Pasquale’s Ristorante & Pizzeria Bar — Restaurant in Londonderry

UPDATE: The owner of the restaurant contacted me directly and apologized for the bad experience I had. He offered to make it right and he did. A bad night can happen to anyone and the way Pasquale handled it showed me that he's a class act and cares about his customers. I have been back and will go again!

So what happened to customer service?

This was our third visit, and quite probably our last. Our first visit was great! Delicious food, fantastic pizza and a good time had by all. I had the pasta with scallops and it was very good. It's easy to overcook scallops and they end up rubbery. These were perfectly sautéed. The wait was a bummer, but I didn't mind too much because the place had just opened up and I figured they'd work out the kinks as they went along. Well... maybe not.

Our second visit was to pick up some of that delicious pizza. The place was packed and there's not much room to wait around, but the pizzas were ready and I squeezed in and out.

My third visit was tonight... I had a hankering for some good pizza so I thought I'd order from Pasquale's and grab one of their strawberry, pear and walnut salads too. I ordered three pizzas and a couple of salads. Now mind you, as others have stated, their prices aren't exactly cheap and their pizzas aren't exactly large, but I really like their pizza crust and hadn't ordered from them in a while.

So I called at 5:41 and was told 20-30 minutes for pickup. I arrived at 6:20 and expected the pizzas to be getting a little cool because of my tardiness. Well, guess what? The pizzas weren't even ready after 40 minutes. I've made pizzas in a wood fired brick oven before and they only take 7 or 8 minutes to bake. The hostess apologized and said let me go get your order.

She came back and said the pizzas weren't ready yet. About 20 minutes later, the manager (?) came over and asked if I was the one waiting for pizza. I said, yes and it had been an hour since I placed the order. She apologized and said they'd gotten slammed. I ended up waiting another 10 minutes for my food. I'm sure my pizzas hadn't even been started by the time I arrived.

Now, remember Pasquale's prices are on the high side, and for those prices I expect good food and good service. Tonight was a bust on both accounts. The pizzas were not anywhere near as good as before and it took over an hour to get my food. The least they could have done was offer a partial refund because of the wait or a discount for a future visit. If you're going to charge a premium price for your food, it better include very good service and when it doesn't (as happens occasionally), you better make sure your customer knows you understand you missed the mark and try and make it up to them, even in a small way.

Since Pasquale's didn't seem to be bothered by their poor service, I...

Not impressed. This was our first visit. We went with another couple from out of town and having watched the reviews for this place seem to trend upwards since the somewhat shaky-sounding opening, we gave it a shot. We arrived at around 6 on a saturday night. It was busy, but we were seated immediately. Was a little disappointed with the decor -- looks like they took the old Avandi's (the previous place - an inexpensive diner/restaurant), re-arranged the tables and added the pizza oven. Ok, whatever -- it's all about the food, right? I got the Porcini Mushroom soup to start and it was really fantastic and set the stage for an impressive meal. We ordered our entrees -- Short Rib Ravioli, Gnocchi Bolognese, Fettuccine Alfredo and Tortellini Carbonara. All except the Gnocchi were disappointing. The carbonara and the alfredo were more like soups the sauces were so thin. The short rib ravioli was bland and the sauce was also watery. It was also surprising how quickly the meals arrived -- it makes me wonder how much of this is simply reheated rather than made upon order.. The service was good. Our server seemed to be new, but she did pretty well. Attentive without being intrusive. Overall -- it was unsatisfactory. I may try the pizza as take-out, (and a bowl of the mushroom soup) but I doubt I will return for a sit-down dinner. For a place with these prices, it should be much,...

Bad experience... Went for a late lunch today off of a suggestion and decided why not. We began to dig into the bread until I realized there was a stray piece of steel wool in my bread. It was baked into the bread and I am glad I had found it so I wouldn't have to take an unexpected trip to the hospital. I told the waiter who took it away and told the manager. The manager later came over and said that they were sorry and someone accidentally must have left a bit of the steel wool when cleaning the oven last night that they bake the bread in, constantly going over how the bread is homemade, no need to try to gloss this over I don't want anymore of your food!! The manager later asked if we wanted anymore bread which I obviously declined, but the waiter came out with more... We considered leaving after that but decided to stay and give it a shot, we should have left. The food was very mediocre and bland. I got chicken broccoli alfredo and the chicken was in odd thin strips some were almost in these corners with all char, (the chicken was $3 extra)and a fettuccine with a ragu like flavor alfredo sauce. My dad had gotten the steak tips which were in these same thin , almost meatless, strips which we did not enjoy. Bad experience with no compensation. No free food, no free dessert or appetizer, no gift card. Abbismial expirence, never going back and I suggest you...