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| - This is one of those reviews that I hate doing because the service really outperforms the food and the restaurant. The Coles note version is that good servers try hard but if they're set up to fall on their face... they're going to do it gracefully :(. Lousy servers just explode in the same scenario.
So back to the review... inside the amazing Dine on 3 Yorkdale space, Famoso pizza set up shop and it's quite the popular happening restaurant space. We arrived at 12:30 pm to a near capacity restaurant that has a lot of buzz and movement. Little did we realize that the lightning speeds of the service was to accommodate the super lousy service model. The service model doesn't work... similar to a fast food joint, you line up and place your order upfront at a cashier. After that you're seated to a full service experience. The problem is the cashier... it's a funnel bottle neck that forces you to wait 10-15 minutes. Part of the problem is that the cashier has to explain this crazy process to EVERY new client because it's not intuitive AND there's only one cashier. Plus this cashier is supposedly handling things like dessert (more on this later). She works hard but she's clearly overtaxed.
The menu is laid out on counter at the cashier for you to choose... Ideal scenario would be to hand out menus while in line to speed things up or be a true fast food joint and display them brightly and loudly so people can see them from afar. When people are given a menu of multiple courses to choose from... you can clearly see who are the indecisive ones. They're the ones that hold up the line looking like bambi in the headlights of a Mack truck. The worst thing is the new indecisive clients... it's one thing to take a look time to decide, it's another thing to be undecided and ask a billion questions.
Anyhow, we order quickly because we knew what we wanted (Famoso salad with grilled chicken, large bbq chicken pizza ... sacrilege I know but I didn't order it!, a steamwhistle, americano, and dessert to be decided later). We found a table and to the credit of the servers, they were really efficient on getting things from the kitchen area to the tables and overall clearing the tables. From the moment we ordered, sat down, got a set of fresh plates and cutlery AND the pizza with salad... it maybe was at most 6 minutes! That was impressive.
The pizza itself wasn't impressive. For the price of $15, it was a good value. It can feed a hungry man and maybe 2 petite people (maybe). The bbq sauce was sickly sweet and not to my liking. I will commend the kitchen staff on not being stingy with the toppings. It had lots of grilled chicken, good amount of fresh cheese, tomato, cilantro, and onions. Aside from the sauce, I say the ingredients were good. The pizza dough itself was chewier and more dense than other Neapolitan places. There was no char or nicely tasty bubbled crust. It's not in the same realm as Pizza e Pazi or Pizza Libretto (to be fair, they don't try to be either). I would compare them to a Panago Pizza. It's a higher price point than the average pizza but it is a better pizza as well. My Famoso salad was a bit disappointing. For $13, I got a big bowl of leaves with chicken on it. It was super light on the toppings ... maybe a few chick peas and a scrimping of other items. The chicken wasn't dry... that was good thing and the salad wasn't doused in oil. Definitely not worth it.
Now the painful part... Don't order dessert unless you have an extra 45 minutes of nothing to do. The whole full service process fails after you order at the bottleneck cashier. We waited 20 minutes standing at the front to just TRY the gelato flavours and then another 15 minutes to get the gelato order. PAINFUL. If you want dessert, order it upfront at the cashier. That being said, the Chai Latte gelato is really good. Think of it as a gourmand richer vanilla. With more spices, it adds a sophisticated note to an otherwise warm vanilla. The mango banana gelato is ok. It really should be just called Banana sorbetto as the mango flavour is minuscule. The tiramisu is said to be imported from Italy... perhaps they mean the marscapone cheese only? Anyhow, my eating partner loved it and said it was one of the better ones they've had. It was light, creamy, doused with real espresso, with cakelike lady fingers holding their structure and was a nice sponge of flavour instead of being a wet tissue of gloopy mess.
Overall, it is a pricier lunch for food court ($45) but it's a nice change from the usual Teriyaki Experience or Chipotle. I'm hoping they fix their service model because that would make a profound difference.
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