I've been to this restaurant a dozen times in the past and have always had a decent experience. I took my family and mother-in-law on December 30th, however, and it was pretty miserable.
Among the issues we encountered:
* For two of the items we ordered off the menu, the server came back to our table to explain that the kitchen was "too busy" and as a result these items were not available. Neither was a complicated dish, they were simple appetizers. I've never heard this excuse at any restaurant before. What was especially annoying was that these were the two items ordered by my kids, both of whom are picky eaters on top of dietary restrictions, and therefore had limited options to begin with.
* The menu says that substitutions are possible for a $3 charge. For a restaurant this expensive that's a little obnoxious, but fine, I was happy to pay it. Here again, we were told that the kitchen was "too busy" so they couldn't do any substitutions. That included the ridiculously simple request of putting a steak's sauce on the side rather than on top of the steak. I'm paying $55 for a 12-ounce steak and wanted to pay an additional $3 so that they didn't smother it in a sauce that my kid couldn't eat, but that was too much to ask, apparently. I ordered a steak for myself and asked if I could substitute a different vegetable, but this request got the same response: "too busy". I was even willing to pay the full cost of that vegetable as a side dish, but they were unwilling to accommodate.
* When our steaks did arrive, my son's was literally almost raw. (In fairness, mine was a perfect medium rare.) I like rare steaks but this was ordered medium rare and was not even warm all the way through. It probably would be considered "blue rare" by standard definitions.
* My wife paid $32 for the "scallops and shrimp" entree. It came with 3 scallops and 2 shrimp. Seriously? How is that a meal, much less a $32 meal?
* We ordered three drinks (two glasses of wine and one cocktail). After 20 minutes of waiting, none had arrived. We needed to go up to the bar to order them there instead.
* I very politely asked to speak to a manager so that I could explain our experience. I have restaurant industry experience and figured they needed to know about all of this. I was promised that a manager would call me within 2-3 days. It has been 10 days and I have not received a call. Needless to say, I'm not holding my breath.
I won't ever be going back to Assaggio.
Kevin Stready
Great food. Saturday night would highly recommend a reservation.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
Alex Nakatani
The food was delicious and service was perfect. It has a nice well lit dining area!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Soonie Park-Ledbetter
We had a birthday dinner celebration for my son. We ordered the sausage bolognese. The taste was good if one is hungry, but not up to par, the sausage was tough, also all the mushrooms and onions added just seemed a bit cluttered and messy. My son asked for Alfredo sauce to offset the dish, the waiter said that it couldn’t be done. Very disappointed.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 1
Service: 5
Mark Goldberg
Great meal at this italian gem. Caeser salad expertly made at our table was very tasty. Veal Milenese with linguine was outstanding. Good fresh fish offerings. Highly recommended..
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Jaaron Johnson
Been going to assaggios since I was a kid so about 20 years now. And they are one of the best Italian food places I've ever been to. I've been all over the world and this place still just as good, and beats many others. Thanks for always being amazing
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Angela M.
Food is terrible. No flavor at all. Only good things are the cedar salad and shrimp cocktail.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 1
Service: 3
Stu Warshaw
Fabulous place - excellent food and the servers and staff were great!!! Loved it ❤️
Fred D
I must admit I was pleasantly surprised with the quality and quantity of the food at this establishment. We had two different chicken dishes and both were unbelievably good. My son had a shrimp Linguini that was also excellent. The Bread Basket they give you is almost too good and it's difficult not to get filled up before your meal arrives. The service was also incredibly good, all in all I would highly recommend.
caliwaiian08
No olive oil n balsamic vinegar with bread just butter, no gnocchi, no moretti beer, window seal next to table was dirty, Tabasco bottle had lots of crusty dirty build up, calamari came with tartar space instead of marinara. Tartar sauce was delicious however. Tiramisu was good but lacked the strong coffee, liquor, and sweet mascapone cheese flavor I recall from Italy and other top notch bakeries.
Delicious food with fantastic service. Highly recommend. We will definitely return. Perfect choice for everything from an extended family dinner out to a date night for a special occasion.
peacelovesweets
Such a pleasant atmosphere. The food exceeds expectations. I hope to return the next visit to Oahu.
Brea Simpson
Raviolis are perfect pillows filled with cheese
Debbie Pflager
Very nice place to eat
Tina Catalina
We ordered the one and only vegan dish on the menu, no drinks. They was clearly cheese sprinkled throughout it. The server tried to convince us that it was only salt. The chef agreed that it was indeed cheese. The server looked at us dumbfounded that we would not eat it, and didn't have any ideas of what they could do instead. We politely told her we would just leave. Two minutes out the door, a woman came running up to us with a phone in her hand. She told us to wait as she was calling the police. We let her know that we didn't get what we ordered, didn't have any drinks and that we let the server know we were leaving. She yelled at us to wait for the police. We didn't wait for Hawaii 5 O.
