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| - Not sure what the hype is about here. The menu was ok, and the food was decent, but overly large portions. Id rather spend less on a dish and get two for a similar price. But I hated the service. I don't often talk about service if the food was excellent, but that was not the case.
So I ordered an eggplant parm appetizer and a gnocchi entree (btw, i pointed at each on the menu when I ordered to avoid confusion).
Food arrives in a timely fashion, however the waiter brought me an eggplant parm entree instead of appetizer. They brought it back and said they would make another one for me, no big deal, very professional. But while I was waiting, I looked around to get a feel for the restaurant. There was a lot of energy, loud and buzzing, but something about the waitering staff just.. put me off. I couldn't put my finger on what it was exactly, but perhaps it was the fact that there were over 10 waiters for a restaurant that only needed 5? And our waiter seemed to be trying to take care of way more tables than he could handle (while screwing over other waiters). I saw him attack large new tables that opened up to take their orders, while ignoring our table of two. It took a full 15 min to track him down! (and this was largely because other waiters/waitresses refused to help because we weren't 'their' table).
Just the whole vibe of the restaurant was made uncomfortable due to the wait staffs.. competitive nature, the lack of smiles, the lack of attention. Every waiter was passive aggressively fighting each other, and no one made us feel welcome, or paid us any attention.
OH but there is an exception! If you are a regular (I saw a few tables that were given very warm welcomes as they entered - with hugs and kisses), they will give you more attention that you need. Well, guess I'll never know what that feels like..
Anyway, enough of that, on to the food. The food was fine, I tried their gnocchi and their eggplant parm (which seems to be what they are known for).
Gnocchi was decent, I've certainly had better, but it was soooo monotonous! A whole dish of just gnocchi and tomato cream sauce for $13.95. If you are gnocchi-phile, this may be the place for you, but for a dish that is composed essentially of just potato, flour, and red sauce, it is a heck of a boring dish. Throw some italian sausage, red peppers, or something! Even if that means raising the price, I'm willing to pay good money for good food.
Eggplant parm. It was delicious (largely due to their terrific red sauce). But if you ever made eggplant parm before, you would know how cheap it is to make, and I couldn't bring myself to pay $14 for an entree of eggplant, tomato, and cheese. This is not a gourmet italian restaurant, it's an italian comfort food restaurant.
As delicious it was, there was nothing special about the eggplant parm or how it was prepared, which made me reluctant to even order the appetizer for $7.95.
fyi- the eggplant for entree and appetizer or prepared differently:
Entree was a tall layered type (like a lasagna), appetizer was just red sauce poured over a few eggplant slices sprinkled with cheese.
If there was one thing that this restaurant had going for them, it would be their red sauce, it had a lot of flavor, good blend of tart and sweet. I would go back if they worked on their wait staff, and I would go back for the eggplant parm. I could see this place really working out if our server was, for instance, a sweet italian grandma who took care of us and was passionate about the food. But as soon as a comfort food restaurant like this takes on this money-first persona, with waiters jumping all over each other, it turns me off, and makes it difficult for me to enjoy the food.
Overall I would say that the food is really overrated (except the eggplant parm), I've been to much much better italian restaurants where prices were only a tad more expensive. For the food itself, I would give it a 3/5. But the wait staff is what really killed the experience for me 1/5. It seems that the only tables getting attention are:
1. table of regulars
2. tables of 4+
3. table with beautiful ladies in beautiful clothes
As I was none of the above, my service was crap
Food: B-
Atmosphere: C
Service: D+
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