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| - Just because a there is a Wine Bar and Tapas style restaurant in Madison does not make it automatically a 4-5 star place. Warning: this may be a bit long and as such feel free to skip down to the food review...
Service Review:
My experience at Eno Vino was pretty disappointing. My husband and I went there for his Birthday on a Friday night. It never occurred to us to call in a reservation because we were planning on hanging at the bar until a table was ready. When we were greeted by the hostess, we were immediately asked if we made reservations-to which we replied no-and the hostess kindly told us it would be a 20 minutes wait and we could grab a drink at the bar. But then suddenly some other hostess honed in on our conversation and in a very pretentious way, explained how the wait could be 'way longer than 20 minutes' and we 'could wait at the bar but if we decided to leave that would be okay'. This immediate gave out an a vibe that we were unwanted, especially considering we didn't have a reservation.
So then we went to the bar where the only two seats available were across the bar from eachother. We took a seat and I decided to remain standing since it was my husband's birthday and I was really fine standing. Well needless to say that the gentleman sitting next to me greatly disapproved of this choice and casually voiced his opinion on the matter for the 20 something minutes we waited at the bar. Ignoring that guy and focusing on our drinks, I thought they were way too sweet and pretty weak.
After a short wait we were finally taken to our table, which was in a very cold spot in the restaurant. We has to keep our coats on our laps and scarves on because of the chill. However, the seats were comfortable and the ambiance was soothing--until our waitress came along. I'm not sure if she was having a bad day but she clearly did not want to be there. Which I believe is not okay when you are going to a slight 'upscale' restaurant(relative to the other local restaurants) where the bill will be on average $100 and I am by no means obligated to tip 20%. I use to be a waitress and I understand how a servers mood can greatly impact a customers dining experience. We still had our drinks from the bar and so she deduced we were not going to want wine with our dinner, even though we told her we were. So she promptly took out iPad away and left us for quite some time- only to come back and find out that we wanted the iPad to look at their wine flights. We ordered an Italian Red Wine flight along with Bruschetta. When the flight came out, the waitress just plopped it down and left without saying a word. Then came back with the bruschetta and took the time to explain what was what. Onto the food...
Food Review:
The bruschetta was okay. The toppings were very fresh and flavorful but the bread was underdone and chewy. After that, we decided to order the Ahi Tuna Tacos, the calamari, and the Foie Gras(I'll admit this was not the most thought out selection)
The least offensive of the thread was the Ahi Tuna tacos. They were presented really nicely and looked absolutely delicious. The Tuna was very fresh and tasty however they topped it with a thick and creamy slaw which was heavy-headed in the spice department. The slaw by itself was scrumptious and the tuna taco without the slaw was delicious, however the combination together was not so successful.
The moderately offensive dish was the fried calamari. The calamari itself was cooked very well: tender and flavorful. However the breading was very salty and nothing really set it apart from any other fried calamari dish from other restaurants.
The biggest offense was the Foie Gras. There are two kinds of Foie Gras: fresh Foie Gras and Foie Gras. When we ordered Foie Gras, we were surprised to receive an very tiny amount of fresh Foie Gras smothered in a fig confit and topped with lots of apples and served over pumpkin bread. It was so overly sweet that when it was combined with the fattiness of the Foie Grad it led to an instantaneous feeling of nausea and dissatisfaction. We barely ate any of it and it promptly put us off the rest of our meal.
All-in-all the place is too pretentious and their food is not worth your time. While they use fresh ingredients, I do not believe their chef is competent enough to cause so much of a hype at this restaurant. In addition, the subpar and snooty service created an uncomfortable dining experience.
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