A'trio — Restaurant in Walnut Creek

What a terrible experience! We were staying nearby because of the PG&E power shut off. The Marriott Walnut Creek restaurant has the grand name of "A'trio." Don't be fooled - it's just another hotel coffee shop with ridiculously overpriced food. The restaurant was not crowded; it's a large space but it was less than a quarter full. A very nice hostess seated us, but it was all downhill from there. The hostess took our beverage order, and only one of the beverages was served about 10 minutes later. The other beverage arrived about 10 minutes after that. After waiting and waiting, a server came over and took our orders. Time went by, and we never saw that server again. We had been there a total of 45 minutes and had only two beverages, one of which was water. Finally, my husband flagged down some employee who had been walking by and clearly did not have an intention to stop until my husband started talking to him. It turns out that this gentleman, who bore a surprising resemblance to a weasel, was or claimed to be a manager. We informed him that we had been sitting there much too long and had one empty beverage and no food, even though we had been there for 45 minutes. Mr. Weasel made all kinds of excuses, such as "they were really busy" and other ridiculous things. My husband told him that if you're too busy, your staff should "step it up," but it was very clear that all of the employees were not working hard. They would walk by at a slow pace and had no appearance of trying to hustle. Mr. Weasel said, "Well, we're dealing with all these people from the evacuations and the power shut off and we're understaffed." That's crazy because we saw several servers in this restaurant. We informed him that we were going to leave because of the slow service. He actually said, "Some of these guests have been waiting over an hour." That is not a great recommendation to hear from the manager! So we told him we'd pay for the one beverage and then be on our way. So he basically shrugged and walked away, presumably to get our bill. About 5 minutes later, Mr. Weasel came back and said, "Don't worry, that beverage is on the house." He had no intention of comping that beverage when he walked away from the table. I am pretty sure that he only he comped it because he didn't know how to create a bill. Consequently, my husband and I will never go to that restaurant again or stay in the Marriott...

This restaurant is co-located with the Marriotts Hotel property! Unexpectedly very good food! Came for a meeting about an event and decided to eat at the restaurant! The Steak was cooked to perfection..tender and not chewy with a nice balance of oil and cilantro flavors. Sorry for the sad chicken dish but it was soo good, forgot to take a before pic..chicken was tender and not dry with a nice but not overpowering lemon sauce. The salmon dish is not picture cuz again we got a little too excited but the fish was nice and flaky with a nice miso sauce that wasn’t too salty.

We ordered dessert and the red velvet was unique with its cream cheese texture evenly matched with red velvet cake that was AMAZING!! Both appealing to the palette and the eyes...

The sliders was also good (if you’re looking to have something small) the beef was cook well and had this special dressing I could not describe but my mouth liked it!

I would have given them five stars except the food took a little longer to come to us than normal! But the goodness of it made up for it and the great...

Very pleasant, unexpected find. Came to enjoy some local musicians and was pretty blown away by the fantastic service (our waiter was Ryan - seriously one of the best waiters that we've ever had, 5 stars for Ryan alone). Chef did an amazing job with the food, beautiful and delicious. Minor criticism would be that the finishing sauces are very repetitive. A must try dish included the grilled octopus, but everything we ordered was very well prepared and easy to enjoy. Wine and beer selection was good, once again our waiter Ryan made really excellent recommendations with very helpful and accurate descriptions (something very special about a waiter or waitress that can do that). Music turned out to be very special as well. Volume level was perfect to enjoy, while not struggling to have a conversation at our table. Nice ambiance and atmosphere. We'll be sure...