Greg Johnston
We visited Cello for a special birthday dinner, and were we disappointed. It’s taken six weeks for me to finally write this, as I’d like to be objective, but suffice it to say, I don’t have much good to share.
Back to the beginning:
It was my wife’s 60th birthday and we wanted a special meal in a special setting. She can’t do gluten, dairy, or msg, and she phoned a week in advance to be sure they could accommodate her dietary restrictions. She was assured they prepared the meals to order and the chef could adjust as necessary. She also asked for a quiet, out of the way table…. Unbeknownst to her, I had a bouquet of roses sent ahead.
We arrive and the hostess acknowledged our reservation and my wife’s prior call. She then plunked us at a table that would barely hold our plates and glassware, certainly not a vase and bouquet, and about 10 inches from a group of four. We asked to be moved and were, without a fuss.
Betsy was our server. She seemed friendly enough, but definitely not attentive. We discussed the allergies and she basically said there was little my wife could eat. Meals were prepared ahead of time, so sauces couldn’t be altered (or created from scratch),proteins were limited due to marinades or preparation limitations,
and no starches as the potatoes were mashed with butter ahead of time - they couldn’t even boil a potato? We had her talk to the kitchen a couple of times, with little progress, but in the mean time we notice gluten-free pasta available as an option. We suggested that, she checked, and the kitchen agreed they could use that as a starch, even though it wasn’t specific to the protein - gee whiz!
She ordered the rack of lamb ($68’ish), which was very fatty and greasy. Not sure what the cook did to the gluten-free pasta, but it appears they smashed it to bits with a hammer, over-boiled it, and then poured the mush on the plate. It was horrible and any cook/chef should be embarrassed to send it out. We told the server, and according to her manager (Lauren), the exec chef was so embarrassed that they comped us a bottle of wine from the adjacent vineyard - we took it with us. Not bad, but over-priced.
Speaking of wine, as this was a special occasion we decided to splurge on an expensive (for us) bottle of wine (>$100). Betsy complimented us on the choice. I told her we were in no hurry for the meal and we’d like the wine decanted so it had a chance to breathe. Betsy assured us that the lamb was the slowest meal to come out of the kitchen, and we had a good 25 minutes or more.
After 10 minutes and no wine (and no Betsy), we flagged down someone to ask about our wayward server. Betsy came by our table to say the wine was out of stock; perhaps we’d like to try something else (but she didn’t have a wine list with her). However, before I could even ask for the wine list, our food shows up! The evening pretty much fell off a cliff by this point.
I had the beef short rib ($56), but did not realize if was “deconstructed “. They took the beef, kinda rolled it in a ball, and stuck a sliver of a rib bone in it - like a beef popsicle. It wasn’t horrible, but not worth the price. However the gnocchi was absolute rubbish - it was way past crispy (more like crunchy) on the outside and crumbly dry inside - tasted bad and felt bad.
So, to wrap up, these guys completely dropped the ball. They blew it when they assured us allergies could be accommodated, they blew it with the wine service, they blew it with the food. Way overpriced for the quality of food and service.
The only positive was Lauren. She was obviously sorry for the mess laid at her feet, and was professional and gracious dealing with it. However she alone can’t fix this place. I wonder if, because the restaurant is inside the Allegretto Resort, they aren’t worried about local business and return customers. Regardless, I do not recommend you waste your time and money visiting here.
One last thing. The restrooms were way too far from the restaurant and hard to find (down a hallway past the resort check-in desk).
Accommodating Gluten-Free