Rialto Cafe

A group of seven of us wound up here last night on a whim.   We were pleasantly surprised that they had a table set for seven within moments of us walking in the door.   However, that should have  clued us in that people weren't beating down the door to get a table.  

The waitress took our drink order, took our meal order, gave us our checks -- the bare minimum it takes to wait a table.

One guest in our party had to remind the waitress to bring him his drink and after we were served she never came back to check on us and we flagged down a bus boy to find her so another guest could send her meal back.  That meal was over seasoned and the meat was overcooked.    She requested a new entree and everyone else was almost finished with their meal by the time she was served.  

I had the barramundi (fish) which was ok.  It was a lot more salty that I would have preferred and all the entrees just seems blah.   Everyone just ate with no comment -- which is rare when 4 of the 7 at the table are really into food and cooking.

One guest had the burger, which was the least expensive entree ordered and looked the best!

When we got our checks our waitress did give a free appetizer coupon to come back and use.   I was pleased to note that there was a list of other restaurants that it can be used at.

We had heard about Rialto and tried it for dinner. We were very impressed with the service. Our waiter made excellent recommendations, our selections were tasty, and we enjoyed the atmosphere. My wife avoids gluten, and we had plenty of options for her needs.

The Rialto reminds me of the mullet hairstyle:  business in the front, party in the back.  The front of the house is attractive and efficient, with a pleasant ambiance and competent and friendly service...but what's coming out of the kitchen makes one think that little imagination nor attention to detail is valued.

We had a day-off lunch at the Rialto last Thursday, stopping in after the lunch crowd rush, maybe at about 1PM, just craving sit-down service and uncomplicated but satisfactory food and a beer before shopping.  We were greeted warmly and promptly by the hostess, who took us to a corner booth for two, then were immediately greeted by our friendly server, who let us know of their specials that day, and offered to start us out with a beverage; we chose a bloody mary and a Guinness (yay, no work that day, so we could imbibe.)

Our drinks came promptly and properly prepared and presented, and we'd decided what we were going to order by that point, so gave our waiter our order, consisting of their take of a Cuban sandwich with fries and a side house salad, and a roast chicken entree with whipped potatoes and a "relish" of sorts with grape tomatoes, fennel greens and onion.  Both entrees were priced at $9 and change, perfectly reasonable.

We waited for about 15 minutes to receive our lunches after ordering, also perfectly reasonable.  The Cuban sandwich was smallish, but did have a nice flavor and consistency, the best part of it being the really good kosher dill slices in it, and the accompanying fries were OK.  The side house salad wasn't fresh, however, with mostly past-its-prime bagged butter lettuce, smallish goat cheese nuggets with an off taste and canned mandarin sections with pine nuts or sunflower seeds (I don't recall, but the menu listed almonds, which weren't in the salad.)  My partner's roast chicken was a thigh and drummette attachment, which appeared and tasted like it had been featured a couple of days ago, and just warmed over; the whipped potatoes were bland but salty and watered down, and the limp and greasy greens and tomatoes on the plate were sampled but not eaten.  Our food wasn't horrible, but nothing special, and not fresh.

We did decide on sharing a dessert after lunch (I have an insatiable sweet tooth) and ordered a creme brulee, which came promptly, but when sampled, was oddly dry and pasty with a refrigerator-off taste of onions...not good, and probably had been sitting in their refrigerator uncovered for several days, although the caramelized sugar was properly torched and crispy.

In conclusion, while the restaurant's dining room looks inviting, is clean, and service was good and bar drinks fine...the food is poorly prepared and unsatisfying.  The number of similar reviews stating this fact here should make management/owners take notice and make necessary changes via BOH training and/or staff replacement.