Overwhelmingly disappointing experience tonight (May 22, 2015). Prior 5-6 experiences have been good to excellent but tonight we were left shocked by the precipitous deterioration in food quality and marginal level of service. What is more is that we gave the server and business owners ample opportunity to correct the situation.
Cocktails and olive plate were acceptable. From there things fell apart. Our server periodically disappeared and was not interested in correcting problems that developed.
I ordered the celery root soup. The soup was both cold and while not offensive in taste- it lacked any meaningful flavor other than that of celery root. The seafood in the soup was rubbery and tasteless. After two bites, I informed our server that the soup did not meet my expectations and it was sent back to the kitchen. We were not charged- fair enough- but there was only a lackluster apology and no effort to rectify the situation was made.
I requested one of the pastas on the menu at this point- the orecchiette. The pasta was mushy and covered with a bland cheese and mint. I'm not sure what the mint was doing there- but the flavors were uninspired. I opted to fill up on bread to make the best of a disappointing evening. I informed our server again that the now more expensive alternative dish was equally disappointing.
The soup did not appear on the bill but the pasta did appear on the bill even though I gave up after 2-3 bites. I made a 20% tip (since my primary concern was food quality- although the server made minimal effort to improve matters) and wrote on the top of my credit card authorization: "Please call regarding bill and food quality concerns."
I had thought the fair thing to do would be to address the matters directly with the business owners before broadcasting my concerns with friends and family. Unfortunately, the prompt phone call I received after leaving Nostrano accused me of not paying my bill and then mid-way through the phone message explained that my credit card authorization had magically re-appeared and oh by the way- I see that you had some concerns with your meal. Ironically- my phone number that they were calling me on was written on the credit authorization with the 20% tip.
There are some serious issues going on at this place and I'm very sad to see how they chose to handle a situation that might have been rectified with even a marginal level of concern.
I can't recommend this restaurant to anyone hoping for an enjoyable evening unless you enjoy bland food at a high price.