Il Bacio Italian Grill & Pizza — Restaurant in Wake Forest

My experience was disappointing. On sitting down, I was greeted by a bloated menu that scattershot all aspects of Italian cuisine. The realization of the lack of fresh ingredients would come later with the meal, but they say first impressions mean a lot. Bless our waiter for trying as hard as he did, but he lacked experience. We were not served bread till after ordering our appetizers and wine. The bread was also burnt on the bottom, as was the next loaf. We were told there was no olive oil for dipping the bread, only butter. No olive oil? At an Italian restaurant? Honestly? Regardless, our spinach artichoke dip appetizer was ill-proportioned, with too much cheese and sour cream (I pray that's why it looked like queso) and too little artichoke. The wine menu was terribly lacking relative to the bloated food menu. I did my best to play it safe by picking the Castellano Merlot, but that was hardly better than Liberty Creek, which I could have got twice as much for at the grocery store for a fifth the price. I'm fairly certain the first overly expensive wine I sampled was what my old church purchased to give at communion. We had been served two glasses with heavy pours (a nice touch for once), rather than the bottle requested, but that was simply a miscommunication. What happened next when we asked to have the rest of the bottle brought out was what turned the night from sour to downright unacceptable. Our waiter came back to inform us some manager-type had poured from the bottle we ordered for another group, so they would have to get us a new bottle. Our waiter then informed us he had to take back the two glasses at our table of half-drank wine. I was stunned. And do what with them? Moments later, he returned with the new bottle, already opened, a huge no-no, and the old glasses of wine?... The waiter said he asked the manager to bring them back, since they would just drain the wine anyways. I was highly skeptical of taking back glasses of drank wine that may or may not have been ours. This practice is sketchy and frankly unsafe to me. I have a hard time believing any place worth its sanitation rating would have the audacity to return consumed food or drink to a table after taking it back to the kitchen, especially during a pandemic. This poor waiter must have panicked, since he could not name the vegetables being used in a dish we were to order. After confirming with the waiter which dishes we ordered, the food came out disjointed, two meals at a time for a party of four. AND the second set of meals was half wrong. One of the dishes was for a different party and was on the table in front of our guest before we informed our waiter that the dish was definitely not salmon. This dish later came out appropriately, but I feel sorry for the guest that had to receive their dish after it was briefly part of our meal. The Rigatoni Francesca was an utter disappointment. Overcooked pasta with barely half a chicken breast that was so chewy it may as well have been rubber and undercooked vegetables. But wait, I found the sauce after digging all the pasta up to see a pool of oil, a splash of cream, and some light seasoning in the bottom. Had they used less oil, maybe we would have had some to dip our bread in! I ate the chicken there and some pasta, which was like trying to get bed springs onto my fork, before becoming nauseous and having to discontinue eating. To add insult to injury, the staff was kind enough to bring out a birthday dessert for my father- a canoli smaller than my thumb. The wait staff then proceeded to, unmasked, sing to him. While I understand this is common practice, have the common sense decency to ask if the family that came in with masks despite the county's terrible decisions against medical advice would like the option to not have some strange wait staff spew their potentially infectious, off-key birthday celebration tune all over their guests and food. I leave feeling disgusted and hope no one has to experience the same level of disregard for Italian cuisine and dining that my family and I...

We decided to visit Bacio today for Mother’s Day. We made a reservation several days ago and were seated on time, which was great. However, our server "Octavia" was not pleasant at all. He seemed to have an attitude and was not personable at all. Customer service was lacking, especially on a day like Mother's Day. The server did not even wish the table a Happy Mother's Day. We asked about certain items on the menu both food and drinks, and he had little to no knowledge of menu items especially bar drinks. We had to ask the server to refill our drinks, which is quite honestly a servers job to know when to do that. He was very snappy and unpleasant when asking questions and providing insight. Although this was not the servers fault, when one of our dishes came out, it did not have the shrimp that is supposed to be included in the dish. We mentioned it to the server and he argued that there should only be about 4-5 in the dish anyways but we stated we didn’t have any at all. He left and came back and said the kitchen was working on it, a few minutes later, he brought back 4 shrimp. After all of this, it was time to split our check and pay the bill, we noticed auto gratuity was added which is normal for a larger party. We had no issue paying that, but noticed there was a $10 upcharge for the use of a credit/debit card in place of cash. We mentioned this to the server as this was not previously mentioned. He stated it’s automatic. So I asked if we could see where on a menu it is listed so that customers are aware, in case we missed it. He looked and couldn’t find it then spoke to the manager. A credit was applied for the credit card charge. Overall, our experience here was subpar. I personally will not be returning and absolutely do not recommend “Octavia” as a server. To add fuel to the fire, management also lacks customer service and empathy. We spoke to the manager at the conclusion of the night regarding our experience. She simply said “we usually get compliments. Maybe he’s tired from a long day. I will talk to him”. There was no understanding or empathy of our experience. It more so seemed as if blame was placed on us and we were making it up Please be careful when patronizing this place and check your receipt! They will nickel...

We have ordered To Go food several times from here because we have ate at the restaurant and always loved the food and atmosphere ,but can’t always make it to dine in. The girl in the front has given my husband, an attitude, every single time we have ordered To Go food because when we go to pick up the To Go food, we do not tip on the bill because we’re spending close to $100 for just two people alone and are not having her do any type of service other than handing me our food which is also probably one of the easiest tasks her job requires! This girl in the front has made my husband feel horrible and treated him bad every single time…Like pretty much asking him for a tip & shaming him after he signs the bill & will serve everyone else but him which to me as a business owner, is just bad business! I own my own business and would never want somebody who is not good with people or treated people like this representing my business and for that reason, I will no longer be purchasing food from this restaurant because it happens every single time we order To Go food & it’s not cheap & I can go somewhere else and get better customer service & spend same $. I will give my business to the businesses that appreciate my business not the ones that do not & this restaurant is one of those businesses. Also, when I left my review on Google, it was an AI generated response from owner so they truly don’t care about their customers cause they don’t even read reviews it’s AI generated 🙄🔫 I wish I had pictures and had done a review of the food we got, but we ordered the veal piccata and when I asked the girl if it came with a side salad because that’s what I got when I ate in the restaurant she replied “not tonight” so a $28 dish of the Piccata with the little serving size we got and the fact that we had to pay for the salad all of the food was very overpriced and the portions were horrible. I don’t know if they’re struggling with food cost, but it was not worth the money for what you got in anyway & if they want to charge that much they need to step up their game...