Vespaio

All hype, not substance. Well, the food was not bad, but not good either. The place is loud, uncomfortable, and populated by a bunch of loud young Westlake rowdies who had to shout at the top of their lungs while their women screamed in approval about how much they made and how cool their cars were and where they vacationed.

Bad enough to make me not return yet.

For the price, I expected better.…

Vespaio is a tummy ache waiting to happen. Where to begin? I had heard horror stories about the management and the French owner of this place. My friend talked me into going here because she had always wanted to try it. I gave in.... We arrived around 8:30, the place was hot as hell, I'm thinking they do not invest any of the many dollars they must make back into keeping up the comfort level here.. not a good dining temperature. We sat at the bar where a very colorful character, Tom greeted us. He was very entertaining but seemed a little buzzed himself already. He makes a fine martini for sure. We ordered the tuna tartare which was underwhelming to say the least... there is enough bread here to choke an army with a thimble's worth of tuna to go with it. If this was Uchi grade tuna then I could possible almost see the value but the fish was starting to oxidize and was not pleasant. We ordered the veal saltimbocca and the tagliatelle for entrees.. Blah! The veal was so overdone and tough (hard to accomplish with veal) and slathered in butter that it was inedible.. the pasta, while homemade, was disgustingly overly creamy with no emphasis on subtle nuances.. just a big creamy gut bomb. We were missing Tom at this point, he had disappeared for what I assume was a cigarette break, when he walked behind us to come back behind the bar the odor of nicotine followed him. In the meantime, the manager had taken his place behind the bar and had this condescending, fake b.s. attitude that made our already unhappy stomachs crawl... The kind of guy you expect to find at a used car lot. This was seriously, one of the worst dining experiences I've had in the world and it would have been funny if not for the exorbitant prices these clowns have the audacity to charge for this mess. Avoid.…

Save your $. We had wanted to go to Vespaio for a while because of all the great reviews. When we finally went this week it was an awesome disappointment. The bartender was too busy doing inventory to make any conversation or even get our bread before the food arrived. We were the only one's there at the time. The bread was lousy considering it's made on sight. It was cold, undercooked and bland with a poor crust. The pizza was lousy, undercooked and bland. The lasagna was a pool of bad pasta and lackluster bolognese. The salmon and crab ravioli special was so bland and the "homemade" pasta was terrible. We ended up just having everything packed to go-for our dogs-and grabbing an awesome burger at Hut's. It was a $100 waste.…

A taste of Italy. I used City Search to research restaurants for a recent 5 day stay in Austin. I was impressed with the reviews others gave this restaurant. It did not disappoint. Beginning with the bartender who was so friendly and offered suggestions on the wine and the food and the waiter who made us feel we were the most important people in the restaurant. The food was spectacular...the Duck Bolognese was fabulous as was everything else to include the dessert which was a cappuccino flavored mousse that was to die for.

Don't miss this one!!…