Racca's Pizzeria Napoletana — Restaurant in Casper

My wife I and went to the new Racca's in Casper on the Friday evening of its opening week. To sum things up, it was a totally underwhelming experience. I'll start off with the good. Racca's did a few things very well. The beer selection was excellent, as was the antipasto we ordered as an appetizer. From there things went downhill fast. First off, the background music was blaring to the point that it was difficult to communicate (and of course, such loud music meant everyone had to raise their voices to be heard). By the time we left my wife's voice had gone hoarse. I understand that loud music is probably what the millennial generation craves, but my wife and I are a generation ahead of our nation’s cherished millennials, and with our reservation being at 6:30 it appeared most of the cliental at that time was also a bit older. The music was so loud that the staff had difficulty hearing us. Examples: the gal at the front desk asked if we wanted a table or booth. I told her booth, and then the hostess proceeded to seat us at a table. My wife ordered the house white wine to drink, and the waitress thought she ordered the house red. We ordered two cannolis, but the waitress thought we only ordered one. Suggestion: dial back the music until later in the evening. Beyond the uncomfortable ambiance, most of the food also left a lot to be desired. My wife comes from a large New York Italian family, and was raised eating eggplant. She ordered the Napoli sandwich, which is a flatbread with tomato, eggplant, fresh basil, and fresh mozzarella. The Napoli she received was piled high with tomatoes and basil, not much eggplant. What made this situation worse was when I tried to offer the waitress a friendly suggestion: “Please suggest to the cook more eggplant and less basil next time.” Her response was interesting: “OK, but I don't think he'll change it.” Wow, I can think of scores of responses that would have been better than what she said. And those cannoli shells were overcooked. Perhaps we’ll return to Racca’s in about six months or so; hopefully by then the establishment will have matured to the point where it can be an enjoyable...

I came here based on the reviews. It was a nice place and the waitress was friendly. The food selection, however, is very uni-dimensional. Out of all their pizzas, none were vegetarian, and only a single pizza had chicken. Every single other pizza that are made to order comes with some sort of pork on it. If you don’t eat meat, or don’t want pork, then your options are near nonexistent here. Your only option would be to build your own, but the cost effectiveness of that is minimal. Even the extremely kind and friendly waitress did not realize how singular the menu was. If it wasn’t already so late, and I wasn’t so hungry, I would have left. I ended up ordering the only pizza with chicken on it. When I received it, it was burned on the crust and all across the bottom. The top crust was mostly burnt on one half of the pizza but the bottom was burned throughout, enough that every bite had a burnt flavor to it. The only redeeming factor to this restaurant was the waitress. She was very apologetic about the menu, having not realized herself the limited options for someone who could not eat pork. She was as helpful as could be to come up with other options that I could eat. The wonderful waitress did end up giving me a coupon for a free pizza or the next time I come to Casper. I’m not sure if I would return other than to use the free cheese pizza coupon. Was very disappointed that the rather large menu would end up being so...

The experience: Very nice looking restaurant, very clean, the server seemed sincere and kind, but the host acted like seating us was an inconvenience. He/they sat us at a two-person table that was much too small for two people. And it was literally up against the wall, which my elbow hit multiple times throughout the disappointing meal. The chair was unpadded and very uncomfortable.

The service: The waitress was very nice, she came to our table multiple times throughout our short visit to accommodate our needs. Very nice girl. However, the hosts at the front were more concerned with chatting with each other than actually hosting. It took much longer than necessary for one of them to welcome me into the restaurant, and then once he did, he acted like I was making him work or something...

The food: The menu seems incredible. I would have preferred to have time to enjoy my appetizers before they brought the entre to the table (which had to be set on the table next to us because the tiny table couldn't accommodate what was already there)... and I hate to disrespect the chef that made it... so I'll just say that I wouldn't order those specific items again. The 60 seconds at 900 degrees left my pizza burned on the outside and doughy on the inside.

Summary: for the price of this food, you'd expect fine dining, or at least a good experience. I didn't receive either. I didn't get her name, but the server was the best...