Avanti's Italian Restaurant - Pekin — Restaurant in Pekin

I'm so unsure how to write this review. Came in, seated right away, which was great since it was Pekin's Homecoming. However, we waited almost 20 minutes before being acknowledged, and when we were acknowledged, it wasn't even by our waitress. She apologized, told me she'd get our drinks. And send our sections waitress over. We'll, she never came. I watched the lady who I'm pretty sure was the waitress we were supposed to have, continuously go to the booth in front of me and cater to them, looked as if she knew them or they were family/friends. I tried getting her attention several times, but was ignored. The waitress who took our drink order came back. Apologized again and said she would just take care of us. I got the tortellini, which I often do, and did not like it at all. The noodles were different, and either just not good or not cooked long enough. The meat sauce was delicious as always. My kids liked their meals. I've never had such blah service at Avantis, especially the Pekin one. The lady who ended up taking care of us was great. Wish I could remember her name. Very disappointed with watching the lady in front of us literally only care about 1 table. I've worked food service and even if I had family or friends I was taking care of, my other tables were still taken...

Recently, our family has eaten at Avanti's because our grandkids enjoy it. I realize we were a group of 5 one time and 7 the next, we had to wait 15 minutes for a tables when the restaurant was not busy, and it took 1.5 hours to order and get our food. While we waited, we observes several nearby tables be seated, order, receive their food, eat , and leave before we received our orders. We had the same server both times, so that may have been the problem.

I have noticed in the last year that the restaurant has changed, and not in a good way. Service is slower. Portion sizes are smaller. The pizza burger prima has gone from a hearty meal to a shrunken piece of bread with sauce and cheese down the middle.

I have also had problems with carry out. I placed an order online which consisted of two salads with chicken. The order was supposed to be ready in 15 minutes. When I arrived, the order wasn't ready and took 15 additional minutes before it was ready. This happened twice.

Something isn't right at the Pekin Avanti's. I don't know if it's the Pekin manager or if the situation is the same at the other stores. Regardless, it seems like we'll be eating at La Gondola and Spaghetti...

Dry crisp crust pizza required a lot of liquid to eat... Too bad you couldn't get service staff to keep the drink refilled. Pepperoni, chicken, black olives. . And the pizza needed salt... How? Again not impressed with Avanti's. They are doing away with the unlimited (excellent) free bread as a cost savings, they'd be better off selling the bread and giving away pizza... Or splitting the bread and using it as French bread style pizza crust. Seriously. Salad bar looked ok but unkempt and cross contamination issues meant not an option for my allergy plagued companion. $40 for a pizza, and a salad with a pair of fountain drinks would have been better spent in either Oriental buffets in town and has money left over, or a pair of really nice meals across the intersection at Ginger where dinner for two is about $45-50 with attentive staff. Avanti's remains an example of what is expected and considered good... For Peoria, the rest of the world, not so much. Peoria area in general is one of the saddest places to try to find an exhilarating...