Great food and atmosphere--but haphazard service!

Had not been to Il Giardino for several years even though we live around the corner--but we made a special effort for out of town visitors last wednesday night. The restuarant was busy, it being christmas time, but we were reserved for a nine o:clock sitting so the early dinner crowd had thinned. The atmosphere was as wonderful as its always been, and the hostess was spot on. Unfortunately, our waiter let the place down. Our appetizers and salads arrived before he had manged to remember our bottle of wine. When that bottle was depleted, he was nowhere to be seen to provide a second one for our table of four, and the moment was lost. When we finished our dinner plates they sat empty in front of us for a full fifeteen minutes, without his attention. In desperation I finally gathered up all the plates in one big pile in front of me in hopes this might get our waiter's attention. It didn't. Despite only three competing tables left in his section, I could not see him on the floor anywhere. After five minutes more without help, I finally picked up the stack of plates and walked them over to an empty table. That did finally get the staff's attention, and while our waiter realized he had lost it by that point,and apologized profusely, it was a bit late in the day given the other failures. That said, the food was good, the wine list was excellent, if you can get it served on time, and the atmosphere was wonderful. We left a 10% tip on the strength of these plus's but we would not go back given the lack of service.