I was lucky enough to attend a cocktail party Wednesday night at Little Italy's newest restaurant, Milan.
It's almost misleading to say Milan is a Little Italy restaurant, because its character is so much different than most of the traditional family-run and owned trattorias in the neighborhood. Milan is going for uber-chic, and in its physical style, it delivers. Sleek white couches throughout the first level and heated outside patio area give it a lounge-y, place-to-be feel.
The cocktails, including several sweet martinis, and menu, which features among other things Italian sushi (olive oil and other Italian seasonings and ingredients are used with the rice and fish) are inventive. I didn't get a chance to try any of the food, other than an antipasto skewer with cheese, chorizo, and tomato. It was quite tasty.
Milan clearly hopes to be one of the city's swankiest restaurants and overall hot spots. Located at 1000 Eastern Avenue, it almost feels more Harbor East than Little Italy. One of the managers introduced himself as the "VIP Ambassador," a position, he assured us, is employed only by restaurants in Las Vegas, Miami, New York - and now Baltimore.
Will such a concept fly in our much more blue-collar city? We'll have to see. In the meantime, stop by Milan and let me know what you think.
If it's not your style, check out my recently-updated Little Italy Dining Guide.
Comments
The name MILANO, not MILAN, would have been molto Italiano!
This place is not worth the price. The ambiance is nice but the service, food, and manager are so not worth the time or effort. This place cannot handle large parties and their staff is not eager to please any of the guests.
To start off…we had reservations for 9 and was not seated until 11. There was a poor attempt to make up for the long delay by giving us disgusting drinks that had little to no alcohol and way too much juice. Then they tried to give us some sort of an appetizer/fruit cup that had a fancy name that the waiter couldn’t pronounce. When you asked her she tried to say the name and then said what the heck…it’s a fruit cup. Really!!! When we finally made it to our table, none of the special requests that were made by the birthday girls were done. We were told by the so called “VIP Ambassador” that we could have whatever we wanted w/in reason.
Our dining experience…. We waited 20-30 min. for our waiter to even say hello. We were given old, dirty, raggedy menus. Some random guy that looked like the bus boy gave half the table glasses of water in whatever glass he could find. We had regular glasses, wine glasses, and sprite served in champagne flutes. I guess we were fancy, huh?!?! At this point, several people left from the party because of the slow service. The “oh so” polite waitress stopped to drop off a picture of sprite so the flutes could be refilled b/c they were taking so long. When we tried to order appetizer and dinner the waiter told us he was only taking starters first and then he’ll come back later to get entree’s. What is hard about taking two orders at once? The worst part was that he didn’t come back for another 20 min. We had to request bread multiple times. Half of the small plates came that was ordered, the rest never came. The entree’s were cold. Tip- do not order the calamari- it is cold, soggy, and no flavor. By this point we were trying to get everyone’s attention about the service. The waiter tried to go get this “VIP- ambassador” but he left the building b/c he didn’t want to discuss the issues with the party. He did not make any efforts to try and make up for the poor service.
Take note: tall people must enter with caution b/c of the big start that hangs down in the middle of the walk way. It may poke your eye out. I DO NOT recommend this place for large parties or any party for that matter. It is overpriced and poorly ran.