Angolo Ristorante Italiano — Restaurant in Washington

First of all, the food was incredible. My wife and I ordered the lasagna, the fettucini alfredo and the garlic bread. It was a bit pricey but expected for the area. Very tasty, very fresh, no complaints there. As a Muslim, I was very happy that it was halal too.

What left a really bad taste in my mouth was the service. For context, my wife and I had a reservation, and walked in with no one at the front to interact with us or ask about it. It was a packed room, so I understood if they needed for us to wait a bit, but no one even acknowledged we were standing there and finally when one of the seats cleared, another couple was seated before us, even though we were clearly at our reservation time. Again, no one acknowledged this or asked.

Additionally, when we ordered our food, we noticed that it took considerably longer for us to get it than others at the restaurant, many who were seated several minutes after us. One party that was seated virtually at the same time as us and had a similar order, received their food 20 minutes earlier than we did. Several parties, many that had 4 or more people, who arrived after us received their food several minutes earlier. It took a total of 45 minutes for us to get our food. Not once did our server update us or acknowledge this delay or check on us.

These specific instances were just examples of the general tenor of the service. Our waters were never topped off once, despite the fact servers were going around filling only quarter empty glasses. Servers were barely making any eye contact with us, while being friendly and chatty with the rest of the customers.

The kicker to all of this is that when we paid our bill and hung around for a couple minutes waiting for our uber, we received several stares from the servers, clearly wanting us to leave the table, despite the fact that at that point the restaurant was half empty.

The entire vibe just felt weird and we didn't feel welcome, which, despite the delicious food, tainted my experience. It was obvious that we had been de-prioritized relative to the other customers. I will still provide 3 stars because of the food, but I will probably not be back...

Had an absolutely terrible experience. Got there at 10:30pm, an hour and a half before they closed. Rather than be greeted by the waiter, the first thing I was told was that the food would 'be taking very long to be ready'. I appreciate the honesty but how about you greet the customer first before scaring them off? Food was ordered and it didn't take long to arrive. I kind of wish it never arrived. I ordered a veal and pasta dish. The veal was dry, the pasta overcooked and the mushrooms in the sauce were completely inedible. I literally could not chew the mushrooms and had to spit them all out. They were hard and dry and I could not bite through them. My partner had it even worse. She ordered a shrimp scampi and it has to have been the worst pasta dish I ever tasted. It tasted nothing like a scampi. The shrimp were dry and not fresh. The pasta not even close to al dente. And even worse, the sauce smelled and tasted terrible. It tasted like the juice from a can of olives was dumped on the plate. Terrible. The dish was barely touched. We wanted to provide the feedback to the waiter, but guess what? He did not check on us even one time after the food arrived. I got tired of waiting and waived someone down to bring the bill. The waiter delivered the bill and still never asked about our experience even though the plates were full. I shared how terrible the food was. And he says 'I'm not the cook, but maybe next time we make it better'. To which I responded 'Next time? There won't be a next time'. Before leaving he says that he will comp the coke we ordered. A $2 credit is what he offered. After I made a comment, he came back and gave us a tiny discount that did not even cover the appetizer. Just a terrible overall experience. Maybe they were busy, sure. But just no attention to to the customer. No notion of trying to make it right. And the food was the worst Italian food I ever had. And it's...

Very Disappointed with Angolo Ristorante:

We have been loyal patrons of Angolo Ristorante for years—14 or 15 visits, at least. It’s been our go-to spot for out-of-town guests and special occasions, and we were looking forward to celebrating our anniversary there on Saturday, January 18th.

We made a reservation well in advance, called to confirm a couple of hours beforehand, and even mentioned that we’d be celebrating our anniversary. When we arrived, the restaurant was clearly very busy, which is usually a good sign. However, we quickly noticed there were no open tables or even seats at the bar.

After waiting several minutes to be greeted, a staff member approached us. While we recognized him from previous visits, it was clear he didn’t recognize us or care to acknowledge our loyalty as regulars (which again, totally fine - you’re busy!). Without much explanation, he brusquely gestured with his hand across his throat and said, “No tables,” thus beginning a series of unfortunate events.

When we explained that we had a reservation, he offered us a 30-minute wait for bar seating. While we tried to decide if that was feasible, he cut us off with a curt, “No? That’s fine,” and moved on with his night, leaving us standing there, fairly shocked.

We’ve always recommended Angolo Ristorante to others, but this experience has left us incredibly disappointed. Having a reservation and calling ahead should guarantee a basic level of service, especially for an anniversary dinner. We understand that restaurants get busy, but the treatment we received was dismissive and unprofessional.

We’re sad to say that we’ll be avoiding Angolo Ristorante for a while. We hope they reconsider how they handle reservations and treat loyal customers...