First and last time.
My husband, son and I went to Pizzarella Grille on a Thursday evening. We were greeted as soon as we walked in, by a gentleman working in the kitchen (you can see the food preparation from the dining area). I thought that was a nice gesture.
It's a cute, casual establishment with many booths and tables and lots of windows, which is nice.
The young lady at the counter took my order- she was very friendly and we sat down and waited for our food. I ordered a plate of fries, a "Grilled Vegetable Melt" on panini bread with fries and another "Grilled Vegetable Melt" on panini, hold the cheese, please (this should come with potato chips since I didn't specify that I wanted fries with it nor did I pay extra for fries). Well, what we got was another story.
They brought out fries first- really big portion but piping hot! Way too hot to eat and I'm not sure why they don't offer ketchup in a large bottle. It's rather wasteful to have to use small, individual packets when dining in. Five minutes later they brought our paninins- Both had cheese on them and my husband's fries were smothered in an artificial, yellow cheese. I sent back my panini (the girl who I ordered from agreed that it should not have had cheese on it). I also never ordered cheese on my husband's fries but it was obviously a misunderstanding. No big deal. She had already left with my plate so my husband took his plate up to the counter and told them he didn't ask for cheese on his fries and one of the men working in the kitchen (not the one who greeted us) said abruptly, "That's what the ticket said". I don't care what the ticket said, we didn't order cheese fries. It was rude and unprofessional. My husband and I have both worked in the food industry and were shocked by this employee's reaction. We let it go and waited for our plates to be fixed and returned.
2 minutes later they brought back my husband's panini, minus the cheese fries and told us his fries would be out shortly. My husband actually apologized to the man about "the confusion" but he was still convinced that it wasn't his fault since "that's what it said on the ticket". He couldn't even apologize- in fact, no one apologized for the countless errors of our order.
I waited and waited for them to make me another, cheeseless panini. It took about 5 more minutes and when it came out they had served me fries instead of potato chips. They never brought out my husband's re-do french fries. We were pretty much done at this point. We ate our food (which was okay, nothing special) and will most likely NOT be returning. The panini bread tasted more like a hoagie roll than a panini, and there was no balsamic dressing on either of the sandwiches like it says on the menu (I had to ask for dressing).
I recommend some training in customer service if they want people to return happily. An apology goes a long way these days. read more