Lazzari — Restaurant in Portland

This is the only review I have ever left. This was the worst dining experience I have ever had, and as someone who is in the industry, that’s telling. We were seeing a show at the State Theater at 8pm, we arrived to Lazzari around 6:20pm. We waited at the host stand for about 5-10 minutes before we were greeted (if you could call it that). There was a wait and due to us having a time crunch we opted for the last two bar seats. We sat down around 6:30. Unfortunately, those two seats were at the far end near the server pass which has server drinks and Twix bars, nerds candies everywhere. This was off putting but whatever. I did notice the atmosphere was abnormally loud and I’m 27 years old so for me to notice that means it’s loud. Anyways we sat for about 15 minutes while the bartender walked by us multiple times without even acknowledging us. I always try to give the benefit of the doubt, so I was thinking she’s probably super busy, but still a “be right with you!” Would’ve been nice. Finally she greats us around 6:45 and we place our entire order at once keeping in mind we need to leave by around 7:45. We ordered two drinks, I asked for a water, meatballs & calamari and a pizza to share. The bartender brought our drinks but forgot my water, I didn’t say anything it wasn’t the end of the world. Our meatballs came out about 20 minutes later, no calamari. We didn’t say anything, we also didn’t have a chance to as the bartender never checked in with us again. 7:30 rolls around and we still don’t have our pizza. I’m looking for the bartender to ask her to check on it as we need to leave in 15 minutes. She makes eye contact with me numerous times and keeps walking to and from the kitchen. I’m guessing she’s checking to see if our food is up. I wish she would’ve come and acknowledged the wait to us and given us an update but instead was avoiding us like the plague. 7:40 hits and who I assume was the manager was next to us at the server pass and I said “excuse me, hi!” While smiling and she blank face says “what” and I said “I’m sorry I’m not usually in a rush when going out to eat but we have to leave and I was wondering if you could check on our pizza? We’ve been waiting over 45 minutes for it” and she said “yeah things are taking a while tonight we are short staffed”. I said “totally understand! But could you please check on it so we can decide if we can stay or go?” And she goes and comes back and says “yeah it’ll be a while before that’s ready” and I said “alright could we have the check please we need to go to catch our show. Please make sure the calamari we never received isn’t on the bill either thanks!” The bartender never rang it in so it wasn’t, probably for the best judging by the reviews of the calamari. The manager did apologize when giving me the check just saying “sorry”. I’m disappointed that not a single staff member had an ounce of hospitality. Which seems like a common theme of this place judging by many reviews of unfriendly staff. Anyone who’s worked the service industry knows that not everything can go smoothly all the time, but at least check in with your guests, acknowledge the long wait, ask if there’s anything you can get them while they wait. If we had known sooner we likely weren’t getting our pizza, we could’ve found something quick nearby to have before the show. We left sharing 3 tiny meatballs between the two of us for our dinner. The bartender never spoke to us again after taking our order. As a first timer here I won’t be back. Not because of the long wait on food, but because of the way they handled it. They don’t seem to care at all here. I never saw a server, bartender, manager speak to each other let alone smile. Whoever owns this place must not care at all about how it’s run or hospitality and only...

Not a reliable choice.

I ordered take-out online, and I received a text that pizza will be done in an hour (9pm), and that they will text me when it's ready.

I assumed it wouldn't be ready in time, it was Friday after all, so I wasn't surprised that I didn't get a text at 9pm.

By 9:30 I decided to walk there and check it out, assuming it's not ready yet, I'll wait, it can't be much longer.

Pizza was apparently ready, just nobody bothered to let me know. The place wasn't extremely busy either, at least not for dinning.

When I opened the box, it looked like a mess. There was barely any prosciutto (See the pic) And the worst part - There was a hair on it.

I wanted so badly for it to be mine, so I can still enjoy my pizza, but it was well mixed in with cheese. Probably got stuck when cheese cold down.

We paid extra for prosciutto. It looks like someone just tossed some on top in the end, kind of eyeballing it. Not enough for pizza this size. I regret adding it to the order.

Conclusion: Accidents happen, doesn't imply it's a bad place to get a pizza, and chances are you might have a great time and enjoy your experience, other reviews definitely suggest that, and it's probably true. I had lazzari at my friend's house many times before, and it always came in one piece, warm, no hair, so this was a fluke most likely.

But I personally don't plan on coming back because:

They made me feel like they are doing me a favor by making that pizza.

They let my pizza cool down, didn't let me know when it was done, and I was waiting in a bar close by to go home with it.

The mess? I genuinely have no idea how they made it into a mess that it was when I opened the box. Maybe the cook hates me personally, and he was sending me a message haha? I don't believe I know anyone who works there tho lol.

Overall, I'd rather...

First I'll start by saying this: the pizza here really is delicious. The crust was perfect: thin and crispy in the center with a little bit of a thicker, soft, chewy crust. Great topping choices and if this rating were only based on the food, it would be 5 stars.

However, last night we arrived and were seated at 6:00pm. Our waitress took our drink and food order around 6:20pm. At 6:50pm we still hadn't seen our drinks (not even water), but we were enjoying the company of our party so we brushed it off. We got the drinks around 7:00. At 7:36pm we still didn't have our pizzas. We flagged our waitress down to inquire as we had to be somewhere else at 8:00pm. She acted annoyed that we questioned her and told us that she'd check our ticket and that they were a packed house last night and unfortunately behind (which we understand, but over an hour wait for pizzas seems long to me). At that point all our drinks were empty and she did not offer a refill. She actually seemed to avoid our table as she made eye contact with us but then turned around.

When we were able to get her attention she offered us the check. We were very frustrated as we knew another party in the restaurant a few tables down that had their meal comped because of the wait times. We were not offered the same courtesy despite waiting the same amount of time until we inquired about it. All in all, they did comp the meal, the food was good, and our waitress could use some tips on customer service. A little attentiveness goes a long way, and we were being friendly until she ignored us.

There are other pizza places that are just as good in Portland, so unfortunately after last night I wouldn't recommend it and...