Piatti — Restaurant in San Antonio

So it's been a couple of weeks since we had our first dining experience at Piatt's and I was going to wait to post our review until after giving them a second chance. Unfortunately I can't do that since we won't be going back. Let me explain. We visited right after restaurants were allowing inside dining. I called ahead in advance to see if we needed a reservation thinking they might be crowded with limited seating. The young lady who answered the phone was pleasant and said that they had plenty of room on the patio. We arrived early around 6:00 PM. They weren't busy at all with only 3-4 tables occupied. We had to wait nearly 10 minutes to speak to the hostess because she was taking to go orders over the phone (are you kidding me). Finally we were seated on the patio and David our waiter arrived promptly to take our drink and appetizer order. We found out that basic bread with olive oil was an upcharge so we ordered that and our drinks. After David returned with our drinks, we ordered a pizza (margherita plus sausage and pepperoni) plus another one to go. We waited patiently for our bread that we paid for for what seemed like forever. Our drinks were empty (no one ever came out on the patio) and when David finally came out with our pizza I asked what about our appetizer? He responded with oh I'll get that right out. Well after eating a lackluster pizza (not even in the top 25 in San Antonio) and still no appetizer, David finally returned. He apologized and asked if we wanted our appetizer to go at no charge (really?). I asked for the bill and headed inside to talk to the manager. This is where it really gets interesting: Dan (the manger) listened to my feedback and offered to comp our meal. I refused and paid because the staff had just returned to work. He seemed to understand, gave me his business card and asked that I contact him before our next visit to their "fine" restaurant. Well a week later I contacted Dan just to make sure he remembered our conversation and see if things had improved. Well the email I received in response made me think we were the ones at fault and that they are very busy because of their "reputation". Here is a small except from his email: I was under the impression we had discussed the issues at the front door to your satisfaction on that same day and was not aware you were expecting any further response to the concerns - We are fortunate, due to our high reputation of our service and quality food, to have a higher level of guest dining with us at this time - Well I guess they're too busy for us, so we won't be coming back to Piatti's. As far as the food we had, I can't say it was much better than a glorified Olive Garden or Papa John's. I definitely DON'T recommend them if you're looking for an upscale Italian...

Was a disaster from the beginning!

I went on New Years Eve for 6 ppl, made reservations and was not told of the fixed 3 course menu with a $60 price per person until we showed up. It was already too late to try and find reservations elsewhere. The waiter was not familiar with many of the dishes, so we had a tough time making our choices. The food was great (which is the only reason for the stars), but many of our dishes seemed bland and lacked seasoning.

Two of my guests had lambchops but our waiter never asked what temp they would like them done (they were brought in Medium-Rare), it was not until after they were brought in that the guests noticed they were never asked how they would like them cooked. I think we were all shocked by the pricey, yet extremely limited menu.

WORSE OF ALL my 6 year old son, who my wife and I had mentioned was allergic to peanuts & treenuts, had a bad allergic reaction to his grandfather's lambchop, which had a pistachio/mint drizzle (who he was sitting directly beside).

Once we realized my son was having a reaction, we asked the the waitstaff for info and they seemed incredibly clueless, and we left not knowing what caused this reaction. It wasn't until I called from the local ER for information, that I found out from the attending manager, that the porkchop had the pistachio drizzle. He made it seem as though it was our fault and didn't ask questions that could prevent things like this from happening again and didn't seem genuinely apologetic, made me feel as though I should have been more vigilant.

In all previous experiences the waiters/waitresses I've notified this allergy, they would notify us if anything on the table had peanuts/treenuts.

In over twenty-six years of dealing with my childrens' food allergies, this is the first time we've had something like this happen to any of my three children.

The waitstaff need to have intimate knowledge of what dishes have ingredients that may cause food allergies and should know this info off the top of their heads. Some folks can have a bad allergic reaction ny sitting too close to the allergens.

The menu should have icons or notes highlighting what dishes have things like...

It’s almost there. I’ve been chasing down the amazing Italian restaurants of my youth all my life. I’ve been all over the country and, honestly, I’m still looking. Now, to set expectations correctly, I’ve not been to Chicago nor New York which are probably where I ought to go to fulfill this desire but that’s not going to happen. That said, I’ve been to Italian restaurants in New Mexico that claim they were the best in the state and all I could say was the state is so very far behind just about anywhere else when it comes to Italian food that they ought to just call themselves Olive Garden 1.1. It was okay. A little better than Olive Garden.

And that brings us to the crux of the problem: most folk think Olive Garden is the cat’s meow. I always shutter and cringe when I hear something along those lines. The price that place charges for the incredibly sub-par food is atrocious.

So, is Piatti at least better than Olive Garden? Yes. By leaps and bounds. But, it still falls short of my expectations. I suspect I’m going to have to empty my wallet to get an experience I’m used to from the places of my youth and having revisited one of them last year I can confidently say at least one of them is still as good if not better than memory.

“And still what do you have to say about Piatti?!” You ask? Piatti is in a great place in my mind. The food is good, the service excellent, and the price is right for what you’re getting. It’s more than Olive Garden, which is to be expected, but not so much that the average person couldn’t afford it. To me that’s important! The average person who wanders in to an Olive Garden ought to add a small charge to their experience and go to Piatti instead. Piatti truly is a Goldilocks of Italian places.

I look forward to the next time I’m there to try the next dish. But, I truly suspect my search will...