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Alto Cucina is yet another restaurant that this blog has brought me to for the first time. Located at 3531 West Lake Rd , this old farmhouse is easily missed if you aren’t looking for it. The driveway is long and leads to two doors, one for the restaurant and one for the bar. Inside the restaurant, walls are lined with art and shelves stacked with books. Everything was surprisingly dust-free considering how many decorative items were on the shelves, quite refreshing to see a restaurant that takes care enough to keep more than just the tables clean. If you want to go for dinner, a reservation seems to be appreciated. Once we were seated, our server, Mitchell, was with us shortly to inform us of the nightly features and answer any questions we had. We wanted to stick with the steak theme so for an appetizer, we ordered the Carpaccio Celestine. On the menu, there are three choices for steaks. Amanda chose the Steak Adiutori and I decided on the Delmonico Messina.
There was bread, which was oddly a little cold, with dipping oil on the table when we sat down. While we were breaking into the bread, our appetizer was served. The Carpaccio Celestine was paper thin beef tenderloin slices with truffle oil, Gorgonzola, and whole grain mustard on a bed of greens with tomatoes, olives, mushrooms, and roasted red peppers. Instead of being served completely raw, the beef was very lightly seared and served rare. The beef by itself melted with each mouthful and had a very subtle, delicate flavor. With everything else on the plate together as one bite, the beef was strongly overpowered and hidden by all of the other bold flavors. I would have loved for the beef to be the shining star of the plate; all the “extras” seemed unnecessary because the meat was very good on its own.
Our soup and salad arrived shortly after we finished with the Carpaccio. I had the minestrone while Amanda started with the house salad. The minestrone was delicious. The beans and pasta had a great toothsome bite and the broth was well seasoned. Amanda’s salad was tossed with white balsamic vinaigrette that, like the beef, had very subtle flavors. It wasn’t nearly as strong as traditional balsamic and went well with the mixed greens.
With the rest of our meal coming to the table in such good time, we were confused when it took over thirty minutes for our steaks to be served after we finished with our starters. The Steak Adiutori was a 12 oz New York strip steak topped with a garlic, parsley and shallot gremolata. On the side were a few potatoes that had seemingly been soaked in some sort of brown sauce, and a salad of chopped tomatoes, mixed greens, mushrooms and Gorgonzola cheese. It was close to what was served with the Carpaccio. Her steak was cooked to a perfect medium-rare, was well seasoned, and the gremolata was delicious and very flavorful. The steak, however, had a lot of hard, inedible fat on the outside with very little marbling throughout.
My Delmonico Messina was an 18 oz bone-in beef rib steak topped with a mushroom ragout, a tomato/corn salsa, and a side of garlic smashed potatoes. My steak was cooked beyond the medium-rare temperature that I ordered and was almost medium-well, though it was extremely tender, juicy and packed with flavor. I could have eaten a bowl of the mushroom ragout by itself, it was that good. The corn salsa was a little odd and didn’t seem to fit with the rest of the plate. My steak had beautiful marbling with delicious fat throughout and even more flavor was added simply by cooking the steak with the bone in. The smashed potatoes were amazing. The texture and taste were proof that the potatoes had been made from scratch with real potatoes, not boxed flakes. They were some of the best I’ve ever had. I used the bread to clean my plate when I was done.
Besides the slight wait for our entrees, which I would assume wasn’t his fault, the service from Mitchell was really great. Thank you to him and to the kitchen for an enjoyable meal. After using our Erie Fine Dining card, our meal was only $60 and that was including tip which was well worth it. The phone number for reservations and information is 814.835.3900 and is located at 3531 West Lake Road . The restaurant is open from 4:00 pm to 11:00 pm Tuesday – Saturday.
Until next time,
Andrew — Beard vs. Food
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After reading the review I am a little surprised. I hear so many people talk so highly of Alto Cucino and how “upscale” their food is. Therefore, I thought it would have been better for the prices they charge (remember, The Beard’s expense of $60.00 included the use of the Erie Fine Dinning Card). I have been there twice (never for steak) and had good experiences both times. Finally, why would any restaurant have the bread sitting on the table getting cold and possible a little stale before you arrive? What’s up with that? Makes no sense whatsoever.
The fact that you dont have a single steak on here from Bertrands forces me to take this review with a grain of salt…..have you ever heard of Bertrands?
Yes, I have indeed heard of Bertrand’s Bistro and thoroughly enjoy eating there. The restaurants I review are all picked by my readers. I put Bertrand’s as a choice for readers to vote for twice, and both times, it came in with the second fewest and fewest number of votes respectively. I try to leave it up to readers to vote on my review location so that I do not show a bias. If the opportunity presents itself again, I would love to review the food at Bertrand’s. If you are available, you are more than welcome to join me.
Andrew
Interesting blog…I enjoyed reading it. Alto Cucina serves up pretty decent food as far as Erie is concerned. We ate there about a month ago and to be honest, my main complaint was more about the decor of the restaurant. I simply cannot understand why none of the restaurants in this area aren’t more progressive with their interiors! I don’t know, maybe it’s just me. I really think that the prices are fair…surprisingly large portions, almost too large! I do get sick and tired of all of the references to Bertrand’s…people in Erie truly believe that it is some stellar upscale dining experience, which it is not. The food is average at best.
Had dinner at Alto Cucino last night (and several times in the past) and I was really disappointed. The food was ok, not great. The service was abysmal. Waited 5 minutes standing in at the hostess station waiting to be seated. There was no hostess so I am not sure who they are trying to fool here. Instead we were greeted with a one word, “why are you nothering me” attitude from the male wait staff. Finally seated and it took 5 minutes for wait staff to arrive and then shockingly, almost 20 minutes for the bottle of wine to arrive. I asked our waitress if this was the kind of experience we could expect the rest of the evening? Her response: “well, we’re busy!”
When ordering entrees we asked “Do you make your own pasta?” She replied No we don’t. Ok so I am being asked to pay 19 to 28 dollars for a plate of pasta that came from a food service – you’re joking … right?
If this place were anywhere else but Erie, PA it would have died a quick death, but not surprisingly Erie thinks this is a good restaurant. My advice – try Tarsitanos in Conneaut, OH. It blows this overpriced, bad service place out of the water. Ditto on Bertrand’s = they are miles ahead of Alto Cucino in every regard.
My advice to the owners? Clean up the bad attitude (which is probably caused by over-worked staff)! Hire a hostess, hire more wait staff and prepare fresh home made pasta and then maybe things would improve. I will not be back until they improve, if they improve!
I have traveled extensively in my life and eaten at some of the finest restaurants in the world… and to be fair…I am not looking for that. I am looking for professionalism, good food and excellent service. The food doesn’t have to be 5 star, but the service should be!
My sister from Calif and I and our niece and nephew also dined there on 6/15. We almost walked out. our waiter, eric was rude and the service was awful we waited 20-25 minuted between courses, the food was ok not great but the service made the whole experience just plain bad. i doubt i will go back as this is the 2nd time i have had the same waiter and he was just as bad the first time. embarassed that I brought my sis from out of town and had such a bad time.
spent 140.00 for an okay meal and lousy service.