Polonza Bistro — Restaurant in Pensacola

This was our first time at Polonzo Bistro, and, while I intended to have a omelette, I ended up getting the Braised Pork breakfast burrito. I asked for fresh jalapeño instead of the poblano, because I wanted more spice. Our waiter, Joseph, was very accommodating and truly made us feel like he wanted us to be happy, so communicated with us a lot.

My wife had the Traditional breakfast, with sourdough toast. It seems that the further away from San Francisco, the more varied sourdough becomes, and this was on the sweet side - not sure why? Not unpleasant, but not traditional. She likes food more salty than I do, but felt the potatoes were too salty (I had potatoes in the burrito, and they weren't salty, so it may have been added after, in the kitchen).

The coffee was fresh and flavorful, and my wife's jasmine/peach tea was incredibly aromatic, and brewed fresh as well.

Overall, a little pricey for what you get, but I would come back when I want to splurge. It was a cool September day, and we sat outside, which made it spectacular! Joseph, our waiter, even commented how much he enjoyed serving tables outside in this weather. No doubt!

Recommendation: definitely visit, but expect to spend $18-$20 per person for breakfast.

Negative: they took out the poblano pepper in my burrito in exchange for the jalapeño, but charged me extra. Next time I'll make sure they leave the poblano. That's just ridiculous.

Positive: Joseph made our visit very pleasant. Good on him, considering we now live in a time of bad service from people in the service industry.

UPDATE: Since we enjoyed our first visit, we decided to come back for lunch on Sunday. The place was hopping, but it wait for an outside take was only ten minutes. Not bad.

Amanda was our waitress this time, and she was very good as well. Sure was comfortable with us, and with the menu. She has quite a few tables, but didn't make us feel like she was stressing out, which is important. It kept us comfortable.

I had the Fried Green Tomato Club with sweet potato fries. It was good, and I'd probably order it again. Being a sandwich, not much more to say.

My wife had the Salmon/Beet salad, and she loved every but of it! Cooked properly, seasoned well and flavorful.

My female friend had the Ancho Chile and pork omelette, with country potatoes, and she said it was, "out of this world!" Wow!

Her husband had the Steak and Eggs, which was a prime rib, and over medium eggs and a biscuit. He didn't like it. The cut it meat was gristly, and Amanda happily exchanged it. The second one was better, but he still felt they need to select their cuts better, especially for the price.

Overall, I'm keeping my rating, and recommend both the restaurant and Joseph and...

Honestly, very disappointed with our experience here. To start, we came in on a Thursday evening, and were one of 3 tables total, in the entire restaurant.

The first disappointment was that the online menu does not match what they have in the restaurant, which was a bummer because we had originally planned to go to another restaurant, but changed our minds to Polanza after seeing their online menu. But we decided to roll with it and stay.

Next, let me just say our waitress was super nice, probably the only good part of our dining experience.

While we were ordering, we noticed who I can only assume to be the chef, talking to one of the other tables, in a way that made it very apparent he was friends with the people at the table. He was telling them that he was short staffed, had no dishwasher that night, and was working with a trainee. He proceeded to spend more than 25 minutes talking to this table, chit chatting about his personal life, etc. I didn't really care at the time, because I assumed the trainee he was teaching could handle our orders himself, as I said, we were one of only three tables.

When our food came out, was when the problem really began. My husband ordered a $40 Steak and Frites. It came out cooked medium (he asked for medium rare) and it was cold. Not lukewarm, but so cold we couldn't believe they had actually brought it out to him like that.

I told him that when the waitress returned to check on our meal, we would tell her. Well it took her about 15 minutes to even return and ask us how the meal was. When I told her, she was very apologetic and said it would be fixed.

If I am a chef on a slow night and food is returned to my kitchen as sub par, and I know a trainee made it, I'm definitely hanging back in the kitchen to supervise the new steak being made. Imagine our surprise when the chef returns for another 25+ minute conversation with the table of his friends. And of course, the steak comes out overcooked once again, but at this point my husband is super hungry and just eats it.

The rest of the food, while not outright gross, lacked creativity and flavor. I honestly felt like some of it came from the freezer section at Walmart.

For a $100+ meal, you'd be better off going elsewhere. Honestly, could've gotten a better meal at...

Amanda was my server and she was very rude and impatient. Maybe servers should go back to wearing face masks so that they can hide their facial expressions. Originally everything was okay, it took a minute to get our appetizers but they were hot and fantastic! We had the special fries and the fried green tomatoes. Perfect. The mimosas and Irish coffees were fantastic albeit it took about thirty minutes for each drink to come. Not Amanda's fault, she's not the bartender just like she didn't cook entrees. About the entrees, everything looked AMAZING but it was lukewarm and cold so I couldn't really enjoy it. I ordered chicken and waffles (Amanda's suggestion for me) but it was all breading and no chicken, also not her fault. She didn't raise the chicken. Tried to just eat the waffle but that was cold too. Amanda never came by to check on us so after a while I just asked the host for a manager to see about taking the meal off. Reheating it would have been fine if she had ever checked on us again. The host was extremely friendly and understanding and went for a manager immediately, but I assume he was on the line helping to expedite the orders. Amanda finally came and took it away, she did ask if I wanted anything else but before I could even say no thank you she walked away. She acted like I had offended her by snatching the plate away. If I had wanted something else I was afraid she would do something to it because of the way she acted towards me. So I was very disappointed. We got there at 10:45 and left at 1pm because of the wait for our food and beverages. We watched parties larger than ours get their meals that had been sat at least 30 minutes after us. I've never not tipped before because as a server, I freaking get it. Even if she forgot to put our orders in, that's okay! I've done it. It's not the mistakes you make, it's how you handle them. I've never had to ask for a manager before. Even though I was disappointed with the service I enjoyed palanzo! I will definitely be back but not to sit with Amanda. Who afterwards, stopped my friends on their way to the car in what I guess was a lame attempt at an apology for bad service I received. The only reason I leave two stars and not four is because of...