Tutto Pepe Osteria — Restaurant in Bulverde

This place is a study in contradictions. When we entered the restaurant, it was almost empty, not a good sign on a Saturday night. The place feels cavernous and has nothing to absorb sound as well as having concrete floors. This was a very long way from our house and the only reason I made reservations was because of Culinaria. I had tried for days to call the restaurant to make reservations, as you could not access Open Table from the website. I finally left a message online and received a confirmation in writing. Thankfully! We had come for the last night of Culinaria a twice-yearly event in which participating restaurants offer brunch, lunch or supper at a reduced price. Usually, you have a choice of options for a three-course meal. We have enjoyed attending Culinaria in years past and like getting to try restaurants with which we are not familiar. Normally, the food is very good. First, it is really 2 restaurants, Tutto Pepe, Italian, and Panfil, a Mexican restaurant, with entry to both establishment after entering the front door. No one greeted us and we walked inside to see about a table. Most of the tables did not have utensils and no salt and pepper. That took a long time to locate and bring to the table. The young man I initially had asked never returned.

I cannot access booths easily and now use a walker, so handicapped accessibility is important to me. Although the restaurant only had three other groups or diners, the majority of the seating is booths, so my husband offered to sit at the booth and I took the chair. Very small tables!!!

The waiter/busser/bartender/server, Rodrigo R, did his very best but they were understaffed even for such few diners. The Culinaria menu was not offered; only the regular menu and drinks menu. No prices were listed on the drink menu, which I do not appreciate, as I hate those kind of surprises. Rodrigo went to enquire about the Culinaria menu and someone told him it was the smaller menu only located on one table. He brought it over. It was unusual, as the menu was prefixed and only offered one item for each course. The problem was not the food. On the contrary, it was very good. Everything took a very long time to arrive. Rodrigo was running ragged and was bartending for both restaurants as well as clearing tables and running credit cards with a very slow hand-held device.

The drinks were just bad and tasted like from a mix, at best. I had ordered a very poor imitation of a Paloma and my husband a I don't think Rodrigo is a trained bartender, but the guy is doing the work of five people! He doesn't have time to look up drink menus! The first course was bruschetta with goat cheese and (supposedly figs, which were nowhere to be found) and honey drizzled on top of one and goat cheese and prosciutto on the other. They probably used a fig jam as I haven't seen fresh figs in a very long time. The bread is delicious and toasty. They make it here but the ovens are very slow. It's a common theme here.

The young men who occasionally came to bring food or remove plates almost never came back to the dining room. It was as if they were afraid to come into the dining room. As they are primarily Spanish-speaking, perhaps they are afraid of being picked up. When my husband went to inquire as to why everything was taking so long, he saw a group of five young men, in the kitchen, just standing in a circle and talking...they did not go into the dining room very often, if at all....

The second course, Oso Bucco, was very tender; however, it was a cut of beef, not a lamb, veal or pork shank, which is common. The mashed potatoes and veggies were good and the broth was very tasty. We brought food home as well as the desserts.

The cannoli and the cannoli cheesecake was disappointing; however, each person received a slice of each.

Congratulations to Rodrigo for pulling it off. Unfortunately, we will not return as this is a long way to travel for such slow service. Too bad, the...

It would be a five-star review if service was on point. Sadly it was not. The young ladies serving need more training on customer service. Just too long to wait after being sat and when the meal came out we didn't see anyone for a good 10 minutes. I wanted parmesan and finally got to ask, but then it was another 10 minutes before that showed up.

They do not have a wine list, which is a must for an Italian restaurant. They do have wine. But a glass of Sauvignon Blanc was $14. Their drink menu is predominantly spirit based.

The food is excellent. We started with the Burrata. I've had it an Nonna and in Boston with a San Marzano tomato sauce. Here they served it with aged balsamic vinegar, prosciutto pears, and two small pieces of bread. More bread should come with this dish.

Next we tried the Crispy Artichokes and Mushrooms. They were lightly battered and came with an aioli sauce. Not sure what type of mushrooms they were, maybe oyster or shitake? Very flavorful. But not much aioli.

After that we split the chicken picatta. Quite a bit more expensive than other local Italian restaurants. But it does comes with two pounded chicken breasts. They were tender and juicy. The pasta was listed as linguine on the menu, but they provided spaghetti. It was cooked al dente as it should be. Chicken piccata typically has a lemon butter sauce. Here it's a lemon butter cream sauce that was very good. I really wanted parmesan and had to wait a long time to even be visited by our waitress after bringing the entree to ask for it. No salt and pepper on the tables either.

It was another ten minutes after we finished for the waitress to come by. I really wanted to know what they had for dessert, but we were done playing the waiting game and decided to pay and leave.

The service in the Panfila side of the restaurant was much better than the...

We ordered take-out here because the reviews were saying how good it was here. I am sorry to say that our experience was not so good!! The lady that took our order assured me that they had angel hair pasta, got home with order no angel hair. I called and she said that they did not carry angel hair, I asked her why she told me they did and she acted like she never said that! Then we ordered the Fettuccine Alfredo and I asked if it came with chicken and she said it did. Well it did, but with a 5.00 up charge, she did not mention that part either. My husband’s favorite too and he was so disappointed he did not eat it all. Next the salads we ordered were just plain bad. I love mozzarella and tomato salad, this one had hard tomatoes with no taste and the mozzarella was so soggy. Total disappointment!! My husband just got a little pile of spring mix for 10 bucks, and he wouldn’t eat that either. So that was a loss of 20 bucks. The bread we ordered was burnt. My husband on the drive home was asking me if I smelt something burning, turns out it was our black toasted bread. Guess what, we did not eat that either!! I asked the lady when I called why it was burnt and she said it was grilled. I told her she should ask the customer if they like that sort of bread so they don’t have to grill it at all. It would have been fine if it had not been grilled to a crisp. The only thing that I can say was good was the tiramisu. My husband got the cheese cake and said it tasted like lemon pie- another disappointment!! We spent 80.00 for a meal that was not worth it!! I am bummed thinking we have a great Italian restaurant around the corner, well it wasn’t!! Back to Sorrento’s...