Fentonelli's Pizzeria & Bar — Restaurant in Arizona

It is Sonoran Restaurant Week in Tucson. Before I came down, the most wonderful girl sent me a list of participating restaurants and gave me the homework assignment of picking a few to try during my visit. We are both fans of Italy in general and pizza in particular, so it was no surprise that Fentonelli’s was on both of our lists. We were a bit surprised to see that there were quite a few empty tables when we got there. We had reservations, but they were not needed. The hostess took us to a nice table in the back where it was quiet enough for us to enjoy a conversation. We ordered drinks and looked over the menu. The special for restaurant week was a choice of salad, a choice of pasta and soft serve gelato for dessert. The salads were easy. My lovely date got the ABG without gorgonzola and I got the caesar. Things got a bit tricky when it came to the entree. As a pizza place, it was a bit disappointing to have pasta. Don’t get me wrong, pasta is great, but it was not in the name of the restaurant, so it seemed like a strange thing to feature. When it came to the pasta, the menu says you can choose from the handmade pastas. While there were a couple of die-formed pastas, the only handmade option was spaghetti. Maybe by choice they meant the sauce. They offered marinara, Uncle Al’s Sunday gravy, alfredo and one other that I don’t remember. I went with the gravy and added in sausage (The menu is all in English, so I didn’t get to use one of my favorite italian words - salsiccia). The beautiful woman across the table from me went off special and got a plate of meatballs. The dessert was vanilla, chocolate or swirl soft serve. We were warned that the serving was large, so we decided to share the swirl. When our salads arrived, we had to ask if there was some mistake. They were supposed to be half salads, but there was enough there to almost make a complete meal. We had a discussion about our mutual dislike for gorgonzola. We were glad that when we asked to leave it off the ABG, they followed that direction. My caesar was mostly good. The croutons leaked flavor and were chewy instead of crunchy. The entrees were also enormous. The meatballs came with garlic bread and there were plenty of them. The spaghetti also came with meatballs, which if I had known would have let me skip adding the sausage. As it turned out, the addition was a good idea, because the meatballs were disappointing. They over mixed the meat and included too much bread, giving them an unpleasant texture. It’s a good thing that there was so much food. My sweetie filled up on everything else. My pasta was also a problem. Uncle Al did a fine job on the Sunday gravy and the sausage was good, but whoever boiled the pasta does not know the meaning of Al Dente or the rule that the pasta water should be as salty as the sea. The noodles I got were under cooked and under seasoned. We finished on a good note with the soft serve. Our last snafu was with the bill. The amount was way higher than we expected. Sure, we had gone off the special, but not as much as the total indicated. We called our waitress over and she did a great job of straightening everything out, so no harm done. On the way out, we looked around and saw a guest enjoying one of the pizzas. It looked very good, so maybe that would have been...

I've never eaten here and now I never will. I attempted to order food to go from here a few evenings ago. I looked at the menu before I came and knew what I wanted. Unfortunately, the hostess who was assisting me didn't have any idea what I was talking about when I tried to order. I requested a menu, showed her the item, and she proceeded to walk away to talk to the bartender. Once my order was put in the computer successfully, I attempted to pay with cash, two twenties to be specific. The hostess, who never gave me her name, looked at me as if I tried to pay with Monopoly money. After an absurd amount of time, she finally walked away again to get change from the bartender. When she came back, she handed me a twenty and the change from the bartender. I immediately handed her back the twenty, explaining that money was for my food. I then took the total of my bill and counted up to confirm my change back. It was short $3. I told the hostess this and she again looked at me blankly. I told her to keep the $3 as a tip, to which she nodded and proceeded to answer the phone as I walked out. When I got back to my friends at the bar next door, I had just finished telling the story and my second- hand embarrassment for the hostess, when she shows up next to me. She proceeds to tell me her manager said I owe an additional $7. Baffled and embarrassed as my friends and other patrons are staring, I told her no as I had counted the change back in front of her and they had shorted me $3. She proceeded to argue with me becoming more and more indignant and tells me I can talk to her manager. Livid at this point, I walk back to the restaurant and request the manager. No other than the bartender from earlier speaks up that she is the manager. I tell her the situation, to which she stares at me condescendingly. I finally tell her they can keep their food, and I want my money back. She gave me the $20 bill but not the $3 I was shorted. I understand people can be new, but something that should have been turned into a training opportunity for an employee was turned around on me into a humiliating experience.

TLDR: Don't go here unless you want to be accused of stealing rather than the restaurant properly training...

Went to the North location on 2/3. Made an open table reservation which we showed up early and they were able to seat us. Started off with the cauliflower, which was delicious. We ordered a pasta (decent but not hot when brought to the table) and the arugula and prosciutto pizza. And this is where the issues started. The pizza bottom was burnt beyond edible. Not a little crisp like a normal pizza. But black charred and tasted terrible. That pizza is also way too salty. We called the server over and he offered to have a new pizza made. I changed it to a margarita pizza. We saw the staff having a meeting discussing the burnt pizza. We saw them remake the new pizza twice due to burnt bottoms. They bring out my pizza. And still burnt beyond belief. Only the bottom third could be ate. Which was wet, sloppy and toppings sliding off. Bland with zero flavor. The server asked if all was ok, to which we showed the pizza and he said he would let the manager know. A woman came over (unsure if it was the manager because no introduction was given). She stated “we took the two pizzas off so don’t worry” and walked away. As if a favor was done for burnt not edible food. The lack of professionalism is what really bothered me. I ate the majority of the pizza due to being very hungry. But something needs to be done about the attention to detail by the kitchen staff when it comes to cook length of the pizza. As well as how a manager should respond to the situation. It was beyond unprofessional to not give an introduction and just set our check down voicing they “took care of the pizzas, don’t worry”. The unfortunate thing is we love the downtown Reilly craft but we will not be returning to the...