After reviewing many reviews by others that were so positive, I am left wondering why our experience was so bad. Perhaps it was just a bad night for them. We ate here on a Friday night one day before Valentines Day. It was filled and the patrons appeared happy and excited. We had a party of eight (8). Immediately I noticed how loud it was: a bit too loud for my senses. Bread and marinara greeted us at the table: a nice intro I thought - different. But the Italian bread was stale and hard and when I asked for replacements I was told that their bread was provided by an independent vendor and it is what it is. Service was slow and chaotic. You would think that a restaurant looks forward to weekend nights and would be fully prepared to handled the volume of tables and patrons. But, no, it was a mess and totally disorganized. After waiting an extended time, the server finally took our orders. I ordered a Caesar salad, a side of pasta with Bolognese sauce to share, and Veal Marsala: all pretty safe bets at an Italian restaurant. The salad was served first (after waiting an extended time again) and, sorry to say, it was complete pedestrian: chopped up Romaine lettuce (at least it was fresh!), barely a hint of basic dressing no better than bottled dressing, and some croutons that were hard and crunchy like packaged croutons. Very disappointing. Next came the pasta. Certainly not fresh pasta but decent. The sauce (“gravy”) was very sugary sweet (tasty but so was canned spaghetti back in the day!). Again, disappointing from my perspective. Finally, the Veal Marsala was served. I was really hoping this was going to be delicious. I was expecting it to be like the dish served at Manhattans in La Jolla. It was served with some fresh cooked carrots and broccoli which ended up being the best part of the meal. It was also served with a couple of roasted potatoes. Come on, fabulous roasted potatoes are so easy to make, but these were tasteless and you could tell were sitting around for a while waiting to be served. The “veal” was acceptable but not really that beautiful tender texture. The sauce, more like a common brown gravy, barely tasted of Marsala wine. The portion size was decent! The rest of the food served to the other guests was okay by consensus but underwhelming. The wine was good! I really hate giving a review like this and I really hope this was a true anomaly. With all the favorable reviews I might, someday, give it another chance. But, then, again it makes you appreciate the likes of Trattoria Antica in La Mesa or Manhattans in La Jolla, both of which consistently provide great service, atmosphere, and fantastically delicious food. Sorry Pomodoro.
