Great atmosphere and location. We had a large party and the drinks were taking a while because of it. It happens, and the server was great so I didn't mind going up to the bar for a drink waiting for service to catch up.
I asked for an orange vodka (goose or ketel) on the rocks from Raul the bartender who didn't know what products he had. He finally found a smirnoff orange and poured me 2 on the rocks. I had asked for an orange vodka with 2 rocks. My bad for not saying ice, I guess. I drank them both.
I asked him which wine was dryer, the chianti or Sangiovese and he started to pour me a taste of the cab which I pointed out wasn't a Sangiovese or chianti. I spotted carmenere and ordered that. When I got the bar tab it said 2 absolute instead of smirnoff. I asked him if he could adjust the check and he said there was no button for smirnoff and he couldn't adjust the price. Really Raul? There's no smirnoff button? And Absolute and smirnoff are not in the same price range. Fine, I paid and went back to my party.
Frutti di Mare was bland and the pasta wasn't drained well so it was watery. 2 more who had pasta said theirs was Bland as well. Caesar salad was fine, unmemorable. Good wine by the glass list. Waitress was friendly and competent, and very busy. No manager was ever present.
Curious, I asked her if there was a button in the aloha system that they used to order smirnoff. There was and she said raul was the manager. Awesome. Clearly an unloved restaurant. If anyone cared in the restaurant, about the food or service, I never met them. My wish is the economy would fail more of these passionless restaurants so some new vibrant restaurants with passionate restauranteurs would emerge.