Paesanos Riverwalk

Several friends recommended this restaurant and we can't thank them enough.
The food was fabulous! We started out with a combination appetizer of shrimp in a garlic sauce, calamari, and artichokes.
Then came the Caesar salad and an entree of the Shrimp Paesano.
My husband and I split everything and we still had food left over to take home.
Our waiter was Jimmy John and he was so knowledgeable, charming, delightful, and made our lunch even better.

Some of the BEST Italian food we have ever had.
Third time eating here.
We talk about it back home to EVERYONE that will listen.
Their bruschetta is AMAZING!!!! Whatever they season their tomatoes with...
WOW! I NEED to know! :). We all thoroughly enjoyed our dishes...
Except the lasagne was disappointing and went uneaten.
He said he would rather eat frozen lasagne ...
He ate a couple pieces of the kids meal pizza as our grandchild could not eat it all.
It was a letdown as the other 4 of us had great meals. Another disappointing thing was while in line to be seated the party of 3 in front of us requested the patio and were seated outside on the patio.
We were told we could not as they were closing the patio.
Coming from snow, it was a disappointment.
Esp since there were MANY people outside...
yet many empty tables.
The party after us also requested the patio and were accommodated.
I must say we were quite disheartened.
The hostess was quite sharp and very rude.... Thankfully once seated inside the staff was quite friendly and VERY accommodating.

On a “staycation” while my house is being painted, I was looking forward to a leisurely nice lunch on the Riverwalk.
I know, it’s touristy but I had been to Paesano’s off 1604 and it was good, so I assumed the service and quality would be close to comparable.
WRONG! It started with a waiter who had a filthy apron, and not clean nails, bringing a plate of herbed olive oil to the table, with his finger firmly planted in it.
I ordered a favorite salad of Pear, Gorgonzola and Balsamic vinaigrette with Salmon, which I requested (three times) well done.
He brought some bread which he claimed was “fresh baked”, and having been in the restaurant business, I know bread that has been in plastic from the fresh baked….this was NOT fresh.
But the worst was the salad.
It had a ton of emulsified balsamic dumped on top rather than a freshly whisked vinaigrette (I’m betting packaged) and the salmon was too raw for my taste….yuk.
To his credit, the server did get the manager to discount it as I did not eat much, but really sad that they try to pass this subpar food on unknowing tourists.
For a $30 salad, I expect better.
Actually, for that money I expect exceptional, and this was exceptionally bad.
The beauty of Italian food is fabulous ingredients prepared simply.
This was simply a mess.