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| - This review is a prime example of how bad service can taint good food. If I could give 2.5 stars I would. I really wanted to rate this restaurant at a much higher rating.
I took my boyfriend here to celebrate his birthday a few days early. We arrived at around 7:30 and the place was packed. I should have made a reservation because we walked in and the line of people waiting at the hostess table was almost out the door. We waited to be greeted by the hostess for about 5 minutes before we could give her our names. At first, both of the hostesses were polite and told us that a table for two had about a 10-15 minute wait, so we stood in the waiting area because there were no more seats available. About 20-25 minutes go by and we still hadn't been called up. We went back to the hostess station and asked the girls what was going on. Somehow, they ended up not taking our name down, so we were never added on their wait list. When we asked them how much longer from that point, they told us 35-40 minutes, despite the fact that we had already been waiting. Their excuse was that the kitchen was working at capacity. Yeah. I understand. But if the kitchen is working at capacity, then why did she offer for us to sit at the full-service bar? Sounded like a poorly-constructed excuse devised to cover up a mistake. We sucked it up, gave them our name and made sure they had it this time, and went back to standing. Other groups and couples kept walking in and were being seated immediately. I was so frustrated that I asked my boyfriend if he wanted to leave and go somewhere else, but he said no so we just walked around the Kierland area.
After about 20 minutes, we got a text saying our table was ready. We walked back, and were seated outside. Our waitress came to take our drink order, and having had so much linger-time before we were seated, we already knew what we wanted to order, so we ordered the Pig pizza as an appetizer along with two Diet Cokes to drink. She came back immediately with two water glasses, but no Diet Coke. In the meantime, we asked for some bread and infamous sun-dried tomato butter to snack on. Five minutes had gone by and she stopped by our table with nothing, and simply told us that the bartender was backed up-- this seemed to be the excuse of the evening all night. I mean, how hard is it to really fill up a couple of soda glasses. Five minutes later, she came back with our drinks, but no bread. It took her about another 2 minutes for bread.
Right after the bread came, our pizza came. It was absolutely delicious. The meats were so flavorful, the crust was the perfect consistency and thickness, and the sauce was amazing. Even though this place isn't technically a "pizzeria," I think their pizza was better than LGO's Gladiator (similar pizza with two types of sausage). In the meantime, we ordered our main courses. I got the spaghetti, and he got the short rib gnocchi.
About 10 minutes after finishing the pizza the main courses came out. My spaghetti was really really good. The pasta, almost similar to a bucatini, was not like most traditional spaghettis. The noodles themselves were thick (larger diameter), and cooked to al-dente perfection. The pasta wasn't swimming in sauce, and similar to the pizza sauce, was very nicely flavored. My boyfriends gnocchi on the other hand was a complete disaster. I seriously cannot explain how unappetizing it was. The short ribs were apparently really good, but the sauce that it came in was SO bitter. I pretty much just dipped my fork in the sauce and didn't want to eat any more of it. After about 3 bites, we ended up having to send it back. We waited a bit, talked to the manager (I'm assuming), and eventually the other dish came out. It was actually pretty good. I can't remember what it was called but it had chicken, spinach, pine nuts and pasta all together. By this time (9:30 ish) the restaurant was starting to clear out. The waitress was nice enough to comp us an apple crumble dessert (that was truly delicious) because we were celebrating his birthday. We ate it, paid about $55 for the whole meal, and left 2 1/2 hours later. All together, the food was really good, but the service was really, really lackluster.
If the service was even just a little bit better, this place would have gotten four stars in my book. At this point, I'm not too sure if I'd be back or not. Maybe I'll venture out on a day that seems to be less crowded, where all the staff can keep up with demands.
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