L’allegria

DO NOT GO HERE! READ THIS AND YOU WILL KNOW WHY– My girlfriend and I came here to celebrate our two year anniversary, we had only heard good things so we were very excited. We started off with the appetizer of caprese– the mozzarella was extremely runny, smelled weird, and tasted like they had found it in their fridge from a month ago. We thought it may have just been one mishap and were expecting our entrees to be fantastic, like we had heard. I got pasta with all types of seafood (clams, muscles, lobster, calamari and squid) with a red sauce and my girlfriend got linguini with clams and a white sauce. The fish tasted under cooked and the pasta was definitely under cooked as it was almost crunchy when you took a bite. Both meals were drenched in butter and oil to the point where it felt disgusting to eat any more of it. Then, for dessert, we ordered the cannoli cake and two mini cannolis because we had thought that it couldn’t get any worse. The sponge of the cake was horrible. It did not even taste like cake and the filling tasted old. On the way home, I got sick and was throwing up and my girlfriend spent the entire night on the toilet, and I was between the sitting on the toilet and throwing up in a bucket all night. In the morning, we called the restaurant to tell them that we thought we had food poisoning and that we felt we should not have to pay the $ 101 bill. The manager was extremely rude and immature. He yelled at us over the phone, accused us of lying and hung up on us multiple times until finally he agreed to take $ 50 off, leaving us still with a $ 51 and still throwing up.

Really great Italian food. A big menu and we’ve never been disappointed. Generous portions and the food is authentically prepared. Tonite we had the Bacala and a giant Pork Chop plus a bottle of Mobtepulciano at a very special price. Love this place!

I had a business dinner last night and was very disappointed. There were two tables and the server was not very attentive to our table. I ordered chicken piccata and had to hunt for the 4 capers in the dish. The chicken was very thick without taste. I mentioned this to the server who did not offer to replace my dish nor did he offer to provide any credit of the meal. He simply took my barely eaten plate away. My business associate mentioned to me that the previous visit he was disappointed in his meal as well. Thumbs down in my opinion.

Had the seafood special. It was good. Service was very good. My wife had farro with beans and broccoli rabe. She said it was very good.

Had a really nice lunch on Fathers Day. Thought he food was well prepared and the service was attentive

Ate here last night. Not my choice. There were four of us and I seem to be in the minority, but I was underwhelmed.
Two of my companions had already been seated and we were ten minutes late, but there was no one at the front to show us to our table. We had to hunt on our own. Later, I passed the host stand and there still was no one there, which seemed odd.
Kudos to the piano player. You can’t hear him in the dining room. Sadly, the restroom had the best sound. He was quite good.
I ordered the seafood salad appetizer. It was decent sized, but so drowned in oil, that it was like eating greasy, slimy seafood. I don’t drink, so I was fine with water and the after-​dinner espresso was quite strong, not terribly bitter and quite good. I ordered the Branzino and had them filet it, as I didn’t want to spend my evening working on my fish. It wasn’t bad, but it was nothing special and rather bland. The small serving of broccoli that came with it was overcooked. I wasn’t quite mush, but another minute and it would have been. I skipped dessert, but the dessert tray looked like something you would see in a diner-​really unappealing. My companions ordered the tiramisu and cannoli cake and said they were good.
My companions had dined here, before, but I had not. They loved it. I did not. The décor looks like a place you would take your mom and grandmother for Mother’s Day. It’s far too precious for the level of food. The prices are ridiculously top-​tier for food that is not top-​tier. You have to earn $ 15+ appetizers and not charge those prices, just because you’re in a well-​off neighborhood. I am always leery of places with too many items on the menu (like a diner). It is not humanly possible to cook every dish well.
From the outside, the building looks like a store that went out of business. It’s terribly unappealing. I parked across the street and wasn’t even sure how to enter the building. Given the neighborhood, I am not surprised by the prices, but when I pay New York prices, I expect New York quality and this isn’t in the ballpark. I will not, of my own volition, be back.

Typical Italian décor
At first there was a smell at the entrance
Group of 4
We ordered 2 salads fresh and tasty as main courses gnocchi was just OK
Pasta with foie gras was excellent chicken thighs was perfect and last dish farrow with broccoli rabe and bean was the best.

Classy Italian restaurant with a notable wine list and great selection of classic yet unique entrees, appetizers and deserts. So many great items to chose from. Service is great; professional and discrete. They will be happy to help you select your next favorite dish. Try their linguini & clams in red source. It’s made to perfection! Deserts are pretty amazing, too. Next time I’m going to try pizzas.

Very nice restaurant, not cheap, but considering the service and food was excellent, for a special occasion it’s well worth it.

