La Bottega — Restaurant in Vail

I found this place from wanting to find a nice restaurant with good food that was easy to walk to in Vail Village. The reviews and prices were decent, and we love Italian food, so we decided to try it out. You can ride the internal bus over, or it is a short 5 or so minute walk from the Vail transportation center. We made a reservation online in advance. We did end up being early to our reservation, but we still checked in. There is not a lot of room to wait in the lobby of the restaurant. I also had to wait a while to check in, they were very busy on a Monday night. Many servers, bartenders, bussers, all walked by without even acknowledging the people waiting by the door, like we weren’t even there. Finally the host and the manager came up to greet people. But after checking in, there was no communication on when we were going to be sat, or how long it was going to be, or where we were in the line. I watched as people who checked in after us got sat (I presume they had an earlier reservation than us, but I don’t know). I also watched as the host passed us many times without any update. More communication on the timeline to be sat would have been nice. We did get sat around 10 minutes after our reservation time even though we checked in 20 minutes early. So we waited 30 minutes to be sat. We just had our patient pants on since we could see that they were busy and trying to handle it. Once we did get sat, it took a while for someone to come and greet us. This was the other assistant server that brings you water, bread, and clears your plates. Then it took a while for the server to come over and get our drink order. We ordered a bottle of Chianti, but they were out. So we had to choose a more expensive bottle of Chianti instead. After this moment however the service improved, our water was topped off continually, plates were cleared continually, we were checked on, and food came at a reasonable time. The Chianti was good. We ordered the Linguine with seafood (was a large portion, was only okay, not a lot of flavor, but the linguine pasta was excellent), the cheese pizza (it is stone fired pizza, I got the 6 inch pizza but it was a lot larger than that in reality and perfectly filled me up, it was good but nothing special), the white truffle gnocchi (the gnocchi was excellent, the flavor was subtle though), and the ravioli of the day which was salmon and ricotta (it was 4 ravioli’s but they were filled very well, lots of flavor, good sauce, and tasted great). Everyone ate everything on their plate and was satisfied at the end. Overall we enjoyed our experience. It felt like the prices were more than what we expected and what we got. These prices are in line with other Vail prices but there are places where you can get great food with bigger portions for less money. We are happy we tried it out, but will not...

I will be honest! I read some review and they complain about several stuffs:

A) Prices: yes could be kind of high but it’s Vail and just located in the mainstream area! So will be expensive. How ever the food it’s absolutely incredible. But the services really bad and of course if you are paying top dollars you expect better services!

B) Quality of food: here I will be honest we come to Vail quite often and find decent food it’s hard and this restaurant it’s really good food! The downside it’s kind of pricey

C) Services: Well here most of the comments are correct HORRIBLE SERVICE! and even we are in Vail the are more options where to spending tops dollars. I will be more specific. We came and they seat us at the corner, the first waitress was absolutely HORRIBLE! Sassy actitud and she was such in a hurry that we even understood anything she said, just drop the waters and left there! Them I stand up and asked one of the worker on the pizza stand and they told me ask the owner “She” complete ignore me once I approached to her and she keep walking, them I asked the hosted for another server, she only looked at me and literally walked away. After that and a long wait the for waitress came to us and I was very polite and told her I rather have another server and she didn’t even let me finish and walked away, and she told JOSE come to us and serve us. Well at the begging Jose was kind of cold I guess he thought we are just complaining but then he really saved the day improving his behave and we get a good service. In one stage of our meal I was trying to look up for help and I am guessing the Owner “He” the husband approached me and help me; they the owner look like they are a little older and I will guess over or around 70 years old so maybe that it’s the reason they has not that much patience or willingness to deal with a table issues

Of course when you are paying high dollars you don’t supposed to goes through this

But let’s focus on positive points:

food incredible good they are fast for real really fast to delivery food maybe extremely slow to take care of the order but once they took it you can expect fast services the ambiance really nice they do have amazing patio their food selections pretty good

In general I will recommend this place and I will give another chance because they have such an incredible potential! Maybe they need a manager and not be run by owners (sometime that it’s better ) and for sure focus on re-training the staff multiple times because they really need it

We asked if they split the tips ? Jose told us yes ! So I leave 20% on tips and another $20 cash to Jose ( he really deserve it ) and we will ask for...

It was husband and I's anniversary, so we made a reservation on OpenTable (we had to add our credit card to hold the reservation) and let them know it was our anniversary. Not once did they acknowledge it. We arrived 15 mins. Early, so we went to the bar to have a drink first. There was no bartender for atleast 5 mins. Then once he showed up, he didn't acknowledge us, and brought out food for the people next to us and kept ignoring us. Finally our table was ready, so we go to get seated at the WORLD'S SMALLEST TABLE!! I had nowhere for my purse or coat and my chair back touched the person behind me. When I asked if we could move or if there was a bigger table, the hostess said " I have other reservations with bigger parties." And walked away. There was an open spot at the area where they cook pizzas, so we asked to move there. Finally a server comes over, he was nice @ first, we order our drinks and food. Normal so far... then we receive our food. I ordered the Osso Bucco, it was around $55. And it was SO BLAND! I added so much salt and pepper to it, and it still wasn't good. My husband had some pasta dish with seafood that was around $42 and the shrimp was overcooked and groose, the pasta wasn't boiled in salted water, you can tell the chef is scared of seasoning, it was also very very bland. Worse than mine. When my husband apologized the waiter for not linking the dish, he shamed him and said "There's nothing wrong with the dish, I have sold 10 others tonight and no one complained. " I'm sorry, that is no way to treat a customer!! My husband felt so awkward, he apologized again and said he never returns food, but he didn't like it. Then the server proceeded to make him feel bad about ordering something else. When the next dish came out, a different person brought it to the table, and we never saw our server again, until he shoved dessert menus in our faces and didn't even ask if wr wanted dessert. My husband ordered a Tirmaisu to go because he already felt awkward, surprised it tasted like it was out of a box. When we got the bill, the server hovered over our shoulders the whole time, watching to see what the rip would be. The machin e only gives you the option for 20%, 25%, or 30%. We will never be back. There's plenty of other great places in Vail, and I never once felt welcomed or comfortable there. Not to mention, the bill was $180. Total waste of time, money and an...