La Cucina Pizzeria Kitchener — Restaurant in Kitchener

THIS REVIEW IS FOR THE OWNERS/HIRING & TRAINING MANAGERS OF LA CUCINA - I tried to find your contact information online so I could share my concerns privately. However, I was only able to find an email address which I assume the manager I have a complaint about has access to. Also, your parent company CMG Entertainment(?) doesn't appear to have a customer service contact info.

Until today, I have never written a 1 star review in my life. I prefer to spread positivity online and I've already twice posted on Instagram about how amazing the food is at La Cucina Kitchener. Honestly, everything I have previously had delivered to my home - the pizza, the Bolognese, the salad - has been as delicious as the best food I have had the privledge of eating in Italy.

OUR 1 STAR EXPERIENCE - We placed a reservation on Sept 20th. When we arrived at 5:45 on Sept 23rd, there was a mix up with our reservation, which is fine, mistakes happen. How we were treated after is our concern...

The person who took the reservation on the phone told us they would reserve a booth for our birthday celebration. We would have been fine but the substitute table was next to a large window and it was very breezy and cold. Not satisfied, we followed up. Two employees told me the reservation mix up was due to the fact that the reservation didn't state a booth. They then appeared to be looking for a solution. I said we'd be willing to stay at the table if the window could be closed. They said a manager would speak to us....

When the Manager arrived, I quietly told him how we had been planning a birthday celebration and had been assured that a booth was reserved for us. We were expecting an apology for the mix up and a possible solution, like closing the window. However, before we could get to that, the Manager told us....

"that wouldn't have happened, we don't allow reservations for booths for less than 6 people"

....instead of an apology and a possible solution, he insinuated that I was lying. LYING! That what I experienced didn't happen. I have been a Customer Service Manager for 15 years and have trained 100s of employees over the years. I was honestly flabbergasted that this Manager felt it was okay to treat us, or anyone else, in this manner. We became angry, decided not to support such behavior and left. Instead, we celebrated at 271 West restaurant, where the service was impeccable.

LA CUCINA OWNERS - if you are reading this, I'm hoping you provide this Manager with some retraining. I know that everyone makes mistakes and has bad days, but when you are a Manager, it is your job to smooth over those mistakes. It's not okay for a Manager to insult their customers and inflame the situation...and in our case, put a big black stain on a milestone birthday...

I just visited last night and had a great time. I ordered the calamari, Rustica pizza and the Margherita Pizza.

Let's get the 'critiques' out of the way as there are not too many. The calamari was very overcooked, salty and bland and the breading was falling off due to it. There seemed to be no other seasonings but salt on the calamari and the chewy rubbery texture led us to be a little sceptical of the impending quality of the meal. The server we had was fantastic but I was a little upset at the offers he made to us, while sounding like free options, actually charged us extra on the bill. For example, upon seating we were offered "spring, chilled, or sparkling water". I opted for the sparkling only to find out there was a charge associated with it. He also offered to add prosciutto to my pizza which I happily accepted, once again ended up on the bill.

Now onto showering them with praise for what they did well. The server was amazing! He came at the most perfect times and asked if we needed anything. I had just put my empty beer glass down and within seconds he had asked if I wanted another. He also made good small talk but didn't make us feel crowded with his presence. Kudos to him for sure. The pizzas were divine. The toppings were delicious and the crust was so flavourful. Cannot recreate the taste of a wood oven. I personally like my pizzas with more snap/crisp but this IS a classic neopolitan place so they are definitely doing the job right haha. Its just a matter of preference.

In conclusions, the food is amazing and so is the service overall. With a little bit of transparency during the conversation with the server and a little refining the appetizers, this could easily be a five star. Probably still my favourite gourmet pizza place in Waterloo and would recommend everyone at least...

I am seriously confused by all of these 5 star reviews. As another review mentioned, the servers are rude and seem like being there is the last place they want to be. When we went it was 5:30 pm on a Friday, my bf ordered diet Pepsi just to be told they had run out and were working on getting more. 20 minutes later, we see a staff member come through the front door of the restaurant with several bottles of diet Pepsi, likely from the convenience store next store. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the problem solving, but 1) How do you not plan ahead and run out at 5:30pm on a Friday night? 2) If you're going to pick up bottles from another store, go through the back of the restaurant so your customers are non the wiser. This doesn't really give fine Italian dining vibes. The timing of when our dishes came out was also a MAJOR problem. I ordered a fresh pasta while my bf ordered one of their pizzas. They brought out my pasta 20 MINUTES before his pizza arrived to our table. After 15 minutes of waiting for his pizza, I finally had to ask our server to take my pasta back to the kitchen so it could at least be kept warm. The response I received was "Ya, it's really hard to time the dishes coming out from the two different kitchens." What? That's exactly what the kitchen is supposed to manage and do. Overall, the food was fine. The pasta and pizza tasted good, nothing to write home about, but was incredibly overpriced, especially the pasta for the serving size. There's definitely better Italian places in the region with much...