So with last night being the opening night, we went in expecting Trattoria al Forno to be uncoordinated, hectic, and probably not too good on the food because the kitchen hadn't had time to get in a groove, but what the heck, it was close and fun to try opening night.
I would say we were right on one of the three. It was hectic. But it was mostly coordinated, in that we saw three managers walking the floor at all times, so they were definitely all hands on deck. And we were totally wrong on the food. It was REALLY GOOD!!!
We checked in about 15 minutes early, and they said they were running on reservation time. A few people came in for walk ins and were told ADRs only because of opening night.
We sat about five or ten minutes after our ADR time, and we were right in the first "room." For the most part, the "rooms" are divided by the open curtains and it's really the different flooring and seating thet creates the divisions, and you might not even notice if you didn't know it was supposed to be different. The kitchen and pizza oven are open and in view.
The server took over ten minutes to come to the table (I said hectic), but one of the hostesses came to table and apologized for the delay and brought our water. So that was all good. When the server came, she was very friendly (maybe a little too over-enthusiastic, but better than dour.). The wine list by the bottle and glass was large. I like Pino Grigio, and they had three different ones, and I asked if she could recommend one (I like crisp), and it was obvious she had no idea. She recommended the middle priced one, which sounded good to me! It took a while to get the wine (after the apps came), but I liked it and got a second glass of the same.
For appetizers (no pics), my wife got the caprese salad, and I got the fried calamari. Both were really good. The mozerella and tomatoes were tasty and fresh, and the calamari was light and crispy with a very interesting sauce underneath (not a dipping sauce on the side), that I would say had notes of yummy goodness, to use detailed foodie terms.
For the entrees, I got the chicken Parmesan. It's the start of any good italian place.
The pasta was fresh, and the sauce had a slight spicy kick to it. That reminds me they had bread that was baked fresh in their oven, but it was just okay and not really warm like they made it sound like it would be. The bread cut the spiciness though. The chicken parm itself was tasty and much better than what I had at Mama Melrose earlier in the week (doesn't say much!). Interestingly, the waitress said after that the breading was good for people with gluten free diets. I'm sure that will make some people very happy!
My wife had the braised beef bolognese, which the waitress recommended and she was going to get anyway.
This was the star of the show. It's hard to see, but the chunk on top is a huge piece of beef short rib or something similar. It was super tender and tasted fantastic. Very big portion, my wife (even with a lot of my help
) couldn't come close to finishing it.
Unfortunately we skipped dessert, since we still had a coated rice crispy treat mickey head from goofy's at downtown Disney waiting in the room for us, and we were already full.
Overall, it's hard to gauge a place by the first night, but we would definitely recommend it. We'll go again next year, without a doubt. The other food we saw looked good. The pizza was nice and fresh, even the kids pizza (two slices) looked good coming out (our seats were right by the pizza oven.). Looking forward to see how it matures, and if it can get even better.
. Some more pics.
, next September. I will probably be relying on this board for a lot of our questions, hope you guys don't get sick of me! So excited to stay at the Boardwalk! We visited the Boardwalk area during our last trip and we all loved it. Can't wait!! 