I’ve heard many mixed reviews about L’allegria, so I had to try it myself. The atmosphere here is very nice, and I can see why many people chose L’allegria for special occasions. I read a few reviews, mentioning that the service was very slow here, I am one that hates to be rushed, but for a restaurant that wasn’t overly packed, it could have been a little quicker. Toward the end of dinner we ended waiting quite awhile for the waitress to grab the check to pay. I ordered the Saverio’s Lobster Bouillabaisse, it started off well, but the clams and mussels ended up being so sandy that I decided not to finish the meal. I then tried the pasta that the fish was over, and the sand must have made it’s way here as well. At 32.50, I don’t think that’s acceptable. I wouldn’t say that I will not give L’allegria another shot, but I was slightly let down, because I expected it to be better than it was.

I never knew this restaurant was open. I work 2 minutes from L’Allegria and have driven past many times but I always thought it was closed. The entrance is on the side/​back and the windows are pretty heavily curtained. Went here to dinner with my dad after going through Unilocal and it was ok. Heavy food, very old school Italian. The wine list was decent, I always appreciate a restaurant that has a full bar and so many Italian restaurants in the area are BYO. The food was unremarkable. I was here last week and can’t really remember what I had, I know it was pasta with shrimp but that’s about it. My dad ordered the medallions of filet and while the meat was tender it really was more of a strip steak, though it certainly was priced as if it really was filet.
In this area there are so many other great Italian restaurants to go to that it’s really not worth spending the $ 100+ for 2 entrees and a bottle of wine. You can definitely do better.

Polpi was unbelievable as well as the Chilean sea bass. Piano player adds to the fine dining experience.

My wife bought a $ 100 Groupon for $ 40, so we didn’t hold back on what we ordered. Nice bottle of wine, two appetizers, pricey entrees — no room for dessert. First of all, everything was great. Had a shrimp, calamari, crabmeat appetizer and a mozzarella salad, both of which were large and delicious with every mouthful. Frankly, that would have been the meal for me — plenty of food. Then came our entrees. I had a lobster dish and my wife had the red snapper. Both cooked to perfection and prepared commensurate with the price.
Okay, now here’s the slightly odd thing that happened… For some reason, instead of keeping your wine in an ice bucket by your table, they use one bucket for several tables and keep it next to one of them. So our bottle was in the bucket with two or three other bottles. I believe they inadvertently gave about a third of our wine to another table. They poured just a couple times and suddenly the bottle was no longer in the bucket. So we paid for a nice bottle of white, but the wine was gone by the time the entrees arrived. Neither of us remember them making the final pour, which I think we would have noticed, but we weren’t certain enough to complain.

L’allegria is a good Italian spot.
Went here for dinner to celebrate my mom’s bday. Place was empty on a Sunday afternoon.
Food: Apps are not family style so you have to order a few. The cold antipasto was enough to feed 1 person and there were 6 of us. It was pricey too. We had to order another. 1 piece of salami is not going to feed a table of 6. Calamari same issue but we decided against ordering another one.
Main course I had the gnocchi which were superb. Melted in my mouth. The sauce was a veal ragu which I figured would have chunks of veal but I didn’t find any. Kind of a bummer. I tried my fiancé’s braciole and it was pretty good.
Dessert was a combo of tiramisu (eh), chocolate cake (decent) and a large cannoli.
Wine selection was good but they were expensive.
Service — Excellent. Our waiter was super friendly, patient, attentive and down to earth.
Prices — Expensive for moderate food.

Wow, this place has really gone downhill. We’ve eaten here many times over the years, and I cannot believe how badly this place has sunk. Let’s start at the beginning — this is a top dollar, supposedly top shelf Italian restaurant. Décor, piano bar, the whole works. For the money they charge, I expect near perfection, and sadly they didn’t even come close.
Immediately upon arriving at the table I noticed it had not been set properly — salad fork was missing. Then literally 30 seconds after we sat down an amuse bouche was brought over — mind you, before water glasses were even filled (and yes, they do ask if you want bottled or tap). Wine list? Forget about it… the waitress certainly did! And as for «by the glass» choices? Five — three white, two red. Hope you like house wine!
Service was uninspired to say the least, and rushed to say the worst. I expect this type of place to have a very leisurely pace for a dinner service. No such luck this time, as we were being asked what to order practically right after the specials were read. Of course, no rush whatsoever on keeping the water glasses filled.
Appetizer — oh dear… I really, really was shocked with the Caprese. We’ve ordered that every single time we’ve been here before, and it is always a good, tasty dish. This time, the cheese actually tasted a hint of rancidity… and I literally felt sick to my stomach before finishing my portion.
Main meal — well I was in the mood for something traditional, veal parm. Sadly, once again, there was nothing traditional about this one — served with, of all things — SNOW PEAS!!! I don’t recall the sign over the door saying «Lucky Harry’s Dim Sum» when I walked in. I have never, ever been served snow peas with any tomato sauce based Italian dish in any authentic Italian restaurant I’ve ever been to. No, wait… one time I was — in a DINER. And to top it off, when I inquired of the waitress about the lack of pasta, was informed that this is how the dish comes, and adding pasta to it would necessitate the purchase of a half-​pasta course. Are you kidding me??? So $ 26 for veal parm that is NOT a full veal parm meal, and an ADDITIONAL ~$ 10 to make it right!?! Un-​believe-​able.
Now we get to dessert — why we bothered to stay through this course, well, when you have two kids at home and get to go out maybe twice a year, well, you don’t get many choices. Tiramissu tasted like coffee underneath sweetened cool whip. Wife’s chocolate mousse looked tasty tho, too bad I didn’t order that one.
All in all, I think this experience is just reflective of the overall decline and decay I see creeping into once venerable institutions all around the country. Places like this cannot hope to stay in business for very long charging NYC 5 Star restaurant prices in a town like Madison, and not living up to the billing.
Sadly, this will have been our last visit to L’Allegria.

