Aldo's Ristorante

I have always loved Aldo’s but tonight’s experience was lack luster at best. Our server, Ashton, was forgetful and inattentive. He didn’t really seem that well educated on the menu. I asked about the gluten free options, his response was we have gluten free pasta but he didn’t know if anything else on the menu was gluten free. The restaurant was very busy, and could have possibly been understaffed which might account for the poor service. We were there for a very long time before he finally took our orders. He forgot to ring in my drink twice. We had to repeatedly ask for more water. The food runners gave the appetizers to the wrong people. My lamb chops had zero flavor. The shrimp Gorgonzola were very tasty. My crème brûlée was awful. Not once during the entire meal did he ask any of us how anything was. Honestly we were all starving so most of us just ate the food despite it not being great. One person did return theirs because it tasted off. At the end he plopped the check down and walked off. There were nine of us. He didn’t even think to ask if it was separate checks. When we asked him to separate the check he went into what a hassle it would be because they don’t have seat numbers and he threw out the paper he wrote the order down on so he didn’t know who had what. Incredibly unprofessional. At no point during the evening did a manager check on us to see how our experience was. Not the dining experience I am used to. The icing on the cake was when I got home and opened my Togo Napoleon and it was a piece of cake. Our bill was over $900 but the food and service were not worth anywhere near that amount. I won’t be going back anytime soon. Such a shame, it used to be a great place to eat.

Wonderful service, wonderful food, wonderful wine! I began that list with the service for a reason – everyone who works there is so pleasant and so helpful, but Brandon C. truly took it up another notch. Having done my time in the service industry, I sincerely appreciate a true professional, and it was a privilege to have him serve our table. He was extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic, paid close attention to dining cues, and made excellent recommendations on wine, food, and dessert. The specials all sounded divine – particularly the lobster with “calamari” pasta (shaped like calamari) and veal chop – but my mom and I went with the risotto featuring lump crab meat and shrimp on the regular menu both for taste and to avoid some gluten (sensitivity, not allergy, so I did try a few bites of their legendary foccacia bread and was not disappointed). I had to make myself put my fork down. We also had a Greek salad to start, and you could taste the quality of the ingredients, most notably the feta and olives. My dad got the flounder special with possibly the best sautéed spinach I’ve ever tasted in my life, and my brother got a pizza. Both received rave reviews. I’ll need to try and look at their very well-curated wine list later for names, but we had a bottle of a 100% Italian Syrah that Brandon recommended and it was by far the best new wine I’ve tried in a long time. Dangerously drinkable. After, I decided to have one more glass of wine and left it to his discretion. He chose another Italian wine, this one primarily Sangiovese with a touch of cab. It was very different from the first one but also a huge hit for me! And I loved that they offer several half-bottles of wine on their list, a great option on so many levels. To finish our sumptuous meal, we decided upon one of the dessert specials – a Grand Marnier cheesecake with chocolate ganache. It was so decadent that a few bites each was completely satisfying. I don’t often venture outside of my Oceanfront bubble, but (returning to the beginning of my review) our dining experience at Aldo’s was just wonderful, and I look forward to returning. Thank you all!