Pro's Epicurean Ristorante — Restaurant in Cary

Food Safety Warning!!

We tried this place for dinner and had an awful experience:

1, Some of the scallops had an ammonia odor, and everyone knows that means they are spoiled! We called the waiter immediately and asked to return the dish because we had to rush to an upcoming appointment and couldn’t wait longer for a replacement (we waited about 20+ minutes for that dish to be brought to our table). After taking back the dish, their manager (whose name seemed to be Karen) merely offered an $8 discount off that $24.5 dish as a remedy - Excuse me?! What made you think you should still charge $16.5 for a spoiled dish that was returned already? We have traveled around the world and been to numerous restaurants, big and small. Never heard of a business practice like this! The manager insisted that their scallops were delivered every day and therefore must be fresh. Excuse me?! “Delivered today” does NOT necessarily guarantee freshness. Could it be possible that your vendor had a batch of spoiled scallops before they were even delivered to you? Finally, the manager refunded the price of that dish, after a few minutes of unpleasant confrontation. We barely made it to our appointment, as a result.

2, Slow and inattentive service (on a usual Tuesday), which was another reason we were almost late for our appointment. We waited nearly 20 minutes to have the complimentary bread (before anything else) served! The waiter (whose name seemed to be Kevin) ignored us for 10+ minutes and even totally forgot about our appetizer. So the appetizer was finally brought to our table along with the dessert. How funny was that?

Positives:

The other dishes that we ordered tasted pretty good. The manager greeted us at first when we got seated at the table. She also came to our table quickly after we raised the concern about the scallops.

Final thoughts:

We are not going back to this business. Undoubtedly, restaurants went through a challenging time in the past year or so, but just like any other industry, that should never be an excuse for the degraded quality of product and service. Yes, spoiled scallops might be the problem of your supply chain, not you. But isn't it your responsibility to ensure (not assume!) the scallops are fresh before serving your customers? What if you are cooking scallops for your own family? Don't you examine them before cooking? Yes, that waiter alone might not represent your standard of service as a whole. But isn't it your responsibility to ensure all your employees practice the same standard of service to each customer? Please, treat your customers right, if...

6/5 stars for those that don't want to read the whole review. For those that want all the details keep reading. My wife and I were looking for a place to grab a mid afternoon meal without the kids for the first time since early March. We found Pro's and one review said "great for foodies" so we were immediately on board. We stopped in and immediately fell in love with the menu. Our server gave us great recommendations. We started with the burrata. I didn't know what I was getting into because I had never had one. We were blown away! It was the perfect balance of creamy cheese with roasted garlic. It will be the first thing we order every time we stop in (there will be many many more trips). Then we decided to grab a 3 item charcuterie plate. One of the items was a double cream Brie that was delectable (we actually went back and bought a half pound two days later). The other two items were a also fantastic Speck and an almost alpine cheddar. In addition to the main attractions they brought a few different dried fruits and a orange fig spread (which we also bought a jar of). On to the main courses. We couldn't decide on two items so we decided to share three entrees. We landed on the Chilean Salmon, Francesca Pro's Sausage Pie, and the Crepe di Fromage. All three were excellent. The salmon was cooked flawlessly juicy inside with a light grill char on the outside. The Sausage Pie is a recipe handed down for generations ... enough said. The Crepe did things with savory flavors I didn't know were possible in a crepe. All in all one of the best new restaurant experiences we have had in...

This place has some issues. I ordered take out and the wait was a little longer than I was hoping...but when I got in the car I realized that 2 of the 4 deserts were missing. I went back and got them but then...when I got home I realized the soup I ordered -and paid for - was not there...so six bucks down the drain. Here is an overview of the food: Sausage Pie....was it microwaved? One side was very hard, sausage a bit salty. Other than the very hard parts that crumbled when cut it was ok...but pricey for the size of the portion and taste. Quiche Lorraine...beautiful. Light perfectly seasoned, awesome crust. a bit pricey, but it was very good. I would eat this again. Crepe, mushroom/cheese sauce...it was very good as well, I would hold the tarragon on top in the future...it didn't add anything and was a bit strong tasting. Price for this was OK, would eat this again. Soup - Gumbo - wouldn't know...it was missing....pricey! Napoleon - eh. Very sweet, cream very oily. Tastes like food service food. At $6...not worth the price. Apple Pastry - mixed. The apple part was great, but the 'pastry' shell looked and tasted like a parker house tube roll. Not worth the price. Pro's is working at being a trendy downtown Cary destination but has a way to go. The indoor seating area is VERY loud. While I really enjoyed the classic 70's - 80's rock they were playing - think Lynyrd Skynyrd, Eagles, I'm not sure its appropriate for what I think Pro's is trying to be...and...did I mention...it was loud. No way to have conversations with a...