Giovanni's Pizza Carpinteria — Restaurant in Carpinteria

First of all let me warn you; this is a take-out restaurant. Yes, there is a sitting area, but you order your food at a counter, you pour your own drink, and you go up to get your food and bring it to your table. There are no servers, and no service beyond the counter. You will be hard-pressed to find a clean table when it is busy, so you might have to clean your own. We came in expecting more of a sit-down, but the prices seemed really good. So we figured why not? The service that we received was atrocious, and the boys that served us should be reprimanded for their attitudes. From the start, we felt like we were not good enough to get their attention, and when we finally did, it was with sullen looks and arguing about things that should be included with the "complete" specials. Website menu says it comes with a soda, but the kid at the counter said the website needs to be updated. I don't care, just honor it. They did, with a slamming down of the soda cups. When our order was finally made, they told us it would be 25 minutes, which we expected. We were not expecting the 45 minutes that it actually took ... with no apologies given. The prices are really good, and the food was very tasty, with reasonable portions, but seriously? Retrain the boys with attitude to be better servers, and get some decent service in here. Get someone who knows how to smile, clean tables, and make you...

EDIT after response from owner: Thank you for reading my review and for your comment. Can you please provide a source for your quote about "the closest thing to NY"? I grew up in DC and Boston and my family is all from NY. I respectfully would claim that Gino's on Figueroa Street is the closest to NY in SB. I would be curious where your quote is from?

ORIGINAL post: I was in a hurry so I crossed the street from Rusty's to see if Giovanni's sells slices. They said yes. They suggested the combination of slice, salad and soda and I said OK.

It took quite a while to get the food even though no one else was there.

But that wasn't the main problem. The main problem was the food. Food is a matter of taste. This did not match my taste at all.

The pizza was on thick bread and I prefer thin. It was laden thick with cheese. That slice was probably a full day's worth of calories.

The "salad" was lettuce and raw onions piled with more cheese. Another full day's worth of calories. I scraped off as much of the cheese as I could but it was still pretty awful.

Maybe some people would like this food, but I am not coming back. Rusty's is so much better. I should have just done the Rusty's salad bar. Even if I got an individual pizza at Rusty's it would have taken the same amount of time. And it would have tasted good and not been an insane load of calories.

Again, your taste may...

Took advantage of the lunch special with salad, pizza slice and drink. I was pleasantly surprised at the decent size salad with Italian dressing and the pizza slice was very big. Both were real good. I’m sharing a pic of the pizza slice…I would have included the salad but my hunger overtook me and I immediately ate the salad. The service was fantastic. My dog was with me so I ate in the outside patio that was real nice and shaded from the sun. The ambiance was nice. I need to point out that the guy who helped me treated me very well as he brought my food outside so I could remain seated in the patio with my pooch. I thought that he was the owner and told me that he was a hired employee. His service and friendliness showed deep responsibly as though he owned the place. Kudos to him and I hope that his employer reads this and gives him some recognition. This has become my Italian go to eatery whenever I’m in...