Orso Restaurant

11/08/09

Wonderful Dinner - Sadly closing at end of November.

by vegaslocal

We live in the area and eat out often. We finally made it in to Orso an had a delightful meal.

Our server was excellent (he spoke french to another table). The service and food was very good and I was hesitant due to the bad reviews on this site.

We will be back at least one more time before they close down at the end of this month.

• Pros: Gorgeous heated patio, very good pasta
• Cons: Closing soon.

10/21/09

HORRID HORRID HORRID place

by jongil39870

How many waiters need to come to your table during the course of one meal? We asked for bread from 3 different waiters before getting any. And the red haired troll waitress who finally brought it was so rude to us that we almost got up and left. She was sassy and curt and so rude it was unbelievable! Not cut out to be a waitress. If you hate your job as a waitress, why be one? The bread was stale when it finally arrived. Drinks are horrible. They use a mix to make a margarita. No fresh lime in the house? This restaurant is like the vortex of crappy food and bad service. I don't know how they can get away with calling their 'pizza' pizza. It's low quality flour mixed with water crust, and flavorless tomatoes. So much oil you could have filled a car with it. Sick. The meat was cheap costco quality. The fish was on the last day of its life. Cheap wine. Servers who text on the floor in front of diners. Trashy servers that act like they've been there since the dawn of time. They did NOT care about our experience which was horrid. AND THE BILL. Oh my god. for this horrible service and crappy food, our bill came out to $50 a head! Four of us at $200! I would pay this at Mozza, but here?! It was not much better than Macdonald's quality food. Ugh. I will NOT return to this hole. They should bomb this place.

• Cons: Food is disgusting. Wait staff is rude and stupid.

11/15/08

Very Disappointed

by cdlindsey

I went to Orso tonight with 4 friends for my birthday. I have been to Orso many times, but haven't been for atleast 3 years. The prices have gone way up especially for the salads which are $15.00 and I find that excessive for a standard salad. It took 50 minutes for us to get bread which we had to ask another wait person to bring. Our wait person was completely checked out and didn't have a clue about the menu. The entree doesn't include any vegetable or side dish so basically everything is ala carte and the entrees are $30.00. We were there at 7:30 and they already ran out of Orange Roughy which was what two of us wanted to order. I ended up ordering the Salmon which was very average and again had no side dish. I remember Orso being a special wonderful place to eat and now I will never go back. Not to mention they took the best thing off the menu which was their Seafood Risotto.

09/01/08

Terrible Service and very mediocre food - pretty much a blue hair place.

by irisheyes3

My friends took me to Orso for my birthday dinner this past Saturday night and it was so disappointing! I've known about it for years and thought they had a great patio and great food - NOT! Our waitress was rude, barely gave us the time of day, and the patio was lame. Not even any ambient music, classical or ANYTHING - so that made it feel very dullsville. And people were smoking as well - isn't that illegal now in LA?? But we could have overlooked all of that if the food had been good. It was horrible. The artichoke salad, mixed greens salad and bruschetta all had NO FLAVOR (we all tried each other's meals), and then the main courses came. I ordered the sausage pizza - it's my favorite food - and it was just lame. Not horrible, but just barely ok. And others ordered the veal and pastas, and they were barely OK as well. We really should have asked for a refund, after dropping that much cash, but we didn't want to deal. Never going back and will be sure and tell others to not bother.

• Pros: At least they have a patio
• Cons: Terrible Food, Smoking, Rude Staff,

06/15/08

Where's the service?

by TVFood

My girlfriend and I went to Orso last night....Actually we didn't end up staying. We sat down around 8 and 15 minutes later, we got up and left. From the time we sat down, no one came over to take any orders. Not even a drink order. To top it off, it wasn't even crowded. Don't waste your time since it seems like they like to waste yours.

• Pros: None
• Cons: service, ambience.

10/27/07

HORRIBLE SERVICE... THE WORST...DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY

by annefisher

Let me tell you about Orso, LA location. I went for a friend's birthday. We had 5 at a table for 8. When we realized that 3 weren't coming they refused to seat us at a smaller table. They made comments when I arrived that I was sitting with the "boy who sits alone"... rude. I ordered a bottle of wine, not really understanding that they were being so arrogant. I had to pour my own wine. I was not asked how my food was when I received it. I was not offered dessert or told of any specials. We had a different waiter at the end of our meals and they refused to split the bill and they refused to even tell us what the bill was for. The 2nd waiter threw the bill on our table and said, you add it up, we don't do this! We had to get the manager involved, they made a spectacle of splitting the bill and it was the most unprofessional way to handle it I'd ever been involved with. I had to tell the manager that the correct way is to ask a guest to step away and handle a conversation in person. RUDE, ARROGANT, UNPROFESSIONAL AND THE FOOD WASN'T THAT GOOD... They were not even busy, on a Friday night? I guess from reading the reviews, I can see why. No bread on the table. No water. The least they can do... and we aren't even sure that we got the right amount because 4 people had to pay 375.00 and I paid 75. The bill just didn't make sense. I don't know how they can charge and expect to pay when they don't itemize the bill and refuse to and then start gettting loud in front of the other customers. I am definitely NOT going back to this dull lack of customer appreciation restaurant. HORRIBLE SERVICE.

• Pros: none
• Cons: no service, overpriced, rude, no bread, no water, not somewhere you spend a special occasion at.

01/27/07

Service Please?

by superhungry

I am alway surprised when people tell me how much they like Orso as the one time I was at this restaurant the service was extraordinarily bad. I know some of my more famous acquaintences say that their parties are regularly doted on here but I also have enough non-famous friends who have talked about how poor the service is (including myself) that it's enough to make me stay away. I had never been to a restaurant that doesn't let you try the wine when your table has purchased a bottle and then expects you to pour it yourself. That was down right bizarre. Generally I like restaurant's that make the entire wait staff responsible for the dining room or patio, but in this case, instead of more prompt attention, I felt as though we were constantly begging people to help us. What's more, the staff didn't seem to really communicate with each other, so we were constantly having to repeat our order and update them as to where we were in the meal. Very strange. The food was pretty good, although oddly proportioned, (I ordered the Lamb's liver and literally got a stack piled on a plate when two or three would have been plenty). There are too many good restaurant's with nice patio's in LA to bother with this restaurant.

• Pros: Friendly Host, Prompt Seating
• Cons: Wait staff, Attention to detail

Where low-key celebs come for equally low-key Italian food.

by Contributor

In Short
Modeled after a New York trattoria of the same name, a die-hard showbiz clientele comes for the food--and the stunning back patio. The menu changes daily to incorporate seasonal ingredients. Thin-crust pizzas are topped with tomato, smoked prosciutto and Parmesan, while noodles are tossed with combos such as grilled radicchio and mascarpone.

04/07/06

One of the best in the city

by botlife

I have been to Orso's close to 10 times. I have yet to have a bad experience. The food is more authentic than most. So I am a little suprised by some of the other reviews. The risotto is to die for and the pasta is fantastic. My only negative comment is that although it is great that they change up the menu a lot, it sucks when you have a dish that you love and it goes away. However there is always something great to replace it with. Request the Patio, however sit in the south side of it as the street noise can be annoying.

• Pros: Food, Staff, Decor
• Cons: Menu changes, Service

02/21/06

Everything is good but the food!

by nearbyneighbor

Looking forward to trying this place for a while. Great local, Pleasant bar & dining/patio area, Wine is an exceptional value, Prices are generally good but the food is HORRIBLE! I mean really, really bad. Service was top notch and host exceptionally pleasant but will not go back because the food was that bad.

• Pros: wine, price, local
• Cons: food, valet chaos