Annata Wine Bar

We have heard mixed reviews on this ""Wine Bar"" and wanted to try ourselves.... I had heard and read the food/wine was good, but service was bad. I made a 6pm reservation for three people, when we arrived the restaurant was fairly empty. We informed the hostess that we would be a party of four instead of three. The hostess (GinaMarie)got a bit flustered not sure where to seat us with the one additional person. We assured her not to worry, we would be fine at the smaller table if we had to squeeze a little. The smaller table was fine and comfortable for us, no complaints. Our waitress was very good, she was pleasant and not the hovering type. We had a very nice meal with good conversation. The food was good, we had the calamari , eggplant, and filet sliders. All was excellent. After we paid our bill, we were finishing our conversation's and saying our goodbyes when the hostess came to our table and asked if everything was okay and was there anything else we could get you. I immediately got the impression that we were being asked to hurry along!!! Nothing like here's your hat, whats your hurry!!! Up until that very moment I would have been happy to return, but will reconsider visiting this establishment again. more

Annata doesn't claim to be anything more than a wine bar on an old, hopeful for a genisis, avenue that may not ever see it. The atmosphere of the place is fantastic, from street view, kind of a run down Haddonfield, to the interior, dimmly lit, comfortable dining (although the soft, deep chairs keep you from feeling involved), about 150 wines to choose from, and at initial glance (with the additional menu provided) a nice Tapas menu which suprisingly to me was served in both single and family size. I like to experience different foods in small portions and that is one of the reasons I like Tapas. Before I get to all of this let me just say that the initial impression of this place is very casual, and extremely lively on a Friday evening. They do have live jazz on Thursdays and Acoustic on Fridays. Very Cool. Upon seating the server approached the table pleasantly. She did not allow us to even glance at the extensive wine list before hitting us with a ""what do you usually drink?"" I asked for a pinot noir (not stating a price curious to see what would rear its head). She offered me ""everyones favorite"", which upon tasting was turned back at $33 per bottle. The next selection she had was somewhat better but still mediocre. She did have to reference the wine list several time to help her make the selections. I would have been more impressed had she acted like she knew what she was doing and just pulled any old bottle from the rack, which is basically what was happening anyway. As for the Tapas, my wife and I tend to share so we ordered 5 ""small"" Tapas items. Flank Steak which was undercooked (raw) at med rare but good flavor, the crabcake was fishy, the sea bass was way, way, overcooked, the cheese and meat plates were poorly selected in my opinion and had no real thought put into the manchego and peppered assiago cheese accompanying the copa ham and after asking the server several times and not being able to hear her (was a bit loud for dining) I can only assume the second meat was a Soppressata or Mortadela more than likely the latter. The house eggroll had nice flavor. They also had a Shrimp Po boy which was litterally OK. All of the small Tapas plates seemed too large to me. Overall the atmosphere is very nice, the view out the window gives you an in the city feel in a fairly rural area, the entertainment is a plus, the bar is beautiful, the dining room is nicely decorated and comfortable (the open ceiling is not that appealing to me though), they have a nice area for parties. For the most part I think Annata has everything Hammonton needs and the potential to make it in areas with elevated expectations with one exception, the quality control on the food. Sending an item to a table that will disapoint a customer is bad for business, even if they might not send it back. The chef should know the quality he is putting out is top notch. We have seen so many places open have all the atmosphere in the world but the food cant keep the customers. When a customer orders several Items and 4 out of 5 are a disapointment it is a shame. A quality place needs all of these things in place in my opinion. The only thing this place lacks is the quality of the food. The menu is well thought out and has a little something for everyone. The entertainment and ""good time"" aspect of the wine bar is great and you will definitely have fun if you are looking for cocktails and a snack or app. if you are looking for a wine sampling, they don't have one daily, if you are looking for a wine bar/tapas/sit and drink and eat experience, I personally, would go for the city. more

A lovely evening out with friends last Saturday night was ruined by a very rude employee of the Annata Wine Bar. Two of us traveled from the Cherry Hill/ Philadelphia area solely to try Annata. Our reservations were at 6:00 pm and we were seated promptly at a beautiful table with comfortable chairs overlooking the center of town. The waitress was very welcoming and told us to take our time looking over the wine list and the menu. She asked us if it was our first time visiting Annata and since it was she offered us her recommendations. We enjoyed a bottle of wine and a few of the tapas dishes and thought everything was fantastic. As we were finishing our meal we were even making plans for when we could all return. Our waitress brought our check out, put it on the table and told us to take our time. The check was for $103.00 and we left the waitress a 20% + tip. The credit card receipt read 8:03 pm. As we were finishing our water at approximately 8:10 pm a woman came over to our table from the bar area. She rudely told us, and I quote ?Hi, Ladies. A couple of us over at the bar were playing rock, paper, and scissors as to who was going to come over and say this as diplomatically as possible. We?re going to have to ask you to leave because we have other people waiting for the table and they are very angry and about to walk out. But, thanks for coming in.? Never in my life have I ever been as embarrassed as I was at that very moment, mainly because the tables were close enough together that the other diners heard this ordeal. Here we were wrapping up a fun night and talking about what a nice, relaxing meal we had so needless to say we were absolutely taken off guard by this rude gesture. I understand if other people were waiting for our table but there was a way handle to handle the situation without being rude and condescending. My friend works in Philadelphia in public relations and made the point that this woman could have kindly moved us to the bar area and offered us a round of drinks and we would have never been embarrassed and probably wouldn?t have even noticed the difference. I don?t feel like two hours is an excess amount of time to be in an upscale wine bar sharing a tapas menu, especially when we were told numerous times by our waitress to take our time. I?ve dined in substantially more upscale establishments than this and I have never been made to feel so unwelcomed and disrespected in my life. In an economy such as ours, they are lucky to have people eating in their restaurant and should think twice how they treat their customers. I will never visit Annata again and will be sure to spread the word to all of my friends, family and colleagues. Pros: GOOD FOOD, GOOD WINE Cons: RUDE STAFF!!!!!!!!!!!!! more