Tre Trattoria — Restaurant in San Antonio

For Valentine's Day, my wife and I decided to have dinner at Tre Trattaoria and see a string quartet performance at the Josephine Theater. We made dinner reservations an hour and 45 minutes before we needed to be at the theater which should have been plenty of time. It was not.

Upon arriving we entered the restaurant and stood near the hostess' lectern where were not even acknowledged for 5 minutes. The place was busy but a "We will be with you in just a moment!" would have been nice because I was starting to feel as if we had missed the hostess or were entirely in the wrong part of the restaurant. Finally we were acknowledged and after a few more minutes we were seated, given water and our drink order was taken by the person who seated us. The person who seated us also took an appetizer order when she returned with our drinks. It was a full 25 minutes before our waiter introduced himself and acknowledged that our appetizer order of toasted garlic bread and freshly pulled mozzarella was being prepared. He acknowledged the slow service unprompted and apologized, I was hoping this meant that our entrees would follow soon after the appetizer reached our table

At least a full 40 minutes after our appetizer order was taken, the waiter returned to let us know that the garlic toast was a little too toasted and he was having that issue rectified. Shortly thereafter, our appetizer had finally hit the table with bread that was a rich, dark brown, and it took probably another 5 minutes for properly toasted bread to arrive at our table. The appetizer tasted fine, a bit on the salty side, but very welcome since I had developed quite an appetite. At this point, I had consumed several glasses of iced tea and had to use the restroom. When I returned, my wife was requesting that our entrees be boxed up so that we could pay and leave the restaurant in order to make our show since it was about 40 minutes until the quartet was scheduled to start. He assured my wife that they were working hard to get our food out and compensate us for the slow service.

As we continued to wait, we noticed tables that were seated after us enjoying their entrees, finishing their meals, receiving dessert, paying and leaving. I had tried to remain relaxed so as not to spoil the entire evening, but both my wife and I were incredibly irritated as we watched several tables that arrived after us leave with full bellies. The wait staff knew the service they were offering was subpar and they did their best to avoid eye contact and avoid our table. This compounded our frustration. Eventually we were able to flag someone down and ask to speak to the manager.

The manager arrived at our table, it turns out she was the person who seated us so she was well aware of how long we had been at the restaurant. By this time, the doors to the string quartet were due to close in three or four minutes and all the manager could do was apologize and express that they had too many reservations, no expeditors and the kitchen was backed up. I couldn't care less, we were screwed over so that the kitchen could prepare orders for people that had arrived after us. I asked for the bill for our drinks and appetizer so that I could be on my way and she offered to comp our meal if we would wait a bit longer. At this point I had wasted $60 on tickets to the string quartet because I couldn't get the attention of anyone in order to rectify the issue in a timely manner so I figured I might as well stick around to get my dinner...

Our entrees arrived another ten or fifteen minutes later; I had stopped checking my watch at that point. We left, frustrated and disappointed and will never return to Tre Trattoria or any other Jason Dady restaurant for that matter. Looks like I will have to figure out some other plan to celebrate Valentine's day since this plan was so...

2 Parts to my story: 1st I'll talk about the Restaurant itself and 2nd I'll critique the dishes I consumed.

We went on a Friday evening around 730p. I'm honestly not sure if the place was crowded, as we had book our reservations online 2wks in advance for the patio for 16yr our Anniversary. They did have a fairly decent gathering in a separated hall that was connected to the restaurant Not all sure though about that room connecting. I never went physically into the building and neither did my husband. 😖😵‍💫😵🤭 But they were able to handle the demand of customers and the kitchen. The Atmosphere had is very cute, cozy, quiet and homey vibe. It was very relaxing and and my husband and I were able to carry a conversation. We even made conversation we a couple that was seated next to us as they loved out matching Hawaii outfits lol. Our waiter Doc was amazing, so attentive, kind, friendly and serviceable. Seem like he enjoyed his job and even if he didn't you couldn't tell. We left him a 25% tip he surely earned it!!!

