Alto Cucina

Great location and idea, but you can’t serve high caliber food with low caliber servers…9 dollars for a beer which takes you 9 minutes to bring back to my table? Do not mean to be offensive, food was tremendous, best onion soup I have had in a while. Just irritation on service… your bartender also shouldn’t be out of every single Riesling in the building. House wines should possibly be offered at discount when every other option is out of place, or a quick apology is equal to a discount. If the check amount is over $ 100 in this area I at least expect good service as apposed nonchalant carrying food. If you expect long wait times and heavy checks then come «check» it out.

They truly care that you have a great meal, and even better time at Alto Cucina.
My wife and I had our wedding dinner and reception at Alto Cucina in June, 2015. We met with Lisa, the general manager, a few times before the event to go over the timeline, logistics, and what to expect on the wedding day. Everyone was as excited to be a part of this event as we were. Lisa and Patrick helped choose our dinner selections, they worked with our musician to ensure the sound was good (we had a single acoustic guitar player), and they even created a back-​up plan in case it rained.
Everyone was fantastic during the reception. Their timing for service was amazing. We had a special signature champagne toast that we started at 3:30pm, and the staff was right on time. During dinner, they refilled glasses, took plates, helped with the food, and talked among our families and friends as well. Everyone truly loved the service and the venue. We had biscotti served with coffee, and the staff was right on time.
Lisa and Patrick were a perfect team to work with. I felt like we were one in the same. They truly care that you have a great meal, and even better time at Alto Cucina.

Not happy with this restaurant at all. Asked if we had reservations. She asked if we were visiting from out of town and she said she couldn’t help us. I neglected to tell her we were born and raised here with plenty of family here. Open tables everywhere. She turned down lots of future business with us as we will never refer or go again. She told us was down to 2 chefs and they couldn’t serve us properly. A pizza place? Who turns down customers in this economy? There were open tables at 8pm and open tables in the deck. Never again. Her staff wanted to seat us. We were dressed appropriately. She was a nut job. Will not bring anyone there. But we ended up at a fantastic restaurant ‘Bertrands’ which not only welcomed us but the food was outstanding.

What a poorly run restaurant Alto Cucina is. We had a large party and called in advance for a reservation. But they were not prepared. The service was terrible and it wasn’t even busy… we were only one of three tables. I couldn’t get over how slow the service was. They were out of most of the less expensive wines and would not substitute a more expensive bottle — like any good restaurant would. We waited so long for our food, which was 3 stars at best but far too expensive. No one ever came by to refill water glasses. The worst part of all was that the service staff was just rude. Our waitress had a very bad attitude and was very snooty. I would not recommend this place to anyone. Very disappointing.

This place is awfully pretentious. The food was decent but over priced. The interior could use some upgrading. It bills itself as one of the best places in Erie for fine dinning but I can think of several better ones.

Awesome

Went to alto this summer. Location is very unique! Seems like an old house, very comfy inside! Service left something to be desired. Wait staff was friendly but not attentive.
The food. This was our first dining experience here. My meal was not memorable, it was a lemon sauce dish, ordered off the special menu. But the Lemon was way over powering. However Allison’s dish is worth going back for. She ordered cozze di servidio! The scallops contained no grit! And the smoked Gouda Alfredo was more than phenomenal. Alto cuncina is on our places to revisit and explore the menu more.
The bar is very intimate. With a great bartender, her name was Bri. She gave us great service! Must relax at the bar before sitting at your table!

I was really excited to try this joint, maybe a little too excited because it set the expectations high. The atmosphere promised a cozy evening with the fam. The place was obviously converted from a house to a restaurant. With dark wood and a warm fireplace going, it really filled the room with a nice glow.
I was happy to see a full Italian bread basket waiting for me. The bread was fresh and the oil based dipping sauce was awesome! I have no clue what it was made of but it was awesome! We ordered up the Fontinella Cacchione, a baked Fontinella cheese wedge in puff pastry topped with mushroom ragu that was delicious! I wanted to lick the plate the sauce was so good! We also go the Spider Bellinis, which was crab cake stuffed soft shell crab, polenta crusted and sautéed served with spicy garlic aioli. The spicy aioli gave it a nice kick, which I really enjoyed. But that’s where the enjoyable ended…
The caesar salad had a watery texture, which made it really lackluster. For dinner I ordered the «most popular» choice (per the waitress) the Cozze di Servidio. It was grilled shrimp and sea scallops with eggplant over linguini with smoked gouda alfredo. What really hooked me was the promise of delicious gouda alfredo. Sadly, the sauce fell flat. I was sad because I really wanted to like it. If the sauce fails, the whole dish kinda falls apart.
My mom ordered the Pollo Gallo which was sautéed chicken breast in garlic and lemon caper cream sauce served with rapini and Swiss chard over cappelini pasta. That was by far the best meal. She didn’t finish it, so the rest of the table actually ended up finishing it for her!
So moral of the story is to order something differently next time for the main dish. Might not be the best I’ve had, but I think they can do better!

We held our rehearsal dinner here. They treated us like crap, like brining in 50 ppl for dinner was a hassle. The night of it started at 7 and they did not serve dinner until 9!!! So ridiculous they thought they could get more $ by us drinking and waiting. Food was good but horrible service. Will not return or recommend for anyone doing a larger party.

