| rev:text
| - Did not meet expectations.
Ambience: Pleasant and relaxing. Sat outside with a view of the pool and palms. No excessive noise or disturbances, and table was nicely lit. As we ate here on a Friday evening, the adjacent bar had live music. The bluesy guitar and drum-driven sets echoed nicely, without drowning out our conversation. I'll add it seems very worthwhile to come for just a drink and the live music.
Drinks: Our Cakebead Chardonnay was well-handled.
Service: Our waiter was very competent but over-extended. For the first part of our meal, he seemed to have too many tables. He arrived to do one lengthy explanation of the menu, which was adequate. Our food was hot when received. To his credit, he went out of his way to replace a suboptimal cut. When faced with this concern, he didn't get defensive, and focused immediately on rectifying the situation, which was the perfect approach. He was a very good server, and with a slightly more formal attitude commensurate with the venue's price point, would have been an excellent server.
Food: Appetizer clams were the highlight. Buyer's remorse upon receiving our 16oz ribeyes at a restaurant with an Italian name. While I prefer the tenderness of a tenderloin or strip, I'll spring for an adequate ribeye. Though my medium-rare was cooked just right, the cut was lacking in quality. Presence of pesto on the meat was confusing, but easily spooned away. The barbecue-type sauce on the side was flavorful - the piece's highlight, which helped mask the cut's suboptimal quality. And skip the antipasto. Aside: waiter explained the venue used to instead feature an 8oz strip (instead of our 16oz ribeye). If management opts not to purchase higher-quality ribeyes, it should consider going back to strips (though the former 8oz was surely too small - consider instead a 10oz strip). Restaurants at other nearby resorts have much better steaks at the same price point.
Gondola: Apparently, a reservation at Alto includes passes to the Hyatt's gondola. The gondola is a short walk past the adjacent bar. We weren't even aware of the gondola until our waiter said he'd enclose passes with our bill. The gondolier was pleasant, and a very talented singer (he'll sing a "Neapolitan folk song"). But the experience screamed cheap gimmick. The ride was 15 minutes total. There weren't any "grounds" located off the water to showcase - we got to a water slide, then turned around at a bridge about six minutes in. The path brings you back the same way you came! The singing is probably timed to distract from this realization, but the effect was lost on me. I wouldn't ordinarily complain so much about a complimentary experience, but we were expecting much better! (It baffles me that someone would pay for this if he were without free passes!). If you have kids with you, or enjoy tacky spectacles, this might be something you'd enjoy.
In sum, my advice is to come for the drinks and live music on a weekend (possibly an appetizer as well), and skip the gondola.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)