Now let's move on to food: I'm not a fan of champagne but my husband and I decided to celebrate with a glass. We order Vino by Charles Smith Rose Sangiovese, Washington. I must say it was devine very smooth and surprisingly not bitter at all for being a champagne. The waiter was kind to bring us different glass and said it was a gift to us to celebrate our marriage from him. That was so sweet of him! For our appetizer we order the Bruschetta and devil's egg. The Bruschetta was very detectible. There was this hint of sweetness in the olive oil with a sprinkle of pepper on top of the bread and when you mix it with the cheese it tide in very nicely. It was different from style of Bruschetta that I have tried in the past. The devil eggs were God right awful. There were call the museum eggs and it tasted as if someone had slice the egg open slap mayonnaise on it and sprinkled season on top, follow by vinegar and called it a day. (Horrific 🤢🤮) The main course: My husband order the CAVATELLI - (Artichoke Hearts, Prosciutto, Baby Spinach, White Wine Sauce and Parmigiano) The pasta could use some protein in eat for sure! Honestly there isn't anything extraordinary about this dish other than it sounds fancy and it was slap with a high price on it! I order the - BRAISED SHORT RIB (White Bean Ragout, Radicchio, Calabrese Chile, Lemon Zest and Mint)I love how tender the meat was. Though I was a bit shock when I received the dish as I was expecting a bone in ribs and now pot roast type style rib. Perhaps I'm not fairly familiar with the term braised short rib🤷‍♀️? Overall we spent $160 the company, atmosphere and service was amazing but the food was not so great. Unfortunately we will not be coming back to this restaurant as the food really was not worth the price we paid. Military discounts are not...

I vacillated for some time between a 2 and 3 star review, but I finally pulled back and thought: "For an establishment which charges north of $30 a plate, there should be no question!"

2 stars it is then.

However, I had very high expectations and an expectation of delivery based upon the many, many positive Google reviews. Irritation set in when our Lyft driver was unable to locate the restaurant... because it is NOT ON A STREET! Nor is there parking. Instead, we found ourselves on the opposite side of a river from the restaurant and then had to walk some distance AWAY from the restaurant hoping to find a bridge to cross. Fortunately, we found one along a pleasant Riverwalk pathway, and we approached a decidedly handsome, antique brick building, with a pleasant outdoor, riverside deck.

However, upon entering, confusion set in because the open kitchen splits the narrow restaurant so that for a customer to reach the dining area, they have to be guided by host BACK OUTSIDE (on a cold night) through the patio, to the dining area.

I also discovered this establishment has only ONE toilet for a restaurant which in theory would be FULL outside and in! Also, one has to go outside and then inside again to use the sole toilet.

Whatever.

Fine dining service is a precious, fragile commodity which unfortunately died during COVID. In comparison, I get better service from a family-run, strip mall, tex-mex restaurant, even though the server is of a dubious age - than what I received at this establishment.

We had to repeat our orders when the server returned to confirm and EVEN THOUGH I specifically informed the server at the beginning we required separate checks, they then provided us with a single check. Of course when they "split" the checks like they should have done when I first requested - the checks were incorrect. This was AFTER our server DISAPPEARED for so long I ran out of water and had to clear my finished plates on a nearby empty table.

Now, to the food...which was pretty good - but not to the purported standards, ambience and cost. In fact, the best item was the Caesar salad. I at first enjoyed my entrée of cavatelli (creamy pistachio noodles), but by the end I found it to be too heavy and coagulated to really enjoy. I also did not taste pistachio - just heavy, cheesy noodles.

The Italian Pinot noir by the glass ($14) tasted and smelled of human sweat.

The ambience was pleasant, but distracting with the kitchen splitting the restaurant.

This restaurant does not make the mistake of many poor fine-dining of being "pretentious." I simply believe the pieces are not "fine" and do not fashioned together well to present anything beyond a nice building, on a river in an upscale area...all of which combine to do the actual work of...