Neighborhood News

Forte

I am going to say this right off the bat, this will not be one of my "I'll be back" reviews. But don't stop reading...
We [six people] walked into a really visually stunning restaurant, with a wall of "white" waves over the bar area, and other contemporary touches that made this place feel very "New York". Our reservation was for 8pm and we were seated promptly. The music/noise level was more than a bit loud, especially if you're inclined to have any conversation with your dining partners, although I must say, it did seem that the people at the bar were not at all disturbed by the noise level. (That's probably because they were at least three decades younger that we were!)
A server took our drink orders quite promptly, but then things started to go downhill after that. Five of us got our drinks correctly and in a timely manner, but R's wine didn't come until he had inquired at least 3 times. We were able to order our food promptly, and foccacia with Italian salami came out soon after. Some pieces of the foccacia were warm and nice, others were absolutely cold and stale...translation: hard as a rock. A request for olive oil and grated parmesan cheese never was fulfilled. By the way, at least half of us requested our food without any garlic. The waitperson absolutely seemed to understand "no garlic of any form whatsoever". It was: no garlic, no problem. But, more about that later...
Then, we waited and waited and waited. Granted it was a Saturday night in early November, but what a wait! Then, strangely enough, R was served his Chicken Milanese long before everyone else was served. So, with our tongues hanging out, R had to eat his entr�e before it got cold and before the other five of us were served. We were finally served at least seventy-five minutes after we had ordered. Anyway, by that time the place was not crowded, believe me. We complained about the timing to the waiter, he offered no excuse but said he would send over the manager.
Meanwhile, on to the food...appetizers were good, although not "divine". Eddy and I shared grilled shrimp with zucchini and a prosecco butter, and three others shared two "excellent" roasted beet salads with endive, goat cheese, lemon and Casalvento olive oil. Then, the entrees: the chicken Milanese was very good per R. It was a huge cutlet, nice and crispy and topped with an arugula salad with among other things, chopped green olives. Eddy's grilled BBQ pork chop was tender, but tasteless. L and D shared the saut�ed red snapper which they said was very good. (The garlic lover in our group definitely got his money's worth though!) I had whole wheat spaghetti with fresh seasonal vegetables, fresh basil, and Casalvento olive oil, hold the garlic. I am not sure what was so special about the olive oil that they had to specify the brand because my entr�e had zero flavor! Nothing I could do to it helped it to taste any better. When I asked for no garlic, I didn't ask for no flavor! And about that garlic...I can promise you that there was plenty of it around somewhere...I was sick all night!
Before we were finished with our entrees, a bus boy tried to take our plates away...while we were still obviously eating. The waiter was very apologetic about the service problems, and offered us free desserts and coffee to apologize for the bad experience. We ordered a couple of desserts to share which arrived very promptly (sure, after all the other timing problems), and they were declared very good, especially a chocolate concoction.
Finally, after L signaled for the manager, she came over to the table. She appeared to have no clue that we had had a negative experience. L asked her for her email address if she wanted to read our review. By the way, when the check came the first time, they had actually charged us for two chicken Milanese...you remember, R's entr�e that came way before all the others. When the final check arrived, they had removed the double charged chicken Milanese, removed 2 more entrees, and had not charged us for the chocolate dessert and coffee.

Bottom line: Food was, on the whole, good.
                    Service was, on the whole, dreadful.
                    Musical atmosphere was, on the whole, unbearable.

FORTE di ASPRINIO RISTORANTE AND WINE BAR
225 CLEMATIS STREET, WEST PALM BEACH, FL 33401
561-833-3330

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