Reviews for 388 Restaurant

03/28/2012 - Joe
First let me start by saying that this is my first review. I typically don't have the spare time to write reviews but in this case I really felt I had to. My wife and I live fairly close to 388 and when it opened we were excited to try the new restaurant and we were hoping this would be one of our favorite new spots. Shortly after they first opened we thought we would give them a try. Many nights we start out by grabbing a drink or two at the bar. We pulled up a couple of stools and waited for the bartender...and waited....and waited. Now it's not that there was no bartender there, there was. And it's not like the bar was packed, there was only one other couple. The bartender (obviously his first bartending job) was overwhelmed with the orders for the restaurant. A waitress brought back a drink because it was garnished with a piece of carrot. Oh, that drink was a white wine. After about 20 minutes or so the bartender finally came to take our drink order. I had a scotch (hard to screw that up) and my wife had a cosmo. For anyone who doesn't know, cranberry juice is a main ingredient in a cosmo. This bartender used grenadine. It was disgusting and we were disgusted, we got the check and left to go someplace different. Being that they just opened, we chocked that up to growing pains. This place has to get better. A few months later we tried it again, and while we skipped the bar (and mixed drinks) and went straight to a table there was nothing that made us love it. The food was average at best (except for the meatball sliders which were good), but the friendliness of the host (I think he was one of the owners) made us feel at home. Overall it wasn't a bad experience.

Awhile has past since we were there last and tonight we decided to go there again. We were seated at a table for four that was set for 1 people. Meaning there were 3 napkins, two plates and glasses and one set of silverware. The extra napkin was removed but additional silverware was not brought till I asked for it. After we ordered a drink, the waiter proceeded to tell us that there was pretty much no beef available. There is plenty on the menu but for some reason they were out of every single piece of beef. No Skirt Steak, No Strip Steak, No Short Ribs, hell they were even out of the Baby Back Ribs and Meatloaf and Scalllops. Now I understand that you can run out of something, but it seemed like this was a quarter of their menu, on a Tuesday night. To me this is strange, maybe it is the fact that both my wife and I really felt like having beef and there was none that made this worse. Had we known about the menu changes before we ordered a drink we probably would have left. Instead we ordered some Meatball Sliders, Chicken Parm Sliders and Penne ala Vodka with Prosciutto. The Penne ala Vodka comes with and without Prosciutto. We specifically said we wanted it. A little while later our food arrived (be prepared it is family style served at the table) the waiter served us each a slider and some Penne and then left. My wife then asked me if I saw any Prosciutto in my serving of Penne, when I looked I saw none. She didn't have any either. Not a problem, it happens right? Right. I called the waiter over and said "I'm pretty sure we order the Penne with the Prosciutto, and this doesn't seem to have any"....his response "Let me check with the chef to see if he put it in". At this, my wife (who is normally really quiet) said "Well look, there is obvious no prosciutto in the penne, you would see it", to this the waiter said "Well I don't want to look through your food" "I can't tell if it's in there, is that cheese or prosciutto" - REALLY?!?!? Cheese or PROSCIUTTO?!?!?!?. The waiter left and went to the kitchen (leaving the plate of pasta on our table). He returned a minute or two later stating that the chef forgot and was going to cook up a plate of prosciutto to bring to us. Yup, why take the plate back to the kitchen and add it there. This must be a new service, table side cooking. A few minutes later the waiter returned with a plate of prosciutto and mixed it into our plate of pasta. As an apology, the waiter offered my wife a second glass of wine on the house. She said sure and we thanked him. OK, maybe this isn't going to be so bad. He even offered me a drink, but I wasn't drinking tonight so I thanked him but passed. When we were done with our meal, I decided to have a cup of coffee while my wife finished her "Free" glass of wine. The waiter brought over my coffee. It was pretty much a half of a cup of coffee. It basically looked like there was a little bit left in the pot and that's what I was given. When I ordered my coffee I also asked for the check, the "Free" glass of wine was added to the check. At this point we were so disgusted we just wanted to leave so I said nothing. This will be the last time we go to 388. So if you are looking for a nice night out at a trendy restaurant, do yourself a favor and look elsewhere.