| rev:text
| - I wanted to love Scarpetta, I really did. I was still mesmerized by the striking view I got to take in during the grand opening and determined to prove all of the reviews about the mediocre service wrong, but our waiter left me no choice but to report otherwise.
I want to point out the highlights before I rip Scarpetta to shreds. I came in for Restaurant Week so got the pre-fixe menu and chose the yellowtail, short rib agnolotti, and coconut panna cotta. I thought the yellowtail had great flavor and was presented beautifully. My only complaint was that it seemed to be served a little on the warm side to me which is a concern when it comes to raw fish.
The coconut panna cotta/guava soup was not only delicious but beautiful too. The almost tart soup was a nice contrast to the creamy panna cotta-probably the best panna cotta I've ever had! Not too rich or too sweet, and again, perfectly balanced with the cold fruit soup. I usually don't go for dessert soups, but I'd probably come back just for that.
The view is killer-great front row seats to the Bellagio water show!
Now for the bad.
Strike one: Maybe this is just me being very nitpicky, but the presentation of the short rib agnolotti was just gross. The pasta was served in a wide, shallow bowl and the appearance of pasta in one thin layer with hardly any garnish (save the breadcrumbs which had a nice flavor) was just unappetizing. Also, the pasta was incredibly greasy. I've had pasta in brown butter sauce before that didn't look like that. The filling was good, very rich and flavorful, but the sauce was just off-putting.
Strike two: for the duration of our dinner, a toddler continuously screamed at the top of his lungs, banged on the table, stood on the booth in which his family was sitting and annoyed the crap out of the surrounding diners. As a fine dining restaurant, it's your responsibility to make sure that the experience is just that, fine dining. Which means if you need to tell this family who cannot control their spoiled infant to beat it, in the interest of preserving the experience for surrounding diners, then do it. After an hour of embarrassing behavior and ugly stares from other tables, the dad who was elegantly dressed in board shorts, shower shoes and a baseball cap removed the child from the fine dining situation. I feel like the management should've handled this earlier, but God forbid they offend one person who is offending the entire restaurant.
Strike three: our waiter was a dud. I get it, everyone has their off days, but I think this waiter's life was a series of off days. I'm hoping that his service standards weren't lowered because we were getting what was essentially a discounted menu, but I can't help that think this was the case. Discounted menu=less tip? Not always. But if your behavior warrants a tip to match the discounted bill then that's what you'll get. It took about 15 minutes for bread to come out and for the waiter to bring water. Then another 15 minutes for him to take our order for wine. And about another 20 minutes to take our food order. I shouldn't have to flag you down and tell you we're ready to order. That's not my job as a patron of the restaurant. I wasn't in any rush, but those lapses in time mean either this dude was just straight up inattentive or suffering the early stages of dementia. Everything about the dinner just dragged on unnecessarily. He was inattentive and seemed disinterested in our table-there were only two of us and we're definitely not high maintenance so I'm not sure what the issue was.
Our waiter was in no way personable and just rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe we caught him on a bad night. Maybe he didn't feel like we deserved the attention that someone who was ordering off of the regular menu did. Regardless, in these economically unbalanced times, when so many people are opting to eat cheaper or stay home and cook, I feel like the restaurant industry should feel the pressure to give diners the experience they pay for. Even if we were getting your dishes for a reduced price-we are still dining in your restaurant and your standard of service should be equal across the board. You are a fine dining restaurant and I hold you to a higher standard than, say a Denny's. But if you perform like a Denny's waiter, I will tip you like a Denny's waiter.
I'm not sure I would come back because I was truly annoyed with the service. Maybe I'd come back for the guava soup...and have it at the bar.
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