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| - It pains me to have my first review of the new year be a bad one, but here it goes... We live in Waxhaw, but hadn't tried Trattoria Antica so we decided to give it a try. My husband made reservations via Yelp for 7:00 and our party of 4 arrived at 6:55.
We entered the restaurant and we liked the style and décor. It's very small, but comfortable and stylish. We were also feeling optimistic about the food since every table was full. We checked in with the host and was told that there was only 1 party ahead of us and that we shouldn't need to wait more than 10 minutes. The host was friendly and went out of his way to call us by our surname...that was a nice touch.
We sat in the tiny waiting area and our wait began. Within minutes a steady flow of people start coming in...some with reservations, some without. After a few minutes, the host returned with glasses of Prosecco for the party waiting ahead of us. The delivery was just in time because they were getting antsy and we overheard them saying that they had been waiting since shortly after 6:00. As luck would have it, the first two tables to open up were for larger parties (6-8) so two walk-ins were seated pretty quickly. Finally, at 7:25 the party ahead of was seated. By this time, the waiting area was packed and there were even people waiting outside. The host came back with glasses of Prosecco for us and assured us that the next table was ours. We were finally seated at 7:45.
We were given a dinner menu, a wine menu, and the Specials menu. The server took our drink orders and went on his way....no greeting, no small talk, and no mention of their specials. I guess he was too busy for the small stuff! He returned at 7:55 to deliver drinks and take our food order. Within a few minutes we were given a basket of bread and a dish of marinated white beans....both were very good. My husband's diet coke was completely flat so he ordered a fresh one. The second one was just as bad. The host happened to be walking by when we were discussing it with the server and he told us that they use cans, "not the gun" so he asked the server to open another fresh can. The server came back and told us that the cans were from the Olympics...so...they were expired. They should reconsider "the gun". I had a Kir Royal that was very good (Prosecco and Chambord).
Salads and the Calamari appetizer came out pretty quickly. The salads (Caesar and Greca) were good as was the Calamari. The Calamari was lightly breaded and cooked just right. It tasted fresh and the yellow peppers were tangy, but not too spicy. The Marinara was nothing special though.
Then we waited....and waited....and waited some more. The server cleared our appetizer and salad plates, but never mentioned our food. I had my cell phone out and the host came by and made a funny remark about texting at the table and I told him that I wasn't texting, that I was telling all my friends on Facebook how long it was taking to get our food. He asked how long we had been waiting and I told him approx. 50 minutes. He left to check on the food for us and came back to apologize that the order had been placed 49 minutes ago and that it would be up soon. He said that the delay was due to how busy the restaurant was at the time. Understandable, yes...acceptable, no. Our food finally arrived exactly 1 hour after we placed our order. To make matters worse, our food wasn't even hot!!. It was warm, at best. However, we were so hungry at this point that we just ate.
My husband and son both had Chicken Parmesan with Spaghetti & Marinara. We all tried it and we all agreed that it was just "ok". The chicken was decent, but the Marinara was very bland. My Mom had the Double Cut Pork Chop with Marsala sauce. The chop was cooked perfectly and it was very moist and tender, but the Marsala Sauce was thin (broth-like) and seriously lacked in flavor. I had the Mussels. They were ok, too. Again, nothing was hot so that wasn't great for mussels, but they were cooked well. The broth was interesting as it reminded me of Tomato Soup....unfortunately, I don't like Tomato Soup. I also had some grit in the last one I ate...and that's why it was the last one that I ate. My son ordered Tiramisu and my Mom ordered Crème Brulee for dessert. Both were pretty good.
Then the bill came and the cost vs.value equation began to play out in my mind. As I have said in other reviews, I will gladly drop $150.00 on a great meal, but it pains me to spend even a fraction of that for a bad one. Well, this 2-star rated meal was $118.00 before tip and we all agreed that it really wasn't worth it. It's a shame because we REALLY wanted to like this place. We love to go out to eat, we love Italian food, and we live in Waxhaw...it could have been perfect. So disappointing.
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