Trattoria Pina — Restaurant in Arizona

I am truly saddened to have to write this negative review. We have visited this restaurant many times, and although some meals were better than others, we never had an experience like this time. We were celebrating a family birthday, and made a 6:30 PM reservation. We arrived about ten minutes early and were promptly seated. We did not realize that there is a happy hour from 4:30 to 6:30 on Saturday night, and the restaurant was packed. We sat for five minutes or so before we received bread and water and our beverage orders were taken.We never did receive bread plates. A long ten minutes later, our drinks arrived (not the items that were ordered, BTW,) and the waiter asked if we would like to order our meals or wait a while. Having no idea what "a while" meant, we asked him to return in five minutes, and he disappeared. Twenty minutes later, we finally flagged down a bus boy (bus person?) and asked him to send over our waiter. We ordered entrees, a salad and soup. We specifically asked that the soup be served as warm as possible, and the waiter said he would take care of that. Ten minutes later, the soup and salad arrived, and the soup was lukewarm, at best. The waiter was nowhere to be found. We sat and sat, and finally our entrees arrived. Unfortunately, the empty plates had not been removed from our table, so a waitress stood there with our entrees, as they cooled before someone arrived to clear the table. Sure enough, one of the entrees was cold, and the waiter was nowhere to be found to correct the problem. When we finally were asked how our meals were, we mentioned the cold entree, he offered to replace it after everyone had finished eating. We declined. There was no offer of any concession or charge adjustment for the cold entree. When the check finally arrived, we noted an error and mentioned it to the waiter. He said he would correct it, and I gave him my credit card. The credit card receipt arrived, and no adjustment had been made. Certainly the service was a major issue, but the restaurant clearly was not prepared to serve the large crowd at their happy hour. We should not have to wait long periods of time for soup and salad or entrees. Later in the evening we saw surrounding tables order and receive their food promptly. The staff were clearly overwhelmed earlier by the size of the crowd. There is no excuse for serving cold food. We...

We decided to dine at Trattoria Pina to celebrate our 33 wedding anniversary. When I made reservations, they asked if there was a special occasion and we told them. We had eaten here over a year earlier and remembered the tiramasu as being very good. The entire staff was very friendly for our visit. Just wish the food experience was a little better. I had the "Special", which was a seafood pasta dish. It was pretty good. My wife had a pizza that was a pesto base with ricotta, mozzarella and chicken. The top was pretty charred from the wood stone oven and the pizza was very very dry. My wife had a piece or two and that was enough. I tried a bite and it was so dry that I really couldn't swallow it without a drink of water to wash it down. We took the rest home because we love leftover pizza, but ended up discarding the remainder. Im guessing that this pizza was just way over baked. The tiramasu came and was generously offered gratis for our anniversary. These people are incredibly nice! However, the cake layers in the tiramasu were actually wet. They were soggy and off putting for both of us, which was really puzzling. We really wanted to love this place and will probably try again, mostly due to the wonderful staff. Perhaps it was just a poor food night and different choices next time will elevate our...

We recently moved to Tucson and just found our new favorite place. Trattoria Pina has everything––fantastic atmosphere with a great view of the Catalina Foothills, friendly staff, and wonderful food. The scampi portofino is perfect, with giant shrimp, artichokes, mushrooms, and capers all in a well-balanced wine wine and lemon sauce over pasta. The lasagna comes in its own giant baking dish. No one even came close to finishing their enormous portions. Meals are served with minestrone or salad and incredible rosemary bread with a balsamic and olive oil dip. The desserts look incredible, tiramisu, cannolis and a few others. Unfortunately, we didn't save room this time. Next time, we'll also try the personal wood-fired pizzas that looked and smelled amazing.

The best part of the night was the incredible waiter. Though every table was filled, this waiter worked the room like a consummate professional. Our water was never empty and the bread basket was always full. Everything was perfectly timed––we waited the perfect amount of time to allow for conversation, but not too long for teens to get bored.

We're looking forward to our next special occasion to...