Osteria Grappolo — Restaurant in Solvang

TL;DR : DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY, AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, YOUR TIME AT THIS RESTAURANT!!!

Full review: I was really hoping to like this place, but the HORRENDOUS customer service absolutely KILLED it for me.

When we arrived, we had a 35 minute wait, which was fine, but when we were seated, they barely gave us a few minutes to review the menu and order. Ironically, once we ordered our food, no one came to check up on us for over an HOUR. I consider myself a pretty patient person and don't mind waiting for food, but the restaurant could at least have done a better job communicating that our food was taking longer than expected. Not once did anyone come by and see how we were doing, and we finally had to ask for a water refill after an HOUR. I understand that in these hard times, restaurants are understaffed and suffer longer waiting times, but when I am IGNORED for an hour without an explanation, that is just unacceptable. When our food finally arrived, no one even acknowledged that we had just waited an hour for our food. A simple apology - words - would have been appreciated.

To top it all off, when I approached the manager at the end of my meal, he gave me the most insincere apology of all. I didn't ask for anything from him, I just explained how my experience was extremely disappointing, and to please communicate better with his customers in the future. I also work in customer service, and I am constantly looking for ways to help customers have the best experience possible. Unfortunately, it does not seem to be the same with this restaurant. It was clear that this manager/owner was not apologetic whatsoever with how his restaurant performed, and that is the worst part of all.

As for a review of the food - the pasta was decent, but I've had much better...

I don’t remember, but I think this is the first 1 star review I am giving to a restaurant. I wouldn’t have bothered to review if it wasn’t for the outrageous and quite ridiculous extra 4 dollar charge for the extra bread we asked for because their portions were small.

Never have I in the US, especially in Cali heard of extra charge for more bread???? And worst, we weren’t even warned. So now I am here to do a full review.

1. lunch menu food: lukewarm, mediocre and the pasta portion were too small. The scampi and zucchini linguine was literally a fork full of pasta. Granted the burger was big with fries but it had no taste. Pasta at least had taste, not bad even.
2. service: the definition of IDGAF. Definitely not up to Cali standards. Again, if extra bread costs extra, she should have at least warned us or apologized when we pointed it out. Didn’t check up on us either, but whatever.
3. environment: not bad, convenient next to the street. Nothing to complain.

AGAIN, extra bread costs 4 Dollars. 4. Dollars. In California.

EDIT: I need to be a bit more fair, the carbonara deserves an extra star. So it is now 2 stars. Also besides the bread and service, it...

This place?… OH MY GOSH! I NEVER rate a place 10/10, but this comes so close.

Firstly, the food was unexpectedly SO bomb. We had great service too and it was pretty quiet for a Friday night. They had the shades down, but cranked them open inside so that it was SO much more beautiful and notably with the natural light around 7pm.

Appetizers:

1. A Caesar salad (wife loved the dressing). 8/10.
2. Fried Calamari, Fried Onion, Fried Zucchini bowl with lemon wedges and marinara sauce. 10/10. This was an unbelievably good combination and we couldn’t stop eating it.

Entrees 3) Spaghetti and Meatballs. 9/10. Sauce was so fresh and delicious! 4) Pepperoni and sausage Pizza. 9/10. Excellent crust, nice and thing. Great ingredients!

Overall, the service, food, and restaurant were AWESOME! The ONLY thing I would say was that they had servers who were hovering a bit and too antsy. They did AMAZING, but I like to finish my dish and not see the plate leave right after my last bite. Just give me a second 🤣

But overall, you should DEFINITELY come here. 9.2/10...