Antique Table Restaurant — Restaurant in Salem

I struggled with writing this review or not but for the prices at this place and it’s previois reputation, I had to.

I received a gift certificate here and I was so excited to try it because the Lynn location is so good. My cousin and I went last week for my birthday and disappointed doesn’t even begin to cover it.

First we walked in around 7:30 on a Wednesday night and the restaurant was nearly empty but that isn’t what we noticed at first, it was the smell. Our host/server told us we could choose our table and we chose one in the back hoping the smell would dissipate. My cousin said it smelled like an old dirty barn while I thought it smelled like an airplane bathroom. It was TERRIBLE. We thought we’d stick it out.

We ordered a $50 bottle of wine and despite there being MAYBE eight other people in the restaurant and bar total, it took nearly 20 minutes for our server to bring it to the table. Both my cousin and I have worked in the restaurant industry so we are understanding that things happen behind the scenes but without an explanation or apology, the service at that point was already underwhelming.

We both ordered pasta dishes, she ordered the penne vodka and I ordered the baked gnocchi which looked amazing on the menu. By the time the server came out with the food, he had ditched his apron and his shirt was untucked. Her dish arrived in a nice big bowl while mine was on a SMALL appetizer plate!!!! There were maybe 12 gnocchi on the plate (that wasn’t even cooked properly) and there was so much shredded basil on top that I felt like I was flossing every time I took a bite. Obviously still hungry, we ordered dessert and my cousin ordered one more glass of wine. Another fifteen minutes goes by before the server brought the wine and another ten for the dessert to come out.

The bill was just over $100, which was the exact value of my gift card, fortunately, because if I had to pay my own hard earned money on that meal, I would have had a conversation with the manager before I paid. We left hungry.

I was so disappointed and shocked with our experience, especially having had such great luck with their other location. I spoke with a few other people and they too had awful service and underwhelming food. To charge prices like that, people expect good food and good service; we received neither. I’m very disappointed that I will not only never go back but will have to discourage people from wasting their money and going somewhere else. I hate having to give a bad review but our server acting as though our experience was business as usual leads me to believe that it IS business as usual and their standards for guest experiences are set pretty low.

Honestly, we could have spent half the money, gotten twice the food, and had a much better evening at any number of local Italian...

I thought the majority of my issues with Antique Table could be attributed to going there on a busy night, but after reading more of the Google, Yelp, and Tripadvisor reviews of the Salem location, I see it is a chronic problem.

The food quality was average, I would have given this restaurant a 3/5 stars for that alone. The waitress, however...

1. Gets one of the orders completely wrong. OK, i'll give her the benefit of the doubt, maybe she mis-heard us since it was busy and loud in the restaurant. The maître d' apologized for the mix-up and offered to bring out the correct dish, but I didn't want to keep my party waiting. Again, not the end of the world.
2. Communication - the maître d' never let the waitress know that the order was screwed up, as 2 minutes later she comes by asking how the meal is so far. OK, i'll give her the benefit of the doubt again, maybe because it is a busy night he didn't get around to telling her.
3. Screws up the check. A ~$100 bill, which we asked to be split 70/30. We get the check back and it is split $70 / $12. Don't know how that math adds up. OK, i'll give her the benefit of the doubt again, maybe it was busy at the cash register and someone else's bill got mixed in.
4. Screws up the check a second time. After re-running our cards, the "new" bill is split 50/50. At this point we've had enough and agree to pay as-is and GTFO.

The Salem location has to work on logistics and training of their wait staff, especially as the busy tourist season approaches.

The building also has horrible moisture issues, evident by the damp, musty smell in the entire restaurant (think your 1980's parents' basement smell) and laminate floors in the restaurant that are lifting and buckling because of moisture and improper installation.

If you want the Antique Table experience, go to the Lynn location.

Edit Turns out the waitress tried to add $10 of a tip to my bill. Good thing I kept a copy of my receipt! Patron beware if you choose to dine here...

Edit 2 The staff refunded the entire bill after bringing the theft to their attention. Kudos to them for doing the...

The food here is Always amazing! The complimentary bread and oil was superb! We had the Eggplant Rollatine for an appetizer, If you haven't tried these yet, they are a Must! I could make a meal of just those!!!🤤 I had my favorite dinner Chicken Marsala which "in my opinion" was cooked the way you would expect it to be! Thin, tender white chicken breasts, perfectly aldente pasta with an amazing Marsala sauce and perfectly cooked baby Bella mushrooms.👌 My husband ordered Lobster Ravioli which is his favorite, and always delivers the beautiful flavors he looks forward to. Our server was very pleasant, and very stressed because it was very busy and they were short staffed (which seems to be the theme everywhere these days) but dispite the stress she was still very nice and very accommodating. The atmosphere is lovely, the lighting is perfect, not too bright and not so dark you can't read the menu. Lol! The music was appropriate and relaxing. Ok. So, Here comes the "But" (which I feel every restaurant has at least one!) Lol! Unfortunately we were seated in the back room because the front room was full when we arrived, the back room is about half the size of the front. I would have given the atmosphere 5 stars. But we were seated between a table of 6 and a table of 4. So it was too loud and very disruptive. But as I said our server was so accomodating, she was able to move us to the front as soon as a table became available, which was half way through our meal. Needless to say I was grateful for that! When you go out to eat you want to at least hear the person you're sitting with.😄 The one thing I regret was forgetting to take pictures of our wonderful meal, so I could share them with you. I hope this long review was helpful, that is, if you stuck around to read it all! Lol! If so, I'm glad. 😄 I hope you enjoy Antique Table as much as we...