I've been to this restaurant a dozen times in the past and have always had a decent experience. I took my family and mother-in-law on December 30th, however, and it was pretty miserable. Among the issues we encountered: * For two of the items we ordered off the menu, the server came back to our table to explain that the kitchen was "too busy" and as a result these items were not available. Neither was a complicated dish, they were simple appetizers. I've never heard this excuse at any restaurant before. What was especially annoying was that these were the two items ordered by my kids, both of whom are picky eaters on top of dietary restrictions, and therefore had limited options to begin with. * The menu says that substitutions are possible for a $3 charge. For a restaurant this expensive that's a little obnoxious, but fine, I was happy to pay it. Here again, we were told that the kitchen was "too busy" so they couldn't do any substitutions. That included the ridiculously simple request of putting a steak's sauce on the side rather than on top of the steak. I'm paying $55 for a 12-ounce steak and wanted to pay an additional $3 so that they didn't smother it in a sauce that my kid couldn't eat, but that was too much to ask, apparently. I ordered a steak for myself and asked if I could substitute a different vegetable, but this request got the same response: "too busy". I was even willing to pay the full cost of that vegetable as a side dish, but they were unwilling to accommodate. * When our steaks did arrive, my son's was literally almost raw. (In fairness, mine was a perfect medium rare.) I like rare steaks but this was ordered medium rare and was not even warm all the way through. It probably would be considered "blue rare" by standard definitions. * My wife paid $32 for the "scallops and shrimp" entree. It came with 3 scallops and 2 shrimp. Seriously? How is that a meal, much less a $32 meal? * We ordered three drinks (two glasses of wine and one cocktail). After 20 minutes of waiting, none had arrived. We needed to go up to the bar to order them there instead. * I very politely asked to speak to a manager so that I could explain our experience. I have restaurant industry experience and figured they needed to know about all of this. I was promised that a manager would call me within 2-3 days. It has been 10 days and I have not received a call. Needless to say, I'm not holding my breath. I won't ever be going back to Assaggio.
Great food. Saturday night would highly recommend a reservation.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
The food was delicious and service was perfect. It has a nice well lit dining area!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
We had a birthday dinner celebration for my son. We ordered the sausage bolognese. The taste was good if one is hungry, but not up to par, the sausage was tough, also all the mushrooms and onions added just seemed a bit cluttered and messy. My son asked for Alfredo sauce to offset the dish, the waiter said that it couldn’t be done. Very disappointed.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 1
Service: 5
Great meal at this italian gem. Caeser salad expertly made at our table was very tasty. Veal Milenese with linguine was outstanding. Good fresh fish offerings. Highly recommended..
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Been going to assaggios since I was a kid so about 20 years now. And they are one of the best Italian food places I've ever been to. I've been all over the world and this place still just as good, and beats many others. Thanks for always being amazing
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Food is terrible. No flavor at all. Only good things are the cedar salad and shrimp cocktail.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 1
Service: 3
Fabulous place - excellent food and the servers and staff were great!!! Loved it ❤️
I must admit I was pleasantly surprised with the quality and quantity of the food at this establishment. We had two different chicken dishes and both were unbelievably good. My son had a shrimp Linguini that was also excellent. The Bread Basket they give you is almost too good and it's difficult not to get filled up before your meal arrives. The service was also incredibly good, all in all I would highly recommend.
No olive oil n balsamic vinegar with bread just butter, no gnocchi, no moretti beer, window seal next to table was dirty, Tabasco bottle had lots of crusty dirty build up, calamari came with tartar space instead of marinara. Tartar sauce was delicious however. Tiramisu was good but lacked the strong coffee, liquor, and sweet mascapone cheese flavor I recall from Italy and other top notch bakeries.
Restaurantji Recommends
Delicious food with fantastic service. Highly recommend. We will definitely return. Perfect choice for everything from an extended family dinner out to a date night for a special occasion.
Such a pleasant atmosphere. The food exceeds expectations. I hope to return the next visit to Oahu.
Raviolis are perfect pillows filled with cheese
Very nice place to eat
We ordered the one and only vegan dish on the menu, no drinks. They was clearly cheese sprinkled throughout it. The server tried to convince us that it was only salt. The chef agreed that it was indeed cheese.
The server looked at us dumbfounded that we would not eat it, and didn't have any ideas of what they could do instead.
We politely told her we would just leave.
Two minutes out the door, a woman came running up to us with a phone in her hand. She told us to wait as she was calling the police. We let her know that we didn't get what we ordered, didn't have any drinks and that we let the server know we were leaving. She yelled at us to wait for the police.
We didn't wait for Hawaii 5 O.
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