I had dinner here last week. Very disappointed in the food. My Guest ordered the porterhouse steak (Which was the daily special) When the steak arrived, it was tiny, maybe ½ inch thick and no bigger than 6 inches. It looked like they went into the shop rite and bought it out of the meat case. Steak was good, taste wise. I got the bill and the steak was $ 46.00. (ouch) I blame myself for not asking the cost when the waiter told us the specials, but I would have liked for them to let us know that the special cost this much.
Now comes the bad part. I ordered the other special of the day, the sea food Oregnata. It was a sampler type of dish, five different fishes that were all made Oreganata style. I went for the clam first and it was totally fishy tasty, definitely not fresh.
I then cut the shrimp and it too was not fresh. The taste of Iodine was very pronounced.
Ok I know that this happens with both types of these fish. So Then I go to the flounder and it too was fishy. When I smelled it, it smelled like it wasn’t fresh and it had an oder to it. I stopped eating right there. I didn’t complain, but when I was asked why I didn’t eat, they did not charge me for it and also offered to bring me something to either go or take home. I declined.
Service was ok. Everyone was polite and professional. But my overall rating of this place is that it is way overpriced for the quality of the food. Again, I was only here once. So it may have just been a bad moment in time. But for the money they charge, this should not happen. If you want to charge these kind of prices, you should serve top shelf food all the time. There are a ton of lower prices Italian restaurants in the area that are a better choice than this.
I used Unilocal and Open table to make a reservation and that went perfectly.

I have always wanted to dine at l’Allegria so when there was a Groupon I decided to try it out. Service was outstanding. Food was OK, not great or outstanding as others have stated. Atmosphere was terrific with a piano player in the bar area. We were in and out in an hour which I found slightly odd but the service was so efficient before you knew it we were done. Be sure to be dressed in something other than casual attire as well. Bread was delicious.

I have two theories:
Either the restaurant ran out of salt last night, or… the chef has no taste buds!
Otherwise how can one explain why every dish we had was tasteless?
I ordered the fennel salad, which was simply doused in olive oil (NO sign of any seasoning. Seriously, it was BLAND). Then I had the prosciutto (this was the only thing that tasted right, I mean, how can you screw up slicing up three slices of cured meat, right?). For the main course, I had the duck. Again, it was BLAND BLAND BLAND.
My wife had the Arugulla salad and pork tenderloin. The pork sounded so good on the menu but looked and tasted… well, let’s just say it didn’t make the fine dining cut.
We keep trying to find good restaurants in the ‘burbs (just moved to the area recently) but I guess all the good chefs head to NYC. We should just head to the city when we want a fancy meal next time.
What a dissapointment… I had such high hopes reading the reviews here.

I have not been back here in recent years but I came hear several times with my family over the years. Had my high school graduation dinner here. Even squeezed ourselves in one Christmas eve last minute. They were VERY accommodating.
They had a great caprese mozzarella salad. I always got the lobster which was delicious — it’s lobster, it would take a genius to mess that up. My friend had the ‘strangled priests’ pasta based on the comical name and really liked it. Every time we’ve been here service is top notch, classy and super nice. The food is really good. When you’re there, you don’t feel like you’re on a side street in Madison.
Upscale and a good date spot or for celebrating a special occasion. I want to go back soon!

My family and I have been coming to L’Allegria for many years. We’ve celebrated birthdays, graduations, my parents’ anniversary… the list goes on and on. We can always rely on this authentic Italian restaurant in our hometown of Madison for flavorful, crisp, authentic Italian cooking — they serve consistently good food accompanied by welcoming and warm service.
Though everything on the menu is incredible, my favorite include: antipastino all’italia, prosciutto e melone, grilled portobello mushrooms, buffalo mozzarella with basil and tomato, fusilli napoletani, and riganoti with king crabmeat. They also have a delicious tortellini special that my sister has gotten in the past.
Mangia!