Pulcinella — Restaurant in Calgary

We went to Pulcinella on Aug. 10, 2023 with a large group to celebrate a birthday with family and many extended family members who were visiting us from multiple different countries.

We were a larger group of 13 people and although one reservation was booked, they split us up into 2 tables. We were fine with this, and thought nothing of it. Our server Lindsay made our time there incredibly unenjoyable and to be honest we were all horrified by the way she treated us that it was all we could talk about after leaving the restaurant.

Firstly, she was very slow to attend to us, and although we were all ready to order and the two tables were right beside each other, she first took the order of one table, and then left for 20 minutes. She then came back and took the order of the second table. Our food ended up coming out with 45 minutes time difference between the two tables - this is no exaggeration, we looked at the time. When we asked about our food and the delay, she said "well you ordered the lasagna" almost as if it to say this is your fault, you did this to yourselves. We understand some dishes can take longer than others to make, and that's okay. But the way she spoke to us and the fact that she took so long to take our order when we are a group that was eating together and sat right next to each other, baffled us.

It was very difficult to get her to attend to our tables and we had to speak to other servers multiple times to try and put in drink orders and they would just say they would send our server over. Lindsay would take a very long time to come over and would have a holier-than-thou attitude once she arrived, as if she was extremely bothered and inconvenienced that we had asked for her assistance.

When it came time to pay, she brought over the receipt and never even asked how we would like the bill. When we asked for it to be split, she rolled her eyes and said "oh you're doing that". I told her I could help her organize the receipt and I literally wrote out for her on the receipt which bills were together. It would have been extremely easy for her as the bills that were together were sitting next to each other and nobody moved seats. Not to mention, we were sitting at two different tables so the groups were 6 and 7 people, not 13 people altogether.

I was so taken aback by her rude and neglectful service throughout the night that I did not want to tip at all. But I decided to tip 10% at least so that she wouldn't lose money to a house tip out. When she took my payment and realized I had tipped 10%, she threw the receipt at me. She then did this to other people at the table who, like me, were also appalled by her service and also tipped 10%. She then said "I should have made it one big table to get the autograt. I should've known people like you wouldn't tip." We had some people at our table who did still tip generously despite her atrocious service. At the end she went up to this couple in front of everyone and said "thank you so much for your tip".

Honestly her behaviour was so immature, rude, unprofessional, and neglectful that we won't ever come back as customers. I just thought this was information everyone else should be privy to and warned of when choosing where to spend a...

This was our second visit to this restaurant, the first was a 4 star visit. We booked a table through Open Table. We arrived for our reservation on time. There were 3 parties standing in the small entrance waiting to be seated. The restaurant was busy. We waited 40 minutes to be seated, standing in the entrance of the restaurant - not cool. No timelines were provided to us. The manager/owner did offer a taster glass of wine but no verbal communication as to what was happening apart from "people aren't leaving their tables." We eventually got seated. We ordered 2 appetizers and 3 pizzas. You could tell the kitchen was behind right away but we got our appetizers within ten minutes. The pizzas were a different story. We got the pizzas 45-50 minutes after our appetizers. We did ask for 2 updates and were told, the kitchen is behind, we are busy. I could tell the server must have had challenging clients but his fatigue came through as rude and we were not advised of any timelines at all. Finally, we were ready to walk out. We asked once more and reminded how long we had been waiting only to be told they were short staffed and they are doing the best they can. I TOTALLY get that but this messaging should have been provided when we walked in to allow us to make a choice. Not acceptable. We got our pizzas (very greasy) and by then, the mood of our meal was not great. We ended up getting things packed up as it was almost 2 hours 45 since we arrived (very hungry) to the restaurant. We understand things are tricky with staff shortages but a customer should be informed from the outset and throughout as to what is happening. I feel they just crammed more and more people in with a disregard to what impact this had on customer service. You would also think the manager/owner would be checking in to support the serving staff who I imagine get a lot of grief and frustration from hungry clients. A very poor experience...

Came here on a Friday evening with a friend, hoping to enjoy the patio and the nice weather. We had called ahead and specifically requested patio seating. While we understood the unpredictability of Calgary weather, the host on the phone assured us that if the patio was open, we’d be seated there. We showed up right on time, only to be told the patio was full and we’d have to sit inside until a spot opened up. Frustrating, considering we made a reservation for that exact reason.

Inside, the atmosphere was extremely loud—so loud that we could barely hear each other talk. It was very echoey, especially on the upper level, with large groups making the volume overwhelming. Thankfully, we were eventually moved outside, which made a huge difference.

Drink-wise, the menu is very wine-focused. I ordered a limoncello spritz that was just okay—lacked any sweetness or balance. If you’re into cocktails, this probably isn’t the best spot.

As for the food, for the price, the quality just wasn’t there. I ordered a pizza with dry-cured meat (something similar to a prosciutto margarita), and it was really disappointing. It wasn’t even cut, and the knife provided could barely cut it. The middle was soggy and limp—maybe too much sauce or undercooked dough—and the meat didn’t taste premium at all, more like basic grocery store prosciutto. Definitely not worth nearly $30.

Service also left a lot to be desired. There seemed to be plenty of staff around, but no one checked on us after our first round of drinks, never getting another. We had to flag someone down for the bill, and even that took a long time. They seemed completely uninterested in serving us.

All in all, the ambiance (if you’re stuck inside), service, and food didn’t live up to the hype—or the price. For what I paid, I would’ve been way happier grabbing a pizza from Famoso or even ordering in. Won’t...