Alessandra's Restaurant, Summerville, South Carolina
To celebrate our anniversary, my husband and I decided to go to Alessandra’s. I made reservations and we arrived at 5. It was a warm and rustic atmosphere, full of promises of authentic Italian cuisine. A small place, perhaps a hidden gem of gastronomic delights. They had no record of our reservations but there were plenty of tables, so no problem. We were able to choose seating with a lovely view of downtown Summerville. The flowers on the tables were a pretty accent, it was quiet, relaxing, a wonderful prelude to a romantic evening. And…that’s where it ended.
Our server constantly hovered over us as we looked over the menu, it felt very rushed. Not the relaxing start that I would expect. We ordered drinks, the Blue Moon came with no glass, no orange. When these basic items were requested, a warm glass and three orange wedges were brought, it seemed a bit passive aggressive looking back. At the time though, we marched on ordering our entrees, salads after the meal, please.
Our food was brought out less than ten minutes after ordering, it was a bit concerning, an obvious red flag. The pasta with sausage and a meatball was fused together and had to be cut to be eaten, it was dry, overcooked. The manicotti was sheets of pasta rolled around a meager amount of ricotta. It was soupy. Both had hot and cold spots, we were clearly served microwaved entrees.
During this underwhelming meal, we were served cold bread twice. My daughter’s food was taken before she was finished and I had to request more. It came back scalding hot, thank goodness I checked it before serving.
After a ridiculous wait, we finally received our salads. My white salad bowl had food particles, dirty fingerprints, and smudges all over the outside. We disceetly requested a new salad, the server seemed very agitated. My salad came in a blue child’s bowl with the dressing dripping down the side. It looked as if my old salad had been dumped into this bowl.
At this point, we request to speak to the manager, who, as it turned out, was our server…we asked her if this new bowl was my original salad. She said yes, then no. We explained how disappointing our experience had been and she informed us that, in that case, she did not want us to come back. Not a problem, we left the table without eating our questionable salads and had to track down our check to leave. She comped the glass of wine, but was very adamant and rude about it. I would have preferred paying for the wine and getting an apology. Or a real effort to rectify the situation.
We never brought up the disgusting microwave dinners or the cold, rock-hard bread. We just requested a glass and orange slice for the beer and for the opportunity to eat salad out of a clean bowl. The escalation of defensiveness, by the manager no less, makes me fear that Alessandra’s is a sinking ship biding its time as it slips into the deep abyss of failed restaurants that are nothing more than a memory.
