Pasquale's Italian Pizzeria — Restaurant in California

Upon arrival we were told repeatedly that someone would be right with us. I should have followed my gut and left when we had to wait to be seated in a relatively empty restaurant. Eventually we were seated and then again had to wait to be served. We eventually were able to order the Lasagna voted “Best in Sacramento”. I was brought a salad that consisted of lettuce, cheese and croutons. The Lasagna was just O.K….we only ate half of our plate.

We again had to wait for our bill, but our server was talking to the table next to us about her son. I do admit that her story pulled at my heart strings. I usually tip very well, and my daughter already knew that because of our server’s story she would be getting more than my usual tip even though our service was just mediocre.

When the server did come to pick up our bill, she very loudly announced that they do not take American Express. Even though I have never heard of a restaurant that does not take American Express, I produced another credit card. Again the server came back and loudly said the card was expired then walked away and said she would get her boss. I looked at the card again and the expiration date said 2015. She eventually came back and asked “what are you going to do about this?” I told her that I had a personal check with me, and a third party check. Then this creepy guy comes out of nowhere, does not identify himself, and asked “how do you want to take care of this?” I assumed this guy was the bus boy who was waiting to take our plates. I asked him “who are you the dishwasher?” He finally identified himself as the owner who gave no other options of payment. I did have another form of payment with me; however, wanted to finish playing this out to see how this business handled the situation.

Needless to say they did not handle it well at all…The owner should have identified himself upon approaching the table. The server should have been more discreet. Another server was sent to our table to see if everything was ok and looked to see if I signed the credit card receipt. Normally our $30 bill would have received about a $10 tip, overhearing our servers story about her son, I probably would have tipped about $15. However, I only tip according to the service and treatment I receive. I can honestly say this the first time I have left a restaurant without leaving a tip.

I also left the leftover lasagna…it was not worth...

I hate to say anything negative because there are so few Italian-American restaurants in the Sacramento area and we've been to this place about 5 times over the last 4 years and have multiple data points to draw accurate comparisons. However, we stopped in for dinner Monday night 4/28/2025. I ordered chicken parmesan at dinner and received a mountain of spaghetti with half a chicken breast (breaded and fried correctly) that had been pre-cut into 5 chicken finger-sized slivers, then smothered in cheese....I realized that if I smooshed the chicken together they would equal half a chicken breast. I have NEVER seen chicken parm pre-sliced...and as a New Yorker was revolted that someone would pre-cut my entree for me, thereby destroying the presentation and making obvious the chicanery of reduced portions. I could have done this at home with chicken fingers if I wanted that. How dare you!? And no, it has never been cut for me like this before on the prior times I've eaten at this restaurant. And the pizzas don't come in appetizer-size pre-cut bite-sizes, and the beer does come in 15 small cups for me.

It tasted fine. Greasy, but fine. The experience of someone pre-abusing my dinner was like a salesman handing me a dirty pair of pants to try on in a store. Presumptive, declassee and sad for them. Get it together please.

Update: Owner "responded" but side-stepped why they felt pre-cutting chicken parm for me like a child was acceptable or normal, or how this dish is prepared. I don't order apple pie and get it pre-cut into bit-sizes, I don't care where you are...no one does this to entrees. So stop pretending to engage with your customers. Let me be more clear, I don't care how long you've been in business, you DON'T PRECUT A CUSTOMER'S ENTREE....EVER! NO ONE DOES THAT TO CHICKEN PARM. EVER. ANYWHERE.

And WTF does the restaurant's response last line mean, "truly wonderful detail day"? What is a...

We have always enjoyed this place up until finally getting around to going to the newest location. I’ve got to say we were not impressed with the atmosphere of it at all. Felt like we couldn’t have even a quiet conversation without others around us hearing as we couldn’t help but hear the table next to us the entire time. Thankfully we were on the end so nobody was on the other side. It took several minutes to be seated even after one of the cooks pointed out to the waitress twice that there were customers waiting (Us and two others). Our food took forever to come and my husbands pizza came to him cold of which he walked over to them to reheat taking them about 15 more minutes to do so leaving me to eat my lasagna so it wouldn’t get cold. We were already leaning towards not caring for the service but it didn’t help to hear a lady who walked in ask the gal if she was the one who answered the phone earlier and then for her to tell her that she needed to work on her customer service skills. Got to say that I seriously doubt we’d dine in at this location but possibly may order out. Sorry Pasquale’s a bit of a disappointment from all our past experience’s if dining in...