Pasta Pelican Restaurant — Restaurant in Alameda

Service was a joke. If you can even call it that. Our server was Mazen. 5 parties in the entire restaurant on a Friday night at 7:15pm. Service should have been impeccable, but instead it was offensive and ridiculous. I took my mother and 15 year old daughter here for the last dinner of my mothers winter visit. It was supposed to be special.

The host was polite upon entering, but wearing a hoodie sweatshirt which was a bit off-putting because the ambiance felt fine dining. I thought maybe this was one of those hip contradicting restaurants where their service was high end, but working outside of the box - which I could really get down with. She took us to our table and had us all stand there as she stood at the first approachable corner of the table with her back facing us as she put down menus. I was not able to pull my chair out and sit until after she was done. Very confused at what type of restaurant this was at that point, but I was picking up on the inexperienced.

Bussers were attentive with placing waters down for each of us without request after sitting. Soon followed with 3 small plates and olive oil/balsamic, but no bread to go with it until after we ordered and after I received my glass of wine. We reviewed the entire menu and was not approached for quite some time until after.

When Mazen finally decided to start service he did not introduce himself nor ask if we had any questions about the menus. Do they have specials? I wouldn’t know. I ordered a glass of Rutherford Merlot which tasted like it had been opened for several days. He served me that glass of wine from across the table reaching in front of my daughter. He never asked my daughter or mom if they wanted something to drink besides water. (He must have another job). It didn’t take long for our caesar salad and calamari to arrive. The salad was drowning in dressing and the lettuce was chopped. Croutons were soggy. The calamari tasted fresh, but the breading was not cooked long enough so the consistency on most pieces were mushy and room temperature. Hope we don’t get sick!

Appetizers were not cleared before Mazen brought out entrees. We were actually still working on them. He stood between my daughter and I with the two entrees and had no where on the table to place them. So I stacked plates into the salad bowl which I was not finished with, but at that point - sure. I held the stack of dirty plates until he was able to place our entrees down which he just put in the middle of the table. He thanked me and took the plates from my hands. (You’re welcome! Do you want me to serve the rest of our dinner as well and show you how it’s done properly?) He never asked us how dinner was going or if we needed anything not once throughout service.

We saved room for dessert and I asked a busser for 3 small boxes. Mazen dropped off 2 boxes and as he was quickly putting them down I looked up at him and began asking him if I could take a look at a dessert menu. He walked away as I was speaking mid sentence. The 3 of us looked at each other in shock and then laughed because we could not believe the rudeness!

Bussers had boxed up for another table whereas we were left boxing up our own food. We decided to leave as soon as possible and get dessert some place else.

Our appearance is put together, we were not rude or loud, or demanding. We did not deserve this experience. What a joke of a restaurant! Dear owner, you need to train your staff. Please don’t disguise your restaurant as high-end when mid-end is reaching. Take notes from service at Trabocco or The Fat Lady restaurant and maybe you’ll get more than 5 tables filled on a Friday night during peak hours.

(We added prawns to our fettuccine Alfredo not to the Salmon piccata. The pasta dishes were fine & tasty, but again room...

Absolutely awful. Unacceptably awful. This restaurant needs a complete overhaul. It's currently being run by people who don't have proper systems in place, and who clearly don't care about food quality, service, or ambience.

VALENTINE'S DAY 2017 RECAP:

Walking in, we were confronted with not one, not two, but THREE janky paper signs scotch taped to front door and interior glass partitions, yelling at us in all caps that coupons or vouchers would not be accepted on Valentine's Day. So tacky, not a nice way to set a romantic mood.

Booked reservation online (OpenTable) and arrived on time but kept waiting in the crowded lobby while frantic front of house guy (rumpled shirt, looked like he just rolled out of bed, certainly didn't dress nicely for a holiday crowd) ran around with notes on paper figuring out where there were available tables. Gave the impression that he purposely overbooked for the holiday, given the full house and overflowing lobby of waiting patrons.

Once seated, were handed prix fixe menus, we had no idea prix fixe would be the only menu option available (at a whopping $42 per person!!)

Wine list folio was sticky (ew!) and when I asked a question, the frantic waiter clearly knew nothing about wine but offered to bring the one and only sparkling wine available by the glass; he came back to the table with an open bottle of another sparkling wine brand and offered to pour me a taste--there was not a single bubble in the glass, sparkling wine was completely FLAT.

Waiter took our orders for appetizers, but rushed off before taking our order for the rest of the meal. Odd and disconcerting.

Appetizers arrived, "caprese" consisted of ONE slice of mozzarella and ONE slice of tomato with a wilted basil leaf on top and a thick mystery sauce that burned and assaulted our mouths with heat but no flavor. Fried calamari arrived looking a mess, like someone ate off our plate already. Both appetizers had sauces slopped on the sides of the plates that could have easily been wiped clean--and would have been in a better restaurant.

Appetizers were so bad, so completely unsightly and inedible that we decided we did not want to know how bad the rest of the meal would be, and certainly didn't want to spend $42 per person for horrible food and awful, frenetic ambience.

Asked the front of house guy (manager? owner? torturer?) if we could pay for our drinks and leave because the food was sub par. He did not pause, did not apologize, did not ask any questions at all, he simply said something like don't worry about it you can just leave. HE DIDN'T EVEN CARE to ask what wasn't good, why we didn't want to continue with the meal. Clearly he already knows the food is terrible and is just running a holiday con--jacked up prix fixe pricing on absolute garbage food.

Quickly got on my phone and made a last-minute reservation at Grand Lake Kitchen, where we KNOW the food is always delicious and the service is stellar. Thankfully they had a table available at 8:30 pm on Valentine's Day!

Pasta Pelican is a cruel joke on anyone unlucky enough to eat here. Or TRY to eat here--you probably won't be able...

I hadn't been to Pasta Pelican in decades, so I decided to give it another try based on the positive reviews. I'm sorry I did.

Let's start with the positive. The location is absolutely stunning, right on the water with a beautiful view of the Oakland waterfront across the estuary. The dining room is spacious and well lit with windows on both sides. The decor, if you can call it that, is a conundrum. It's a bizarre combination of 1980s rustic timber and brass, mostly painted over, faux brick, also painted over and peeling off the walls, and vapid modern restaurant furnishings. The exterior of the building is just plain decrepit, with tattered awnings, rotting strings of Christmas lights, peeling paint, and rotting wood siding.

Service is very inconsistent. I was seated quickly but waited a long time to order. A couple who arrived after I ordered received their food long before I did. When my food finally arrived, it looked and tasted like it had been under the heat lamps for a long time. Some of the wait staff were friendly, others were indifferent.

My food was absolutely horrible, which was surprising given how many reviews say the food is great. The pasta was overcooked, the sauce was a salty over-seasoned mess with a distinctly burnt taste. The caprese salad was a joke! Barely ripe Roma tomatoes, supermarket mozzarella, no basil, and some kind of weird dressing instead of the olive oil and balsamic vinegar drizzle one would expect. Maybe there are some good items on the menu but the fettuccine bolognese and caprese salad aren't among them.

I won't be coming back. There are too many excellent dining options in Alameda to waste time and money in a...