Dear Giannini's -- I regret that we will not visit your restaurant again. The first time we came to dine -- we enjoyed the experience. The food was good and the menu promised some variety for a future visit. The service was decent and the prices were appropriate for the area. Cut to the other night and things just fell apart when they didn't need to.
We arrived just before 7p behind a table of 4 who essentially sat down at the same time -- maybe a minute before us. There were four other tables besides the bar area who were in various stages of their dining.
The service was apologetically slow and the young waitress was friendly. She opened our wine and we waited patiently to place our order. We ordered an appetizer and our entrees. We got bread and butter pretty quickly. Our appetizer, the basil and pesto Bruschetta, took awhile to arrive, but we weren't watching the clock.
The "polenta board" arrived next -- not bad. The meat sauce was really good, but the polenta lacked any seasoning. Now we were starting to take notice of the delays in the kitchen. Meanwhile we watched the table of 4 get their entrees. The soup and salad arrived with more apologies. And the table of four was just finishing up their entrees.
Soup and salad were cleared -- our bottle of wine was 2/3rds gone. More apologies came and we watched the table of four leave -- now we were the only table waiting for food that we could see. The other two tables that remained had paid and were just chatting. We looked at the watch -- nearly 90 minutes. By this time -- it was dark -- late -- it was a Sunday night. It's now past 815p. No word on when the entrees would arrive, just more apologies and "it's coming".
So we asked for our waitress -- 5 minutes passed. Waitress comes back and we ask to cancel our meal -- we'll pay for what we've eaten and we'll come back another time -- no sense in dragging this out. The young waitress called out across the restaurant for the manager (or owner -- whoever the woman was). She came by and said "your entrees are ready, you don't want them??? They're just finishing the pasta". Well... I'm sorry to say if they're still finishing something, they're not ready.
See, Giannini's -- this is where there was an opportunity to reach out--to apologize by saying "Hey -- let me waive that corkage -- would you mind waiting another 5 minutes? Hey let me pick up that appetizer for you. Hey -- would you like me to box that up to go -- I'll take off one of the entrees for you." There are a number of responses. But instead, you chose to storm off without saying a word.
When we next saw our waitress, she dropped the bill at the table like a dive bomber. $55 for Bruschetta and corkage and items included with the price of the entrees we never received. Huh? While we settled on $40 plus a 20% tip for the waitress (it wasn't her fault that you threw a tantrum nor that the kitchen was incompetently under water/slow/whatever the excuse).
Giannini's survived Covid -- they've been a facet of our community (Yes -- did you know we were locals?) for decades. But maybe it won't if this is the way customers are treated. Perhaps it shouldn't if this is the quality of service and food that are delivered now on a menu that's much smaller than it used to be. And certainly -- if you're not the owner, you probably should find a new line of work because this ain't it, sweetheart.
So many chances to turn things around -- we would have been back and just shrugged it off to an "off night" -- but you closed the door on that for good. And I'm sorry -- because the food was good -- at least the first time. Maybe i'm looking at this through an overly optimistic and nostalgic lens. Perhaps the pathetic amount of salad mix drenched in oily dressing, the bland polenta, limited menu and Bruschetta that doesn't even have tomato on it (yes I get that it's pesto -- but basil + garlic like tomatoes!) are all signs that Giannini's has outlived its contribution to the community.
Sell the building -- go retire. It...
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