Basso at the Cheshire — Restaurant in St. Louis

This is not an Italian Restaurant by any stretch of the imagination. I lived in Italy and have eaten everything from traditional to hipster there and Basso's menu is unique and unto itself.

I decided to sit at the bar and wait so I could check out their wine list. Its an Italian restaurant according to their website so I expected a healthy selection of wines from there; here is the list of wines of Italy:

Vitanza Brunello di Montalcino Tuscany 2008

Given the lack of Italian wines, I selected the TRIM from North Coast and found it to be a solid Cabernet.

The bar is neatly arranged and the bartenders were efficient. There are several TVs mounted above which deters from romantic but somehow works at this location without giving this a "sports bar" vibe.

My guest arrived and we were immediately seated. It was 8:00 pm and the restaurant was 85% full. Our server greeted us a little over 5 minutes later and we discussed a few food items. We asked for recommendations but she was hesitant to provide anything more that "that is really good here" when we mentioned a specific item. She then left us to decided and came back several minutes later.

We decided to start our meal with Contorni - Roasted Carrots and Antipasti - Seared Pork Belly. The order went in just before 8:15 pm.

Around 9:10 and no sign of our server for the entire time, we finally flagged down another server and asked if our appetizers were coming, water would be nice, and my wine glass has been empty for 45 minutes.

A few minutes afterwards our server appeared and apologized for a kitchen error - our ticket had been lost. Nice excuse but didn't didn't explain why she hadn't visited our table in over an hour with a restaurant now at 65 percent. While there we decided to try and order a Pasta meal - Whole Wheat Linguine but limited ourselves to only one entree for fear it would not get to us before our need to leave by 10:15 pm to attend a show.

Ten minutes later the Host arrives with both our appetizers and entree. Another server appears and refills our water glasses. Still no wine, no one asking, and our server MIA. The Roasted Carrots were great, well prepared, beautiful presentation, a definite must when eating there. The Seared Pork Belly was an unfortunate disappointment. The cuts were generous and while the fat / lean ratio was a bit too in favor of the fat, I was impressed by how much was provided. To accent the Pork Belly were brussels & parsnip salad, horseradish, pepitas, apples, and cider vinaigrette according to the menu. What I found was some shredded cabbage that was flavorless. Sadly, the Pork Belly had no distinct flavor and I am unsure how that is possible. It didn't taste bad, it simply didn't taste. My guest tried it as well (we shared all dishes) and came to the same conclusion.

Since the Whole Wheat Linguine arrived at the same time, we worked it into our meal as well. It was proportionally mixed with blistered tomatoes, shrimp, dill, pine nuts, and saffron. Review were mixed on this as my guest found it to be tasty and ate her share. I found the Linguine to be rubbery from overcooking with the taste of shrimp to be overpowering (I have no idea how that is possible). I ate a few forks full and was done. While there was disagreement the quality, we both agreed it was not something we would order again.

Meal in finally finished, its 9:45 and guess who shows up...our server. She asks how everything was and apologizes for the kitchen's mistake. You may note that she didn't visit the table to bring us the food or check to see how things were after the first few bites (or why our paste arrived at the same time as our other items).

The manager arrived a few minutes later and was very humble in apologizing for the poor service and delays. She seemed to genuinely care and be sincere, I am grateful for her attention. She provided three desserts and informed us the meal...

We tried Basso a few weeks ago for the first time. We were excited to try it because the menu looked similar to Katie's Pizza and Pasta, which we love. The restaurant is down some stairs and has a nice atmosphere except that it was very loud. So much so it was hard to have a conversation at the table. We joined the waitlist online and were seated immediately which was great.

I ordered an espresso martini as soon as the waitress came by while my husband parked the car. When he arrived, she came by again and he ordered a drink and appetizer and the waitress asked me what drink I ordered and I reminded her, to which she said it was "coming right up".

We received our appetizer before our drinks but that was just a mild inconvenience. The bread appetizer was delicious.

My husband ordered a pizza and I ordered pasta. My husband's pizza was served to the table by a runner and then the waitress came over and said my food would "be right out".

Unfortunately, we didn't see our waitress for another 15 minutes until finally a runner brought out my pasta. We were on a timeline so I was checking the clock pretty frequently. When the waitress checked in shortly after I received my food, we asked for our check. She brought the check quickly.

However, after that we didn't see the waitress for another 15 minutes for her to collect our card. We ended up asking someone in passing for a box. Then we finally saw our waitress walking around by the kitchen area. However, after another 5 to 10 minutes when she still hadn't come to collect the check, we ended up having to uncomfortably ask the bar tender to cash us out.

The food was all delicious, the atmosphere was good (just loud). However, our server did not seem interested in providing quality service. On the bright side, we had plenty of time to look around and it seemed like other servers were providing timely service to their tables so perhaps we just got unlucky with our assigned server.

We would have liked to have another go-to spot, but unfortunately we will likely not...

You know, this restaurant and I have a special connection. My wife and I had our wedding reception, in the spot that basso now occupies. We have sentimental feelings about it. It is our space. We first came to basso, within their first year, made friends with the service manager and became recognized with the James beard award winning chef. We came two times a month and came for every celebration. We came accustomed to impeccable service and food.

We last went 5 years ago, and at that time the great chef left and the service manager left and the service went downhill.

My wife and I went back, because we celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary and as I had mentioned above, the space that now sits the restaurant, used to be a reception room, which is where we had our wedding reception, 20 years ago. I made a reservation and our server's name was Kayla S.

So, Kayla gave us the best service we have had in years. She was super nice and patient and my wife thinks she was "just amazing". She made her feel special that night. Our food came out fast, was great and tasty and everything just went perfect.

Only negative in my review is the lighting. I know the lighting is low and dim, to provide some sort of gastro-pub atmosphere. But I almost had to put the flashlight app "on" using my phone, to read the menu. Yeah, I'm in my 40's and my eyes are going. But the low light level used to be done in restaurants to hide the look and quality of the food. The food at Basso is delicious and tasty and great and I don't think anything has to be done to hide it. It was a good thing that the tv screens are so large as when there was a commercial, the whole room lit up and we were able to see the menu text.

We ordered the Shishito peppers, the bean dip, the pasta that had the goat, the mafalda pasta, the tiramisu and the chocolate and hazelnut gelato.

PS: Powers that be, should give...