La Pergoletta — Restaurant in Los Angeles

My friend and I were visiting from Houston and happened to be in the area. We were looking for a place to eat and I saw this place had 4.6 stars and great reviews so we decided to give it a try. As soon as we walked in, we had to wait about a minute or 2 before we were actually greeted. I wasn’t sure if we were supposed to seat ourselves or wait for a host, so we just stood by the door. I saw that there were 2 people behind the bar, but neither said anything. Finally, when someone else walked in behind us, the girl behind the bar came and asked us if we had a reservation. We told her no and asked if we had to have one and she said no but it was the weekend and my friend told her that we were in from Houston so we did not know or make one. I wondered how long we would have been standing there had the other person not walked in behind us. The place was not super packed, so we did not have to wait to sit down. Once we sat down, it took a while for the waiter to come take our order. I was on the phone with my son and when he saw that, he immediately walked off instead of talking to my friend or ask her if we were ready. When he finally came back, he didn’t go over any specials but did ask if we had any questions. He started to walk off and my friend asked him if they offer bread since we were pretty hungry and he said they would bring some bread (usually the expectation is set, especially because we told him we were from out of town and we had not been there before). He brought some bread but it was surprising that they didn’t bring any butter or offer butter for the bread. The food was taking a while so we asked for another basket of bread since we were hungry. My friend asked the waiter to bring us some warm butter since we had asked for butter and they brought packets of frozen butter. A few minutes later, another guy came to bring a small side of MELTED butter. We looked at each other and then the waiter looked at my friend and said “you asked for warm butter, right?”. This made me feel a bit irritated because I felt like he was mocking her. She didn’t mean bring me some melted butter to dip my bread in, she meant she wanted some butter that she could actually spread on her bread without having a hard time, but I guess she should have been more specific. The food came after a seemingly long time. Another gentleman asked if we wanted Parmesan or red pepper flakes so we asked for both and he left us yet again for more time and went and brought a side of Parmesan and a side of pepper flakes after like another 5 mins. We were so hungry and I felt like I couldn’t even eat my food because they took forever to do anything. They kept sending different people over so it was hard to build rapport with our waiter. He rarely checked on us. My rating was based on the way they made us feel. We will never go there again (even though the food was pretty good) because we felt like they did not really want our business. We felt like outsiders and even the customers in that establishment made us feel uncomfortable. My friend is black and I’m Hispanic and I’m yet to decide if we were treated differently because we were not white or regulars like the other customers. I kept reassuring my friend that that was not the case but the more we were sitting there, the more I felt like we were being discriminated against. I regretted picking that place that night and dinner was awkward for my friend and I because we both felt super uncomfortable. I was glad to finish my food and leave and I will never go there again or suggest a friend or family member to...

I will give 1 star in this review, hoping to catch the owner's attention. Don't take me wrong, the food was fantastic! I will start by saying that the host was very kind. Unfortunately for us, our waiter is the reason for this review. When he arrived into our table he didn't even introduce himself, he just asked us if we wanted physical menus. After a while he asked us if we were ready to order. It was our first time visiting the restaurant, so we had questions about how creating your pasta worked. He briefly explained it to us and it seemed like he was in a rush because he didn't give us No recommendations and he didn't even give us the time to decide our dishes. My husband ordered a beer and asked about the house wine for me. Again in a hurry he mentioned what they had and my husband chose one for me. The next moment he came with 2 glasses of wine at our table and turned around immediately. We were left wondering why he would think we needed 2 glasses of wine, if my husband already had his drink on the table. We didn't want to bother him by returning it, so we decided to drink it (at the end was wine😉) Our dishes were served by other gentle staff, and after a while he came back with the card machine in his hands asking us if we going to pay by card or cash, without even asking ourselves if we needed anything else or at least dessert. The ironic thing was that in the place the tables are very close, so we could see how the other waiters were doing their best to serve their guests; an experience contrary to what we were receiving. As I said before, he didn't mention his name, but I could notice a name on the receipt, ANGEL Z. I'm not sure if this is the name of the waiter or the cashier as it is described there. He is Hispanic, like us. Hoping that his bad service was due to a bad day or a very busy day, and not because we were Hispanics, thinking that we would not leave him a good tip. No one deserves to be treated differently because of...

Updated: I came here a couple months ago and thought it was so so so good! The service was incredible. However, when I went back last week it might have been the most terrible experience ever. Our waiter did not want to work and wouldn’t answer 1 question. He didn’t want to help. He said he would bring bread 3x and never did finally we asked again for it. ( came at dinner) brought us our wine towards the end of the meal. Brought our salad and entree immediately when we asked to have one before the other. Like a proper meal. Then we ordered another dish and asked kindly for him to slow down we weren’t dining at all. I mean if you want to leave work, then a waiter should do so. Don’t ruin everyone’s experience here. We asked for the manager. Apparently they didn’t have one working on a Sunday night. Even though I really don’t believe they don’t have a manager on site or someone in charge. If they didn’t they desperately need one! They he knew how bad the experience was that he offered free dessert. We said no. The food was great but I would absolutely not want to stay any longer after they ruined our entire meal and experience out. They weren’t working as a team. People were also leaving and going in between the laundry Matt next door during there meal. It was just overall not where I would pick to go again. I will leave my positive review from last time as hopefully this was a one time off night. —

Wow wow wow. What a hidden gem. This place was delicious. I definitely will be going back. Service was a little slow but overall food was incredible. I prefer the indoor vs outdoor seating here. Such a cozy...