Albi's Vite Italian Kitchen — Restaurant in San Antonio

My wife and I chose Albi's for our Valentine's Day dinner because of their quality of food and service that we have received in the past. Unfortunately, our experience that night did not at all live up to the expectations I had come to form.

Firstly, when we arrived well in advance of our reservation time, we were met with a line out the door just to visit with the host. It turned out that almost everyone in this line had reservations, but the restaurant appeared to have grossly overbooked their space. The single host (bless his heart) was simply working down the list of reservations for a given time as tables became available, such that we were not seated until 30 minutes after our reservation time.

Next, we sat for another 20 minutes without being seen by a server and offered drinks. It was only after making eye contact and a gesture that we were provided service. We were then offered water in plastic cups; I presume because they didn't have enough dishes for the number of guests. The kitchen had an abbreviated menu for Valentine's Day (1 appetizer, 2 salads, 2 entrees, and a dessert for $90). Plastic cups for a $100 meal - interesting.

Usually, these shortened menus are designed to provide quick service on particularly busy nights. In this regard it did not serve its purpose. Appetizer and salad were on-time, but it took another 30 minutes to receive our entrees. Again, this is one of only five options the kitchen had to make that night. Overall, it took 90 minutes from the time of our reservation to the time of receiving our entrees. Since it was 9PM at this point, we took our dessert to-go, as did many other guests.

The restaurant was completely unprepared for what is well-known to be a busy night for them. Unfortunate as it is, in this day and age, I understand it happens due to staffing issues. However, perhaps the most frustrating part of the whole experience was the complete lack of managerial presence in the dining room. On any night, but particularly on a difficult night, there MUST be a front-of-the-house manager circulating to help out servers and be the face of the business to take accountability for the customer experience - good or bad. I saw no apparent manager. Instead, the servers, who simply showed up because they were scheduled this night, we left to handle upset customers, on top of already being overworked.

UPDATE: I just noticed that we were charged twice for this visit and had to dispute the charge with our financial institution - cherry on top of an already...

Don't waste your time or money to eat here. We came for dinner on August 3rd. There was a long wait and the hostess was rarely at the front desk. She'd walk off and dissappear for far too long while more customers walked in. We eventually got a seat after reminding the hostess several times we have been waiting forever. She pointed out a booth to walk to and be seated. A hostess or someone usually walks you to the table. It was an uncomfortable tight booth with poor lighting. Eventually, a waitress walked over, but her service was very very bad. She ignored us and barely took care of her other tables. We wanted refills on drinks and garlic bread, but could not get any service. We went to ask the hostess to speak with a manager and she said Abe is not working tonight and she was not sure if anyone else was. How do you operate a restaurant with no manager onsite? We eventually got most of our food, but they forgot to bring us one meal. They eventually brought it. Some of the food was ok at best, the rest, not that great. The chicken picatta was poorly cooked. The chicken was very thin and had zero flavor. It looked and tasted boiled, not grilled and there was no seasoning. The spaghetti that came with it was a very small portion. The spaghetti with sausage plate was ok, but the spaghetti was overcooked. When I got the bill, there was a charge for $5.99 for sausage. I asked the waitress about that and she said they charge extra if you want sausage. I told her the menu does not say there is an additional charge for sausage and that was not right for them to charge me. She had no response. There was other order messups and poor poor service concerns, but this place obviously doesn't care. We saw other customers with frustration and disappointed in their service. When this place was Santinos, everything was great. Now it's bad. We will never...

I really wanted to like this place. It is close to my house. I am surprised at the number of positive reviews about the quality of the food. I will say the food is not bad. I will also say that it is not great. It was very middle of the road. Calamari was pretty good. The red sauce that came with the order is the same sauce that they used in the Ravioli. If you don't like the red sauce, you are out of luck. The caesar salad had bag croutons and poured on food service dressing. Not tossed. No fresh parmesan. The redfish itself was good. The accompanying pasta was package pasta. Not fresh made. The same kind of pasta you can make at home. The ravioli was ok. The sauce was a bit watery. Again, the sauce is strictly a matter of preference. It looks possibly fresh made. But if you happen not to like it, I believe all the dishes use the same sauce. The bread was fresh baked, however it appeared to be from frozen dough. (If you can tell the difference, it matters) The presentation appeared good. Drinks were good.

In my book this all adds up to a mediocre Italian restaurant. If you want to get beyond this category, you must get the details right. Fresh made pasta, fresh made dough, fresh made croutons, fresh made salad dressings etc. Otherwise you could get these same food service flavors elsewhere. I think our expectations were too high based on the reviews. Again, not bad. Also the prices were not bad.

I also see people rave about the service. We were abandoned in the middle of the meal when we were looking for refills and condiments for the meal.

Too sum it up. If you know what you are getting before you arrive then you will not be disappointed. If you are expecting a fresh, unique delicious Italian experience,...