Il Cappero — Restaurant in Virginia

We regularly dine in Michelin star restaurants, but this was the first time we felt relieved that the "experience" was over. I appreciate that there are different tastes and that there can be always be some little issues with service, but the number of problems we experienced during our dinner was very extensive (and this was echoed by other diners that we caught up with afterwards):

Guests were not greeted at the entrance by the front of the house and staff appeared to be confused about seating arrangements and guests arrival times Dirty cutlery: it was quite a comical situation given that the waiter was wearing white cotton gloves to place the cutlery, while the cutlery was very dirty. This was unnoticed by the staff until the issue was directly raised to them by me Multiple dishes were extremely salty - e.g. the content of salt made the risotto and the dashi completely inedible with both being consistently returned to the kitchen by numerous guests For guests with allergies/ restrictions, despite earlier notice to the restaurant, no alternatives were offered with items simply being removed from the dishes making them incomplete and taking away from the experience. An extreme example was a fish dish that consisted of around 5-6 elements, while my wife received a sad-looking plate with just 1 element. What's worse is that were some elements removed despite them not needed to be removed. The menu is a chef's surprise and name cards with dish names/descriptions are supposed to be placed in front of the diners after each dish arrives on the table. We got some of the cards after we already ate the dish and some cards we never received at all. Scallop ceviche dish - scallop was overpowered by the acidity coming from excessive use of apple cider vinegar Croaker fish dish - potato pave under the fish was severely undercooked Smoke pigeon dish - smoked pigeon was served severely undercooked, bordering on raw (this affected another guests, which refused to eat the dish) Wine that we ordered was given to another table Billing: inclusion of incorrect and multiple additional items on the...

Update to previous review as of 4/2023: We had the worst dinner ever. Our previous visit was so good, this time however I am not sure if there was a new chef because even the presentation of the food looked totally different. With the variation came scallops that were so old and tasted so fishy and stinky as well as being charred to the point they were burned. Last time they were bay scallops this time they were big ones. The spaghetti with lemon sauce was with fake lemon- (think a kind from a bottle) The calamari we enjoyed so much last time was so overcooked and rubbery. The salmon was not fresh and super fishy. We were soo disappointed. The fettuccine was all garlic that was all you can taste. We had such a good dinner last time :( Very key to differentiate a good restaurant from a not so good one is the food to always taste good.

We loved this wonderful experience! The staff were so friendly and attentive. As we ate all the plates that needed to come off the table were taken quickly. They all had a smile on their faces, the hostess, the waiter, even passersby that were not responsible for us. Now the food was soo good, fresh tasty. The calamari was light airy crispy and the perfect amount of salt and the sauce with it was great. The salmon pasta (which I customized) it was salmon and shrimp and broccoli, changed it to salmon and scallops and zucchini was out of this world! The lasagna was great too, all beef filling. The bread appetizer was also super crispy and tasty. Oh and for bonus our waiter remembered all our order with all these modifications with his memory! Can't say enough good about this place we will be coming back again...

We went to dinner here tonight (Sunday), 19th Aug. We both ordered the clams and spaghetti in white sauce, and for a $1 more a caesar salad. The salad came first and yes, for the $1 it certainly was a dollars worth on the tiny bread plate. Then our entree came and we looked at each other and said is this an entree or a small plate order because the serving size was so small that we could count the amount of spaghetti noodles on one hand!🤣 Within just three little bites we were more than half done…we were shocked, so when our waitress came we complained that for a $23 entree it was a rip off. The waitress said she could bring more noodles but it would cost us a child’s entree. Wait a minute…because the last time I checked the price of a whole box of spaghetti at the grocery store was $1.99 at most. And because you said when asked if this is a full entree, you said yes, it’s been getting less and less of a serving nowadays!!?? You would think she would’ve mentioned our complaint to the manager or chef but no such thing was done. We just told her we wouldn’t be coming back. It didn’t faze her at all and just brought our check. Wow, ever again will we recommend or be back to this restaurant ever!!! Oh and it’s not linguine and clams as it mentions it’s...