Pacini Hull — Restaurant in Gatineau

Pacini, an Italian restaurant on the Gatineau side near the Lac-Leamy casino, will surpass your expectations. This wonderful quaint restaurant caters to families and fine dining enthusiasts and brings to life the Italian culture where you would least expect it.

Upon entering the restaurant, you are greeted by a host(ess) with enthusiasm and kindness. If you have kids you might even be surprised by the interaction they will have with them making them part of the experience. Once seated servers will bring you water at a moment's notice.

They have a great wine selection to allow for perfect pairing with your meal. The unfortunate side is not all of the staff is as knowledgeable as they should be. That said, they make it up in professionalism and energy. While waiting to have the server take your order or for your appetizer/main course to arrive, you may enjoy a rare perk that many restaurants now lack. They provide an all-you-can-eat "bread bar" with a variety of different butters such as garlic, tomato basil, pesto, and regular.

This time around the appetizers chosen were the "Fried Olives" and the "Arancini". These deep-fired dishes were cooked to perfection. The fried olives and arancini were nice and crispy with a golden colour. To the taste, the breading was not overpowering and did not taste like frying oil. They instead complimented the taste and stayed true to its natural flavours by blending in and enhancing it.

Next, the main dishes served were the "Alle carni Pizza" and the "Grain-Fed Veal with Truffles and Mushroom." The pizza was made on flatbread that seemed to be cooked in a wood-stone oven. The ingredients tasted fresh and were not overpowering. Every bite allowed you to taste each ingredient and the combination blended. The only downside I found to this dish was how salty it was due to the bacon and cheese. That said your taste puds love a slightly more salty taste this pizza is for you. The grain-fed veal was more for me, the taste of BBQ veal in a gentle truffle sauce that is light with just the right amount of truffle, wine, and mushrooms was a perfect match for the meat. The pasta was well cooked but the alfredo sauce was missing a bit of parmesan aside from that the consistency was remarkable and the taste was great.

Lastly, the apple crumble and caramel sauce. Not much can be said about this dish, aside from AMAZING! Like the rest of the food it was prepared with great attention and the taste did not disappoint. Of course, I have my own opinion of this dish and that is it lacked the crumble part. Yet again I might just be a huge fan of that specific part of the desert. Regardless of this the dessert tasted great and was the perfect choice to finish the meal.

Service-wise, a big shout-out to the server who was serving us that night. Marie-Andrée (I hope I didn't misspell your name) did a great job at serving us. She was professional, courteous, kind, and fun. She knew when she was needed and didn't overextend her presence. She was a ghost when she needed to be and made herself known only when the time was appropriate. Thank you for the amazing service given that night, it made this review possible and erased any doubts we might have had due to previous experiences.

Good service has been hard to find since covid but the Pacini holds to offering great service and amazing food. Great job and keep up the good work. I highly recommend this restaurant. Me and my wife will be going back, and this review will be updated to reflect my thoughts on this great...

Worst restaurant/eatery experience in my life.

I have gone to Pacini many times due to family functions over the years and have never really been impressed of the food or service. However, this experience tops them all and I will definitely never go back as a result…no matter what family function may be taking place. We were a group of 11 people last night. Four meals had to be returned, including mine: 3 plates because their pizza was burned and 1 (my plate) because it was stone cold (I ordered a steak with fries). When I told the server that the entire plate of food was cold, she offered to take my steak off the plate. I had to insist that the entire plate needed to be replaced. 6 minutes later she brought back my plate MICROWAVED!!! I had never seen this done in my life and was absolutely shocked. I insisted that she bring me a new steak and fries. The head hostess then came to see me and indicated that that's what they do in order to heat up their meals. I told her that this is completely unacceptable and that I wanted a new steak and fries, but she insisted that I choose another plate since it takes 15-20 minutes to prepare. I don't know if they are killing the cow in the back as well, but the last time I cooked a medium steak it only took 6-8 minutes and fries only a couple in the deep fried. In the end, she wouldn't let me take a steak, so I decided to take a pasta plate (to avoid a seen since we were at a child's birthday party) and indicated that I wanted the pasta well done and not "al dente." The head hostess did not understand why and indicated several times that it will take longer to cook (stating the obvious)….and I agreed every time. In the end, I got Fettuccini Alfredo that, once again, was MICROWAVED in order to make the pasta well done and the sauce made more of butter than cream. I had to insist that the bill be compt for this outrageous display of what the Pacini staff call "cooking" and after holding to my guns for 5 minutes of arguing the head hostess finally agreed. I could go on and on about many of the other things that happened, since this is just the tip of the ice berg, however, I feel that this should give reviewers a decent idea of the food. The only positive comments I have is that the bread is good. As for the service, I won't go into as much details as the food, but in short, the head hostess was extremely rude to everyone (including the children present) and the server was less than adequate: my wife had to get up to get cheese, pepper and refills of water for everyone. All this (and more) and the restaurant was not very busy and they were not short staffed in any way (I asked several other servers if the kitchen and the front of the staff were missing any employees). Do yourself a favour and go to Ottawa if you want decent Italian food…..or come to my house :P Oh….and don't be surprised if you get a few drops of water trickling on your head as your eating….their roof leaks in several places when it's raining.

Written on behalf of a Friend who does not have a...

Worst experience ever!!! I have a food allergy. It's not common and it takes many forms. I am allergic to corn so it can be cornstarch, corn flour, corn meal, corn syrup, etc. I made the waiter aware of my allergy. I gave my order. I often have to change my order because I can't have it which is fine. The waiter did his job and went to talk to the chef and manager and came back. He came back to tell me that because it wasn't a common allergy, they didn't have the information in their handy binder and the chef was too busy to look therefore I would have to wait until he had time and gave me no estimated time (like it could take 15 min...) He then suggested 2 things. I could order the rest of my family's meals right away (because I do have two kids under 10) and wait for myself or I could leave. Wow!!! in 14 years of having this allergy i was never served that way. The manager who's voice was quite loud, was talking about me and my allergy loud enough for all the surrounding tables to hear. Most managers in restaurants come to talk to me. This man must have been new to his job and didn't quite know proper manners when dealing with a client with food allergies. I went outside for a minute and came back in. He greated me thinking i was a new customer when he realized i was that lady with the allergy. It was obvious he did not want to talk to me or "deal" with me. He asked if I would die as a result of my allergy if ingested. I said no but I will get extremely sick. He follows with this "you know that what you are asking me to do is go in the freezer and read the ingredients on the boxes" with big hand gestures. I said yes. He was obviously surprised of my answer. Then said he would go check. Within 2 minutes the waiter came to see me to tell me that unfortunately all their sauces had cornstarch therefore i couldn't have any of their sauces. Do you want to order or leave was the following question. My kids were so excited to eat there that I didn't want them to suffer because of a restaurant manager with no manners. So we ordered. My seafood linguine came with the plain linguine topped with seafood. They didn't offer to make me something (which is not that hard...for a chef). A little bit of cream and lemon and there you have it... The message I got from paccini in Gatineau tonight was clear. You are a complicated guest and we don't have time for you or need for...