Augusta Restaurant Guide

My husband and I tried their dinner service for the first time tonight. I really didn't want to go. We moved to town the week of Thanksgiving and had tried the Thanksgiving buffet there on someone's recommendation. I pretty much hated it. It was terribly bland. The food was cold. The only good thing was the chocolate covered strawberries. But, my hubby wanted to give their dinner service a try. After putting him off for two months, I finally gave in. For a place that bills itself 'an Italian eatery,' they don't have much of an Italian menu. There were only two items which caught my eye. I finally settled on a pasta dish with pancetta and alfredo sauce. After asking if they had sun dried tomatoes only to be told 'no'--a staple for any fine Italian restaurant--I braced myself, not expecting much. In this one respect, they did not disappoint. The alfredo was bland and the pancetta tasteless. No smoky, salty flavor like you would expect. It reminded me more of a poor quality turkey bacon. The whole dish was just flat. The best I could say was it was hot and the ingredients fresh. But given how they hype themselves up, that does NOT cut it. My side of asparagus was fresh and cooked just right, but I don't think they added a single thing to it, even salt or pepper. I complained a lot to my husband, until I tasted his fettucine alfredo, poor thing. He liked the shrimp, but his pasta was HORRENDOUS. It had absolutely, positively NO FLAVOR at all. It was like they didn't put anything on it. Not creamy at all, it was dry and hard. And they didn’t bring out any fresh parmesan to put on top either. To be fair, the waitress did send over the manager so we got to voice our concerns. Everyone was very nice and attentive. But there was nothing to be done. The food just wasn't good. And no amount of making nice can make up for that at a restaurant. You are there to eat food—good food—and the pricier the joint, the higher your expectations. We paid almost $50, with the tip, and left. And all we had to drink was water, no alcohol. I wish we had gone to the new Quiznos a few steps away. Far cheaper, and undoubtedly better fare. We left the restaurant less than two hours ago and my hubby just downed some dry cereal, saying 'my food was so bad tonight, I'm starving!' The bottom line--if you're so old you have no taste buds anymore or you can't handle a hint of spice on your food, including a single grain of salt, this restaurant may be for you. If you fall anywhere outside this narrow group, you might want to skip it. I think this is their target audience after all.

We celebrated two other wedding anniversaries at this restaurant. We were disappointed this time. The atmosphere was as nice as ever but the service was terrible. We had 3 different servers and all were too preoccupied with a party in a private room. The food was delicious but the menu was very limited and price in comparison to previous years. We probably won't go back again.