Excellent food for the money. Service is a little slow, but it doesn’t matter if you have good company. Everything we have ordered has been prepared very well, and we will keep going back. Try the Veal, and the cream cheese appetizer dip (yummy).

dinner here was delicious. we started with the crab cakes and scallop seviche. i don’t eat crab so i don’t have a comment on that, but the seviche was great. very nice, light citrus dressing served over spinach. for my entrée i had a pasta dish with prawns and scallops topped with a smoked gouda alfredo. OMG-​this was such a good dish! the sauce was amazing, and not as heavy as i expect an alfredo to be. the seafood was cooked perfectly.
service was great as well. too bad we had no room for dessert-​they had some really good options. i wasn’t a fan of the décor; some was ok, but some parts reminded me of a nursing home.

Good service, pretty nice ambiance, average food.

I wanted so badly to like this place. I walked in and the environment was awesome: great music, polite guests, beautiful interior… finally, i thought, a great place to eat in erie. wrong. i ordered two appetizers, two entrees, and a desert.
appetizer 1: «barbecued» prawns wrapped in bacon. the bacon was pretty rubbery… much like you’d find at any run of the mill diner. the shrimp may have been brined, but i really doubt it as they were pretty bland. the barbecue sauce lacked heat completely and was indistinguishable from any sweet, store-​bought bbq sauce. but since the shrimp had almost no flavor of its own, it was nice to dip it in anything at all. C–
appetizer 2: veal and sausage meatballs with house made marinara. decent, but really nothing to write home about. the flavor was good, texture was ok (a bit more like meatloaf than a meatball should be). the real shit-​kicker with this dish was the fact that it was served only slightly above room temperature. the server was apologetic and quickly brought us a hot new plate of meatballs. not surprisingly, at the right temperature they were much more appetizing. B
entrée 1: grumpy pork. (Marinated pork tenderloin with fresh horseradish and roasted garlic mashed potatoes with
smoked corn relish and salsa verde.) where to start with this one… this dish was a terrible concept to begin with and was executed poorly. why did i order it? because i really like pork and went out on a leap of faith. unfortunately, however, none of the flavors complimented one another, and the dish totally lacked an identity. the tenderloin was served on a bed of «horseradish and roasted garlic» «mashed» potatoes with gravy. i could detect neither horseradish nor garlic. not even the slightest hint. TGI Fridays does a much better job with garlic mashed potatoes. and «mashed» instead of mashed because they weren’t quite mashed. ok, so you want to charge $ 22 for a dish in which mashed potatoes have a major supporting role? fine, but buy a potato ricer or at least run them through a food mill. as for the gravy on the potatoes, it was identical to McCormick gravy mix, the processed garbage you buy from the grocery store when you’re too lazy to make gravy properly. what does McCormick gravy mix have to do with the rest of this dish? again, I have no idea. this dish totally lacked identity. the pork itself wasn’t awful and was cooked to a slight pink center (exactly as i’d requested), but it was basically flavorless. the «smoked corn relish» and «salsa verde»… holy shit. i’m not sure whether these two things were supposed to be separate or not, but they were combined on the plate. the «smoked» corn had not a hint of smoke, and i’m pretty sure it came from a can. the salsa «verde» was not green but red, and tasted remarkably like tostito’s salsa. there was no heat to the salsa either, it was simply tomatoes and maybe some onion. There were no peppers, there was no cilantro. to top it off, literally, the dish was garnished with what i think was fried grass? i could be wrong, i don’t know… regardless, it was bizarre and tasteless. after a few malaising bites, i had the thing boxed and will probably use the pork to make a sandwich. D–
entrée 2: fresh diver sea scallops in some sort of cream sauce. the sauce was actually pretty good, but we ended up having this dish sent back for a few reasons. first, the scallops hadn’t been cleaned properly and there was more sand in these scallops than i’ve found in any scallop in my entire life. i get that scallops are a pain in the ass to clean, but when each bite is overrun with sand, they’re inedible. on that basis alone the dish is a total failure. (what does it matter what the sauce tastes like if you’ve got a mouthful of sand breaking your teeth?). but the real slap in the face… out of ~ 6 scallops, just one had the slightest sear on it. the rest looked like they’d been boiled. this is totally insulting because cooking seared scallops is the easiest thing to do in the world. it takes almost no talent. the only requirement is a hot pan. the line cook must’ve thrown the first one on the pan, realized that it wasn’t nearly hot enough, and said «to hell with the customers! they won’t know the difference!» and then thrown the rest of them on his warm pan despite knowing better. unfortuantely, i do know the difference between something which has been seared as advertised, and something which has not. F
throughout this whole mess, our server was incredibly nice, attentive, and accommodating. he gave us a new plate of meatballs immediately, took the scallops off our bill, and brought out a free desert of our choosing. we went with the tiramisu, which was hopelessly mediocre. but the gesture was definitely appreciated.

Delightful dinner! We shared lobster and crab fritters w/​zucchini cole slaw; each had Caesar salad. I enjoyed Pipete Mucha with sausage and pork tenderloin — like a diablo sauce w/​peppers, onions and mushrooms. Dessert was a delicious Disco Chocolate Tower — a great choice for chocolate lovers. Both the Caesar dressing and coffee lacked depth of flavor, but the rest was terrific! Nice wine list (although no vintages) with very good choices for by-​the-​glass.