DiStasio's Ristorante — Restaurant in Morro Bay

I was only in town for a day (4/6/15) in San Luis Obispo for a job meeting, after driving 2.5 hours. My family and I have been to Morro Bay our whole lives so we know the town very well. My mother, sister and I wanted to have a nice casual dinner before heading home. My sister and mother had said this place was great before. I checked out the menu and said "yes, let me try it". Getting seated was no problem. However, we waited 20 minutes before we were even asked if we wanted water and complimentary bread. In the mean time a couple to my right sat down and shortly after water and bread came two ladies to my left got seated. Finally, the HOSTESS comes and gets not only our drink order but our entree order as well. We ordered an appetizer of garlic cheese bread. My sister made a custom pizza; a small one with pepperoni extra cheese and olives. My Mother had lasagne and I had seafood Alfredo with shrimp. While we were waiting for our appetizer not one WAITER/WAITRESS had introduced themselves. All of them (except one waiter who has a beard, wish I knew your name props to you for taking your job seriously) looked so unorganized and didn't even have a standard dress code with non-slip shoes (we could see all black was dress code but looked so disheveled). My sister and I who have worked in restaurants know it's illegal to NOT wear non-slip shoes if you're going to be in the kitchen. Dress code looked way too casual. One lady was wearing a mini skirt with fishnet stockings and boots. Another man who filled our water (I don't know if we was part of the restaurant) was in jeans and a patriots hat. There were I counted five women and three different men handling only about 15 tables. So 30 minutes later the garlic cheese bread arrives. At this point we have dealt with five different people now. To my right, the couple who came in about 20 minutes after us had gotten their food and were enjoying their meal (they had a pizza and pasta dish). The ladies to my left after being sat 30-40 minutes after us had gotten their appetizers before we did. Shortly before our meals came out the couple had ordered dessert. OUR TABLE WAS LITERALLY IN NO MAN'S LAND. It was as if we were unassigned to someone from the beginning. We did not leave because we were tired and had a 2.5 hour drive home. Anyway, so our meal finally arrives, given it to us by our sixth staff member, comes about 7:00 when we were seated about 5:45. Less than five minutes later the ladies had gotten their food (ordered a pizza and pasta dish). We believe our waitress who was in the mini skirt came to ask for refills and my mom said "yes, a diet please". She grabs the cup, refills the soda and hands it back to ME when she was only gone for 20-30 seconds. Now remember, I only counted 15 tables and 8 people; it can't be that difficult. During the meal, we had a great view. However the windows and screens looked so dirty and smudged. The hostess decided to open the shades when there were 2 MOTHS, which she knew of, inside the restaurant and they could've flown right to our table and into our food. GROSS!!!! The couple had finished their meal and we are about done as well. We didn't want to leave a tip, but we would've had to speak to the manager about why, it's common courtesy and all. We didn't want to waste anymore time though in trying to find them because one, we didn't know who they were and two, we just wanted to get out of there. Even for my meal, I wouldn't want it again. Ended up paying $5 extra for SEVEN shrimp, the Alfredo sauce didn't taste great and the amount of sauce they put on my plate to pasta and shrimp was at least 3:1. I wouldn't pay the $18 for it again. The lasagne was good and so was the pizza. Lastly, on the way out the hostess had a HUGE PLATE of spaghetti with marinara or meat sauce at her station in the front of the restaurant with her drink in plain sight. I would NOT recommend this...

Tonight I took myself out on a little date to DiStasio’s Ristorante. It is a Monday night and I was craving some Italian food. I used Google to make a reservation for one. It was a slow night upon my arrival but that was fine with me. The ambience was relaxed and homey. The owner even came out to check on his guests.

I was immediately greeted at the door by the hostess who sat my at a small table in near a window. It took a little while for the server to come over, however, I wasn’t in a hurry. Since I had the time to look over the menu and the wine menu I knew what I wanted by the time she came over to take my order.

A friendly and polite woman came over and made an apology for taking time to come to my table. It was appreciated. I ordered the Bruschetta appetizer with a glass of Chianti and a main course of Spaghetti with meatballs (a classic).

The wine was very tasty. It was tart, with a medium acidity, and medium in body just like it was meant to be. The bruschetta was served with half cut and thinly sliced tomatoes, which in my opinion is better than diced tomatoes. The flavor was delightfully tart and herbal with a high note right at the end that hit the back of the pallet. The balsamic vinaigrette that made this happen was strong, but it had a good flavor. It made me want to eat just the tomatoes off each piece of bread.

Finally the Spaghetti and meat balls came. The noodles were not heavy or anything that you would buy in a grocery store labeled “spaghetti”. These were light and airy and unbroken which made the noodles very long. (I should have asked for or been given a spoon to wind the noodles onto the fork, but I made it work.) the sauce was flavorful and I could tell that it was homemade. It made me feel warm inside and brought back memories of when I used to have the time to make my own sauce. There was no harsh or heavy tomato taste and no bitterness. I could taste that it was made with care. The meatballs were cooked just right with no pink middle and cut easily with a fork. I kept using the meat to sop up the sauce and I almost couldn’t stop eating it!

Finally I took home a piece of tiramisu.

All in all my experience was wonderful and one day I will go back and try their chicken parmigiana!

Price for all of this was about $45. Which I found pretty reasonable for this economy, but the food itself...

Edit: I understand your restaurant is your livelihood, I've won Chopped twice. Which is why I spent hours of my life writing a detailed review of why NOBODY COMES TO YOUR FAILING RESTAURANT. After hearing owners response this place is a joke, I retract anything positive I said just avoid it period.

Garlic Bread: 1/10. Basic loaf cut, lightly buttered with pre-cut jarred garlic chunks. For the cheese version they just add cheese on this. Definitely nothing special you can make this with a microwave and pan at home.

Ranch: Just stay away. Don't order it. Jarred ranch that's probably months expired tasted sour and was absolutely HORRID.

Fettuccine Pasta Plain w No chicken: 3/10. When I got it sauce was hot and very very loose. Seems like basic traditional recipe just butter and parm. After trying garlic bread it cooled down enough sauce tightened up and it was pretty good, noodles were cooked perfectly. Reason I give it a 3/10 they used spoiled cream or milk. This dish made me so sick 30 minutes after eating it. I won't be back because of the food poisoning.

Even though taste on the pasta was OK. I see why other reviews say everything was bland and plain.

A little tip for the person designing the menu here. Try chicken base paste in your white garlic sauce instead of salt. The flavors were very traditional and basic without the tradition aspect being there. If you're going to do a 3 ingredient pasta sauce then the pasta needs to be handmade. Otherwise just make a rich sauce like all the Americanized places love.

I loved the atmosphere. Service was cool. Garlic bread sucked, ranch was a -20/10 and the pasta sauce or maybe the ranch ended up giving me...