Tazza Kitchen Village District — Restaurant in Raleigh

On 4/16/18, I used your website to access an email address that is required to make a dinner reservation for 15 people on 5/5/18 for 7 PM.

A gentleman named Reggie emailed me back on 4/17/18 to offer me a 6:30 reservation for the group which I accepted via email.

On 4/28/18, I sent an email back requesting to increase the party size but did not receive a response, so on 5/2/18, I called and spoke with one of the hostesses who accommodated me by confirming with a manager that she was able to increase the party to 22.

I'd like to note that this is my attempt to AVOID showing up to an establish with a large group without prior notice which would inconvenience everyone involved.

On 5/5/18, I arrived around 6pm to check into the hostess stand. There were two young ladies working upfront. I gave them my name and to my surprise, they said they had no reservation under my name for the date and time. I elaborated by telling them the party size and checked under my maiden name (which is in my email handle) and they were able to find my reservation.

According to the tablet they were using, I used a tool they kept referring to as "Resi" to cancel my order. I explained that I'd only corresponded with the staff via email and phone and the taller of the two hostesses says, "Well our system shows us who does what with the reservation and it says that you cancelled." (I did not get these young ladies names so their height difference is really the only description I have.)

I then reexplained my methods of contact to this hostess who kept insisting that this was my fault. Instead of apologizing for the mix up, it seemed she felt I was absolutely wrong and her main focus was showing me that I was the cause of all of this.

She finally agreed to speak with her manager which happened to be Reggie. Reggie comes over and apologize (as I'd expect someone to do in this scenario) and ensured me they were working on getting us seated. He even acknowledged that perhaps his system was mistaken. He showed me the tables where he planned to seat us was very transparent about where everyone was in their dining experience. He even eventually asked a party who was had just sat down to move to another seat, which I wasn't expecting. He extended the offer for us to sit at some seats early if we'd like or put tables together. (All things I appreciated. Thanks Reggie!) I wish I knew the shorter of the two hostesses names but she also came to check in with me to apologize, as some of the parties to longer to cash out than others and extended the offer to sit at some of the cleared tables sooner. (Again, all appreciated.)

Moments later, the taller hostess asked us again if we'd like to sit sooner at some of the available tables and because I'm patient, i said I would wait until the other tables were cleared and moved so that my guests and I could sit together. Again, because I was inconveniencing HER, she says, "Well, I don't think we're going to do that, but let me check." This was in earshot of my guests who were beginning to get annoyed with her passive aggressive and condescending responses. I suppose she went to speak with Reggie or another manager and returned to move the tables with her other teammates.

They get the tables moved together and as we're getting seated, we notice it's a bit too tight for everyone to sit down. Our waitress did her best to help with rearranging the chairs and I MISTAKENLY went back to the tall hostesses to ask if they happen to have another table they don't use that we could use to extend our table and make more room. Her response? "No, we don't." I still remained patient despite her lack of interest in helping me. At this point she is completely over me and I'm equally over her. She then decides to go and check and VOILA, shows up with a spare table.

And while the remainder of the staff was awesome, I spent evening irritated my the rude hostesses who almost ruined my birthday dinner with her...

The arugula salad and my brisket meal were really good (I love onion, but I thought the slaw had too many raw red onions). The brisket itself was phenomenal. I got no fat in my entire portion and it was super moist, but the edges were crispy burnt ends. Yum! It was really some of the best brisket I’ve had in a long time. Much better than City BBQ.

On the downside... the pimento cheese was a 1/10. It did say was made with smoked cheese, but I didn’t think that would meat the entire dish would taste solely like a campfire. The texture was off putting too. It was close to cottage cheese in texture, very runny. Literally all you could taste was smoke. No pimentos, no cheese. The flat iron steak was also a bit disappointing. We were told to order the steak cooked one temperature more than normal because according to our waiter medium rare (what was originally requested) normally comes out closer to rare. So he said order it medium. Well, it came out close to well done. I also don’t like when my steak is precut because a lot of the juices run out. The other issue is the steak and potatoes are sat on a bed of ‘salsa verde’ which is really more like a purée than a salsa, but it was ice cold so the steak and potatoes quickly lost any heat they had. The sauce was also extremely spicy, far more than I would have expected.

I would go back just to get the brisket again or a pizza. I hope they change the pimento cheese recipe ASAP. At home we make a pimento cheese with pimentos and chipotle peppers and it brings a little bit of smoky flavor without overwhelming the sharp cheddar and pimentos. We also use very little Mayo so it’s not soupy at all. That would be a HUGE improvement over what they have now.

Also... the hostess irritated me. We walked in right past 5PM. There were maybe 4 tables seated in the restaurant. The hostess asked if we had a reservation. I said no. She said she could sit us outside (it was 39°F) and I said it’s far too cold, so after about a minute of standing there she said she could seat the two of us but we had to be fast because they had a reservation coming in an hour. Looking around the restaurant showed 3/4 of the tables were empty. All of the tables were distanced so it’s not like they had many tables out of service. So anyway, by the time we left (roughly an hour later) there were still 5-6 tables with nobody at them. Several other people that walked in looking to eat were turned away even with all of these open tables. While I understand reserving tables for those that have reservations, there was plenty of room for these other couples to have been seated and eaten before anyone with a reservation arrived.

I’ll definitely be back for some more brisket. I just want to let the owners/manager know what I believe would have thoroughly improved the...

I came to Tazza for the first time about a couple weeks ago and I absolutely loved it. Our amazing waitress served us our food, kept our drinks refilled, and was attentive. She also recommended the brown sugar pie which, quite literally, changed my life!

Between last night and my first visit, I had been dreaming of that pie. I even went as far as to try to make my own at home, but it just didn't compare. I was in need of another visit to Tazza's for the pie.

I made reservations for 8:00 pm last night. I ordered the cast iron goat cheese as an appetizer and it was absolutely delicious. My boyfriend and I were served our food and all was well. However, our drinks were only refilled once and a large plate we were no longer using was in our way the majority of the time. Nevertheless, we still enjoyed our food. I was just so excited for the pie I had been waiting so long for.

Usually, the waitress is meant to ask first if you'd like the check (this basically is them asking if you're done eating). We were given the check without being asked first. I asked if it was too late to get dessert, hopeful that there was still a chance I can get the pie even though she already printed the check, and she told me the kitchen was closed. This was really strange to me because a couple had just walked in about 10 minutes before I asked this question (it was 8:50) and they were seated. The kitchen should not close so long as there are people capable of ordering food. I am not sure if it was actually closed or if it was open, but if people were recently being seated, I can only help but think that it was still open. It also would have been thoughtful for our waitress to tell us that the kitchen was closing soon in case we wanted dessert later.

Overall, the biggest reason I came to Tazza last night was for this pie that even my homemade version can't measure up to. I enjoy the environment, the food, and my last experience here was great. The combination of waiting constantly for a refill, unused dishes taking up space, being handed the check early without being asked if we were ready, and being told the kitchen was closed when people just recently sat down to order made my visit really disappointing.

Aside from the service last night, I really do like Tazza. Our last waitress was fantastic and I wouldn't say this one experience is very telling of Tazza as a whole. I just thought this experience deserved to be seen because it was quite...