Cafe Revo opening night!

[Garden_nymph]

Good points Barb G and Sam C, the servers SHOULD be making it clear that there is a charge for the bread.

Wingman, Spring Hill restaurant on California also charges for bread. Please refer to, Comment by Jane — June 4, 08 7:35 am under the discussion, “Bulletin for food fans: Spring Hill restaurant opens tonight” dated May 23, 2008 at 11:08 am.

Reading through that thread, it sounds like the “growing pains” Cafe Revo is going though are typical of all restaurants as Jiggers points out in the above mentioned thread.

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[wingman]

Cafe Revo- I manage a restaurant, ordering p&l reconcile- the whole works. You are flat out lying and being dramatic by saying you would have to raise all your menu prices by $1.50-absurd. $18.00 for 6-8 tiny shrimp, vegetables and an inkling of pasta? Almost $30.00 for a steak. You may be fooling the majority but you are not fooling me. The only reason you are charging for bread is because you think you can, certainly not to keep the menu prices low. Go up the street to JaK’s and you will see the value of a dollar!

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[UrbanFabulous]

We agree with Wingman! We left feeling like they were trying to present one thing and then up-selling on everything else. Screwed would be the word.

Having read this thread I expected to be charged for the bread, but I also thought that the waiter would mention the charge since so many had complained. The other really annoying thing was that none of the pasta’s, except the boloneges, were listed as having any protein. However, when I ordered I was asked if I wanted chicken or shrimp. I get 5 TINY shrimp and low and behold I’m charged $2 extra for my overpriced, bland pasta. The charge wasn’t mentioned when offered by the waiter, nor was it listed on the menu!

My man got the scampi, which we actually thought was going to be a scampi risotto. He also only got 5-6 itty bitty shrimp, undercooked, under seasoned veggies, and overcooked, plain pasta. It was pretty horrible.

We won’t be going back. Growing pains or not, if you open a restaurant you aren’t going to eventually learn to cook in anther month or two.

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[JanS]

wow…must not have been the same menu that I looked at Wednesday night…there was one risotto dish…with seafood, which I had…clams, mussels, and more…was very good..

and chicken/shrimp was noted as extra on my menu……

we had a lovely antipasta…cheeses, salamis, olives, toasted croutons…moe than enough for 3 people…

good salads…, good pasta…puttenesca, bolognese, and risotto…..and they brought me a free tiramisu for my birthday…

the only dishes on the menu where you could add shrimp or chicken was the salads…caesar and house…and it’s spelled out. The rissoto is listed under Pesce (seafood) because it has seafood in it…the rest of the things in the Pesce part are separate items from Risotto…

I’m so sorry you had a bad experience. In my life that has happened a few times, and I got the most satisfaction by writing to the owner, and letting them know civilly how I felt about the food/service, or whatever…and it always worked out well…some made me a life long convert…

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[FredTate]

I seriously doubt that Revo is trying to trick anyone with pricing. I had dinner there tonight and had a fun time and was glad to see it was busy.

But there is definitely room for improvement. I’m glad Revo is following the thread, I feel good they have great intentions and want to run a fun spot.

The wine list needs some tweaking, as a wine professional I tend to gravitate towards the list at first chance. You don’t need 2 Montepulciano’s by the glass. The glass I had was delicious though. :)

Also, train your waiters how to open wine. One server was really wrestling with the bottle, and I think the table just opened it for her.

The food was a little underwhelming. I had the parpadelle with pork/beef ragu. It was pretty bland, both the ragu and the pasta. It’s rare for me to reach for the salt shaker at a restaurant.

As far as atmosphere? I very much liked it, people seemed very lively and the people working there were very cheery and helpful even with a packed house. A little noise is a sign of a busy restaurant. The decor looked great, I’m hoping those roll up doors get rolled up when the weather is better.

I’ll be back, and hope that once the restaurant has a chance to stretch it’s legs it’ll get better.

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[JanS]

oh, and I think that now everyone on here knows…THE BREAD IS NOT COMPLIMENTARY !! “Pane” on the menu is Italian for ..um…bread :)

so if the waiter asks if you want bread, ask if there’s a charge…when they say yes, say, no thank-you…they’ll eventually get the message…

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[The Velvet Bulldog]

“If thou tastest a crust of bread, thou tastest all the stars and all the heavens.”

Robert Browning (1812-1889) English poet

I visited Cafe Revo for dinner last night without having read this thread first. I was extremely pleased with the experience. I did pay $3 for the bread because it was a lovely ciabatta served with smoothly marinated olives and artichokes, and the best balsamic vinaigrette/olive oil dipping dish I’ve tasted in ages. The sweet butter comes served in the vinaigrette which was lovely. I paid less than $9 for a calamari “appetizer” that was large enough to serve as an entree I couldn’t finish. The creme brulee trio was divine – I hadn’t tasted flavored creme brulee before and I’m wondering why I’ve been living under this rock for so long.

