusely for finding those. She asked if we would like more bread, but I declined since we never received the first round of bread. She then disappeared into the kitchen for another 15 minutes.

The entrees were hit and miss. The carbonas that my wife and mother-in-law received were fine. My carbona has a broken sauce. My father-in-law's Fettuccine Alfredo was so watery that I thought they gave him melted butter. The pepper grinder at our table was empty, so I fished around until I found one at another table.

After we finished the meal, our waitress came back and asked if we needed anything else. I said that we were good and just needed the check. She went back into the kitchen with some of our plates. However, I did not know that she was going to disappear for another 30 minutes. We sat for so long that I decided to send my wife and in-laws away and I waited alone for our waitress to come back. At some point she returned and I reminded her that I was waiting for the check. She returned the check and I paid and left. However, on my way out I almost slipped on some puddles that were on the floor from the dining room to the reception desk. I'm not sure if they were water from guests at the park or spills from service but multiple waitstaff walked over them without attempting to clean them up. My concern here is that I wouldn't want anyone to fall and get injured.

Outside of my dining experience, I noticed other things. First, all the waitstaff seemed to spend more time in the kitchen or flirting with each other by the bar than attending to their tables. This lack of attention to the diners was also impacted by the Atlanta vs Dallas basketball game that they would stop to watch. I've included a picture of when I caught three of them watching the game for an extended period of time. Its blurry, so I apologize for the quality but I didn't want them to see me take it. Also, all of us found it a little odd that an Italian restaurant serving long-form pastas would not have spoons accompany the meal. I've been all around the U.S. and this is the first time that I have encountered that at an...

Update: They much improved the eggplant Parm! In fact, the whole menu is different now. I liked it so much more.

Original review:

I'm conflicted about writing this one. Service needs improvement. Eggplant Parm needs improvement. Penne vodka sauce on the noodles with the eggplant parm was amazing. Cannolis good.

The eggplant within the eggplant Parm seemed like it wasn't cooked all the way through or just.. something went wrong. I've never made the dish myself before but had it plenty of times at the chain Maggiano's and usually the middle of the eggplant can be easily cut through with a butter knife. This time, there was tough skin and inside was also slightly too firm.

The pasta that went with my eggplant Parm though, holy amazeballs. Yum! My husband had some too and wished he ordered my pasta alone instead of his ragu!

The fried dessert was strange because it looked nothing like the pictures of what it should look like in Italy. Sure, maybe the Americanized version is different.

The Cannolis were good! We were surprised it came with two, enough to share among the table.

Our server needs a lot of improvement. I think it was just the language barrier. It was hard to discuss the food with him. It's not his fault, really!

Something I don't have pictured is that I ordered a Shirley temple and it didn't have any cherries in it. Usually when I get this drink, including at the Double Cut steakhouse, it has cherries in it. Kind of a bummer since I only order it to feel like I have a cocktail like everyone else, but no big deal.

I'm also conflicted saying negative feedback here because we met the chef at the first annual Kalahari Food and wine fest last year (2022) and he's a very nice guy, with talent for adding a kick to typical Italian food! I wish I could stomach spicy food and could have tried his unique take dishes. I recommend them if you can! This restaurant was also so much cheaper to eat at than the Double Cut steakhouse, so there is probably a tighter budget for them...

First and last time. The pizza isn't bad at all. Had a slice in the express side in the afternoon which was $6, so a little much for a slice but it's a resort, so whatever. So not a bad spot to grab a slice for a quick snack. The family and group we were with want to go for dinner to the full restaurant so we did and wait about 40 minutes for table and they were not that busy. We had a group of 9, 5 adults and 4 kids, but everyone there had large groups. This place is very overpriced, and the food is very average. $28 for chicken marsala, which is one of favorite dishes, and this was not in my top 50. Olive Garden would be better..... My wife wanted a glass of wine, but at $13+ she decided it wasn't worth it. Some of the other food looked good but everyone in our group agreed it was nothing special. My wife and I split the marsala, and I had a beer. They added 18% gratuity, so for 1 meal and a beer our bill was $42, for an average meal and bad service. On top of average and overpriced food, the service was bad even after my wife spoke to a mgr about getting some service. 15 minutes to drinks, a long time to get food, and when were done, and asked for our checks to pay, it took another 20 minutes. I would never go back, and certainly can't recommend it. I see there some very positive posts here. I don't know where those people ate but it was NOT the same place. So either they are incredibly inconsistent and poorly managed, or the other people don't know what good food or service is. There was NOTHING "award winning" about this dining expensive. Update: I went back the next day to the express side to grab a couple slices for my grandkids. The staff is almost incompetent. Placing a slice of pizza in a box is...