Adagio -- opinions?

[Susan]

You mentioned you were going there on Friday night.  I see your review for Saturday's dinner, but I did not see anything Friday's dinner.

[Rosie]

I don't have the menu in front of me so I'll add what we ate later. The restaurant is beautiful. We sat in the formal dining room where jackets are required. Dishes, silverware etc. were lovely. I didn't like the tall candle on the table as it interfered with my being able to see the person across from me. I would like to see small votive candles or a small vase with flowers.

I was happy with the service. However, the waiter knew me.The restaurant was two weeks old and they have some problems to sort out with the menu. I certainly would go back but not for a few months. I'll add  more info later.

[PaulaJ]

Ah, what to say about a restaurant whose chef-owner [Joseph Cetrulo] obviously conceived, designed & decorated

this neonate with great attention and love? I wish that I could tell you that it was wonderful..or excellent...or..or.

 We have dined there x2. We went with good spirit, anticipating that we were in the shakedown period.

  Visit1: Think of this as almost an L shaped restaurant. The long leg of the L is the trattoria/taverna [more casual] section. While attractive, the ceilings are high and the

sound, conversation-defying. The menu is upscale in price and, I am told, service is very slow. We stopped here only for a drink at the bar/ insignifcant merlot, $9.75 a glass.

   We dined in the upscale backroom/ jackets req. It is very pretty w. tented ceiling, mirrors, paintings, flowers & candlelight. If only you could eat the flowers & candles! We

were tempted... as we waited over 40 minutes without bread or water.  It took 4 hours for dinner, all due to excruciatingly slow service. The menu advertises FOUR courses for $50/pre fixe. The menu has 4 categories app, primi,secondi & dessert...but there must have been a battlefield change of plan, because we are informed that there are 4 courses...an amuse, chose a first course from app+primi and entree/dessert. Do they think no one knows the term amuse??? Our pasta app. w. fresh, chopped lobster contained two petite morsels of still in the shell lobster & a bland sauce---it has been sitting some where and is tepid and mushy. We left most of it; no one asked. At 1.5 hours after we sat down, who wanted to send it back?? The rack of lamb was perfectly cooked but its thick crust of breadcrumbs fell into the olive-mashed potatoes making it a dark & swarthy dish our guest was disinclined to consume. The fillet mignon was very good quality but the gorgonzola cheese is mashed on the fillet, not as a sauce and overpowers it. My guest, who had fish, asked for grated cheese. The waiter haughtily told him it wasn't recommended and he had to insist as he wanted it for his polenta. Too much attitude on a night that should have been filled with gracious appreciation for non-complainers.

 Well, enough of visit 1. On to visit 2.

The restaurant is far less crowded/ in fact by 9;30pm half the tables in the back room are empty i.e. not turned. Service was better...but still slow. Don't know why. Bread is good but not re-offered...and empty water glasses languish. Only 3 meats are being offered ["We're starting slow...]..and amuse is still a course! The arugola salad is good...the fritto misto also. Portions are not huge. One diner enjoyed the fish entree. The banana tart has runny pudding and the molten chocolate cake oozes a peculiar tasting raspberry. All staff seem totally impressed with themselves.

  This is a very pretty restaurant. I hope that they

-enlarge the menu

-improve the service

-re-evaluate value for price

-drop the 'attitude'

[Rail Paul]

Mr Cetrulo is now chef-owner of four ? places (Scalini Fedeli NY & Chatham, Il Mondo Vecchio, and Adagio). I remember it took him a while to re-discipline the Madison team after he went to Chatham. PaulaJ's report is almost a carbon copy of that 1996 experience. Fortunately, after a slashing review in the Ledger, he brought the restaurant back to good form.

It does sound like a reach to describe the amuse as a "course" though.

[PaulaJ]

I think I'm correcting in stating that Adagio is the haven of

Joseph Cetrulo, relative of Michael Cetrulo who oversees

the other three. I wish for Adagio that they become as

consistent and interesting as Scalini. We'd all enjoy that!

[Rosie]

Mr Cetrulo is now chef-owner of four ? places (Scalini Fedeli NY & Chatham, Il Mondo Vecchio, and Adagio). I remember it took him a while to re-discipline the Madison team after he went to Chatham. PaulaJ's report is almost a carbon copy of that 1996 experience. Fortunately, after a slashing review in the Ledger, he brought the restaurant back to good form.

It does sound like a reach to describe the amuse as a "course" though.

Michael Cetrulo owns Scalini Fedeli and Il Mondo Vecchio

Joseph Cetrulo owns Adagio and La Campagna.