The waiter explained the items on the menu and was very clear that we shouldn’t feel rushed to make a decision, or even pay our bill. In fact, when I called to make the reservation there was mention of coming in at 5:30 and settling in and staying as long as we wanted.

The atmosphere was very comfortable with warm colors and I liked the scale – a good size for a neighborhood restaurant. It did get very noisy by the time we left, but I was pleased to see that this new business was full to capacity with people waiting for tables.

I plan to return to try the lunch offerings and am looking forward to that experience.

Bravissimo Revo! Mille Grazie!

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[Jiggers]

Fred…It is WS were they do things differently service wise across the bridge. I used to be a waiter for years in a great fine dining restaurant–linen service and all. It’s almost impossible for me not to notice any type of irregular service. In regards to your wine knowledge, I’ve seen waiters move the bottle around in front of you like it was in a washing machine thinking what the … The presentation of any decent wine service is you always have the label of the wine that they are buying pointed at all times in front of the host–while uncorking it correctly. I cringe and just wonder sometimes what direction the establishment is taking when selling good wine. Seattle has really improved in the higher end restaurant’s, but there’s still a lack of common sense service at the tables overall.

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[Sue]

Has anyone been there for lunch? I’m wondering if it’s the same menu, or if there are smaller, less exensive lunch offerings.

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[Cait]

Mmmm I can’t wait now… are we seeing any of the kinks being worked out that were discussed earlier?

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[JenV]

I went for lunch yesterday. They have a daily lunch special, which is $9.95 – salad and pasta. I had the Sofia Bella, which is the one that Traci mentioned at the start of this thread. It was really good. The salad was great too – not too overdressed and the house made croutons were excellent. there were a few different pasta dishes to choose from on the lunch special. If you’re not into the lunch special, there are other offerings but everything else aside from the special was pretty expensive for lunch. The service was fantastic – the host saw us coming and opened the door with a warm hello…it’s the little things like that which will ensure Cafe Revo’s continued success…that and the totally rockin’ food. :)

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[caferevo]

Thank you again everyone for your feedback. We have updated our menu online to reflect our current offerings. We now also offer a bread basket for $1.50. I am sorry if some of the posters don’t agree with our statement on food costs, but this is truly the costs on the high quality bread (Essential baking company) we carry. All resteraunts use different products. Everything at Cafe Revo is made from scratch, no pre bought. Even our bar only does fresh squeezed juice to order for all of the cocktails. If By you just want a piece of bread with your pasta or salad, we are happy to bring that to you with your meal at no extra cost. This has been our policy since we opened 2 weeks ago, I am sorry if that was not made clear by some of our servers, we continue to train our servers daily. We in no way are trying to trick anyone on anything, we have been very clear on our menu in house and on line all of our costs, what it costs to add anything etc. We cook our pastas authentically to Northern Italy, which is very different than Southern Style Italian food, which is what you mostly find in America. I can see some posters are unhappy and have chosen to vent on the forums rather than talk with us directly. I really encourage anyone to give us their feedback directly in person or directly to us by phone or email. This will enable us to be able to try and correct any misunderstandings and to make your experience better immediately. I realize you can’t please everyone, but we would love the opportunity while you are dining to make your experience a good one. We want everyone to have a good experience at Cafe Revo. We will be creating a seperate lunch menu and start a happy hour in the next few weeks. We will send out an email to our email list as soon as those begin. For now we have the lunch special mentioned above along with our regular menu during lunch hours. We also will be buildling on our wine list, we are taking feedback from our guests on what they would like to see and adding to the list each week. We appreciate all of you for coming in, we love West Seattle and the support we have been given. Thank you for all the feedback. Sincerely Sofia

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[SEG]

I ate lunch there today with my family and all 9 of us loved it. The staff was really friendly and put up with my very picky grandfather and messy little nephew. We will be going back. Good job REVO! And I would pay even more for the yummy bread.

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[GAnative]

My hubby and I had dinner at Café Revo on Friday night and had a very enjoyable time but we went in knowing that as a newly opened restaurant they would still be working out the kinks.

We arrived about 10 mins before our reservation time thinking we’d have a drink in the bar while we waited but they sat us immediately so we waited the 10 mins at the table before we were waited on.

After seeing the menu we ordered the Rustic Bread knowing there was a charge, even though we thought that was odd, but the even odder part was it came after we got our appetizer and with no olive oil or butter or anything to put on the bread so we dipped it in the leftover aioli from the calamari which was delish! Hubby had the Caprese salad while I had the Insalata Revo and we enjoyed both. Then hubby had the Bistecca which he said was one of the best steaks he ever had. I had the Pasta Sofia Bella which I wouldn’t call bland but simple and that was what I was looking for that night. Then we shared the Diva Maria’s Tiramisu…yummy!

We might have been the ones that FredTate mentioned because hubby helped the waitress open the wine but in her defense she had a strange little wine opener that had a hinged piece and whenever she applied pressure the hinge would buckle and the opener would slide off the bottle. We told her to ask for a better opener.

