We were at Biella this past weekend for my birthday. Because the reviews have been so good, we were sure that the restaurant would meet our expectations. However, that was NOT the case. \r
We were a little early for our reservation, but were still seated promptly, which I appreciated. It's beautiful, but very loud--it was hard to hear the person across the table. I noticed an indication that the food has gone downhill, because the restaurant was mostly empty at 6:45 on a Friday night. The varying sizes of appetizers, pastas, and entrees made it easy to choose our meals. We had the Caramelized Sea Scallops and the Bruschetta for our appetizers and they were wonderful. We chose the seafood linguini for our pasta. It had a 'cream' sauce that was overly thickened, lumpy, and lacking in flavor. The whole thing was covered in grated cheese, as if to disguise the poor quality. \r
For my entree I ordered the grilled filet, but asked them to leave the sauce off. Our waitress (poor thing) told me that the chef would not prepare the meal unless he could put the sauce on! I have never heard of a chef turning down such a simple request. Misplaced attitude, he must be believing his own reviews. \r
At that point we should have left, but I didn't want to upset my fellow diner, so I ordered the Lasagne. $19 for a piece of meat lasagne, nothing fancy about it. It was so salty that after the first bite I could not eat any more. Our waitress noticed that I was not eating my dinner and came over to ask about it, but by this time my dinner partner offered to eat it as a leftover, so I didn't return it to the kitchen. My dinner partner enjoyed the filet, which was cooked to perfection. He liked the sauce and the wheat berries that came with it.\r
Our waitress, who was very good. Without my saying so, she realized that I found the entree unacceptable. She comped us the $19, but by then it was too late. As a birthday outing, it was a complete disaster--we will never go there again.
more