Pronto! Diner — Restaurant in Royal Oak

If I could give this place a 0 star I would. I have never EVER EVER been so disappointed in my life. I made reservations 2 weeks ago just because I wanted to make sure we could have a place here as this is one of my Mom’s (used to) favorite restaurants. We walked in ready to be seated for our reservation, the waiter told us “sorry we got really swamped for Mother’s Day, we are trying to get your table ready”...umm, what is a reservation for and why weren’t our places reserved? Then one of the waiters told our guest that hey didn’t know what was going on and to just go “look around”. Look around? She had never been there before! It was a surprise 50th birthday for my mom, not so much a surprise because we weren’t even seated until after she came in which was at 1:30pm . So we said surprise at the door. That really disappointed me. We sat down, from the get go, they were rushing to prepare our table, the floor wasn’t even swept before we sat. They rushed to buss our table. And one of the waiters half rolled our silverware up in napkins and the rest just put directly on the table and handed us napkins as if we would fold them ourselves. We ordered the bottomless mimosas and it took forever for them to get there almost 15/20 minutes. My sister had asked for high chairs for her sons and it took almost the same amount of time. We were in search of our waiter constantly because we were ready to order and we hadn’t been asked for almost a half hour, it was 2:00pm at this point. We waited an entire hour and still didn’t receive our food and said it was “probably” on its way. It was 3:04....we ordered breakfast food... don’t call yourselves pronto if you can’t do it that way. The manager, I’m not sure who he was kept blaming it on Mother’s Day. Excuse me, I work as a customer service representative, I’m not blaming anything on a holiday or a busy schedule, because then you’re blaming customers. I would try my hardest to find a solution and correct the situation. My boyfriend told him how long it had been and he replied “it was not that long, I can get the ticket”...you must be out of your damn mind. Did you really just speak to someone like that?? Then offered to buy a bottle of champagne, my sisters wanted it but I was through. We ended up not getting our food and leaving. I could not believe this out of this restaurant. I was in tears when I left because I had planned all this for my mom and this...

I'm not sure what happened to my original review so I'll post again. Metro Detroit is my hometown and in the past I have enjoyed my dining experiences at Pronto. One of my besties and I ate dinner a couple of Friday's ago as our place to eat, catch up and laugh a little. It was just after 4p. We ordered appetizers, drinks and an entree. The risotto balls are delis! I specifically asked Kacey, our waitress, if the risotto balls are made fresh, in house, and she said, yes. When they arrived they were lukewarm at best and I doubt very seriously if they are homemade. Nevertheless, they are tasty. For my cocktail I ordered the peach/ginger Moscow Mule with no ice. Kacey delivered my drink and announced a few ice cubes got in there but it's fine. Excuse me! I did not address this because my entree had not been delivered and we have all heard the stories of what can happen in a restaurant kitchen when a customer complains. I feel, if Kacey cared about us as customers, she could have grabbed a spoon and removed the ice cubes from my drink before bringing it to me and I would not have known. Instead, I would have thought they keep the ginger beer in the cooler and that's why my drink is cold. We spent just under $90, not including the tip. It was not busy at all. When we got there it was only one other patron there and she was sitting at the bar. I understand bartenders move fast and ice getting in a drink can happen. Again, if I'm paying, I have a right to have my purchase as I ordered. If I had been told it was their policy to ice all drinks then I could have made a decided whether or not to order a drink. Let's see if this post...

It breaks my heart to leave a 3-star review for Pronto. The fact of the matter is they are not Pronto. Even knowing that, yesterday takes the cake*

Steven was not only expectedly slow, but he was rude as hell. I get it, I was a bartender for 5 years. It can suck sometimes. But nobody is forcing you to be there. If you don't like your job, quit.

After we had finished eating, it took him quite some time to approach the table again. Once he did, he filled our waters without asking if we were ready for the check, and then scurried off. After about 10 minutes he returned. Despite placing our credit card on the table he walked off again. He finally returned and set the book down, and began to walk off again without grabbing our cards, which were still placed on the table.

Fortunately for me, and unfortunately for him, I happened to watch his face during this encounter. I don't think he caught me looking, because he continued to make rude and mocking faces at us.

Another 10 minutes later and he finally returned again and we were released from the Pronto prison. It took us 10 minutes to get our food (not delivered by Steven), 10 minutes to eat it, and probably 25 minutes to leave. The restaurant was not busy at the time.

The food is great, and as long as you set your expectations to slow-mo, Pronto is normally a decent experience. If it wasnt for the treacherous service during the day (and the lazer-tag decor) this place would get a 5-star rating.

*see...