I think our only complaint was that the wine list was pricy. The Italian reds started at $50 a bottle.

We will definitely go back but we may give them a little more time before we do…

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[Tracy]

I went there recently with friends….. the staff was great, really great. The food? Not so much. The Sofia Bella is a yummy pasta, but the seafood risotto came to one of my friends and it was mushy, too “fishy” tasting, and the shrimp were raw. The Puttanesca had sausage in it, which was really odd. It’s not a place I would go to again given all the great places we can go to in Seattle, which is a shame because it’s in WS.

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[RainyDay1235]

I plan on trying it soon, and appreciate the feedback on dishes and the menu.

Seems to me Revo could benefit from comment cards tucked into the bills. A “hey we are new help us improve” kind of thing. A simple checklist with a place to add notes can go a long way! :)

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[villagegreen]

Sausage in the Puttanesca?! I’m no expert, but isn’t Puttanesca supposed to have anchovies as a main ingredient? Also, isn’t Puttanesca mainly a Southern Italian dish – Revo states they’re a Northern Italian restaurant. It should be pretty spicy as well.

I usually order the Puttanesca the first time I go to any Italian restaurant as a sort of initial gauge. Best I’ve found so far is La Madusa in Columbia City and Machiavelli on Capitol Hill.

I’ve been anxiously awaiting Revo’s opening and will be seriously disappointed if the Puttanesca lets me down.

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[FredTate]

That strange wine opener is a waiter’s corkscrew and is the industry standard. The little lever makes it easier to open bottles. They have them without the lever, but with some guidance the pull-tap is easy to learn and easier to use in the long term.

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[Andre]

My wife and I went to Cafe Revo twice for lunch with our 20 month old toddler. We loved it both times.

The first time our waiter brought out some bread (no charge) right away so that our little one had something to nipple on. The second time it was a pouch with Italian breadsticks (no charge) that came his way as soon as we were seated. Also both times the kids meal was served very quickly (before our entrees). I think they really get kids! The price for the kids meal is $3.99, which we feel is a great deal for what you get.

The first time I had their lunch special with the Revo salad and the Pappardelle with Ragú. It was brilliant! If you like Pappardelle then you have to try their version. If you are after thick, meaty sauces this is not for you, but if you like pasta just as much as the sauce then this will hit home with you. My wife had the Pasta Sofia Belle and thought it was good, but not great. For our taste it could have had a little bit less cream and more asparagus. We both thought that the Revo salad was great with just the right amount of dressing and nice, rustic crutons.

The second time I got lucky and became the first customer to taste their lasagna, which was just added to the menu. It was the best lasagna I ever had with layers of spinach to accompany the meat layer. On top of that the chef came out to check how I liked the inaugural serving of their lasagna, which we thought was a real nice touch. My wife had the Puttanesca and it was good, but not great. It it was a little bit of everything as it had sausage as well as prawns. Our recommendation would be to leave out the prawns and sausage while dropping the price at the same time.

Overall, we had a great time and can’t wait for them to add more items to their menu. Next up is to leave our toddler at home and try them out for Dinner.

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[livingonthebeach]

I will definitely try them. I appreciate the fact the Cafe Revo seems to really care about comments, but sticking true to their convictions of what their restaurant should be.

Bravo Cafe Revo, see you this weekend!

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[Garden_nymph]

Livingonthebeach,

You mention visiting this weekend- don’t forget to call for a reservation as they seem to get very busy on the weekends.

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[Wylie_snoop]

I wasn’t going to post a critique of our first experience at Cafe Revo last night, figuring the owner/operators had heard enough. But then remembered how glad and impressed I was to hear that they are actually reading this thread and welcome the criticism and suggestions.

So, last night my wife and I went to dinner at Revo and upon first entering I was impressed with the looks of the bar and the dining area was also nicely designed. Thinking I couldn’t wait for one of those blazing hot summer evenings so we could go and sit with the garage doors open ( I really hope you guys do that) and enjoy a cold Moretti, fine food, and locals sharing the same idea. We sat at our table and reviewed the wine list, and were disappointed. Not that wines on the list weren’t good, there were some great wines listed, but more that Italian wines were not represented. After all this is an Italian restaurant touting to bring Northern Italian recipes “straight from the old country to our Pacific Northwest table.” If you serve regional food you need to serve beverages of the same region, and this holds most true when serving Italian. I then asked the waiter what was on draft hoping he would say Moretti, Peroni or Kronen. Unfortunately the only beers on tap were some American brews – again this is an Italian restaurant, heavy American Micros have no place here. So I settled for a glass of wine and Pellegrino. I understand the Italy’s beers are not mainstream and are over shadowed by other Italian offerings but they are quality and hit the right spot when accompanied with proper fare.

Here are my suggestions; regional wines which can be paired with the menu and at least one Italian beer on draft. All of this is easily doable and in my opinion would make a world of difference.

Cafe Revo I wish you the best of luck and just remember “What the caterpillar calls the end of the world the master calls a butterfly.”

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