Tuscan Market at Tuscan Village Salem — Restaurant in Salem

This review is a half dozen or more times in the making. Food is ok, good probably by NH standards. Pizzas are very undercooked even when you ask for well done. Sandwiches are really good but not on the dinner menu which would make sense except your a market/cafe. Pasta is pasta. Meatballs are gigantic and surprisingly good. Atmosphere is by far what you are going for. The outdoor space is great, unfortunately can only be used for a short window in New England and the Market area bar and tables is a very generic play on an Eataly inspired area. Now to the worst part, the service. The host/hostess stand to get a table will be either unoccupied or have 3 young people standing around talking to each other and on their phones. The service at the bar is great the service when seated in the dining area has been 50/50 but either 50% on top of their game and deserve a 30% tip or 50% you're not sure if they are working or listening to your order. I have been there for about 60% lunch 40% dinner and at no time was it hard to get a table. The bar area (when the weather is not nice) is always completely full. My most recent experience there was one of those where the waitress was eh, food was just warm, my pizza wasn't put in and instead of saying that they said oh I'm sorry for the delay on your pizza the kitchen is just a little backed up with pizzas. Well, the person next to us that came 20 minutes after us got their two pizzas? Now, I will give them credit they gave us a free choice of any pastry to say sorry. None the less it was a lot longer of a "quick bite" than we intended on taking and in a rush I left my credit card in the check jacket after signing the slip. Two days later I noticed the credit card was missing from my wallet. I called the Market number from Google and asked if I left my card, the response from the person on the phone was no I'm sorry I don't see any credit cards here. I let them know I was there two days ago and I know I left it in the jacket and she said yeah sorry none here but I can transfer you to the managers office. So they did that and after some rings went to a voicemail that is full. I called again an hour later because it bugged me and said can you please take my number and name and maybe take a look in some of your registers or maybe ask someone else and they said sure no problem. Another hour goes by and I call and ask to speak to a manager. They ask about what I said a credit card missing. They transferred me to the office and again same thing ring and to a full voicemail. I call back and asked if there is a manager actively working right now. They said yes and got me Jennifer. I explained everything to Jennifer and she said "Oh sure let me go downstairs to the office to check to see if the credit card is there as that is where all left behind credit cards are. Let me have your name number and last 4 on your card and I'll call you right back" Jennifer called not even two minutes later. I thanked her a ton and headed up to grab it. I write this review about the service understanding that me leaving my credit card behind was my mistake. BUT I am calling someone in the "service" industry and I have been there plenty of times to see the host/hostess area either empty or multiple people standing around. The bright side of the service was Jennifer. She was extremely helpful and actually did what she said she would. The down side of their service is the incompetence and lack of any work ethic on those people at the host/hostess stand. The Tuscan Market might as well put a kiosk in and let people check in and request a table on their own. Invest into something that will give you a return rather than throwing money away on a body to occupy space. Oh and when I got there just to see for my own eyes, I called again while watching someone answer and tell me that there was no credit card. Then walked up, asked to see Jennifer. They asked for what. I said my...

Watch out for Jess F.

My partner and I arrived at 3:00 in the afternoon on Saturday, 12/16. The hosts were welcoming and friendly. We were told there would be an hour and 45 minute wait and were pleasantly surprised when we received a message that our table was ready at 3:26. Our servers name was Jess F. To call our experience with her disappointing would be putting it lightly. We waited an estimated 20 minutes for her to take our drink order. We ordered our appetizer and meals at the same time. We waited another 10 minutes for our waters and an additional 10 for bread. My partner was frustrated and I kept reminding him that we don’t know the full circumstances. It’s a busy holiday season, she could have tables we don’t see, be working her third double in a row, have a sick dog at home. I have been in the food and bar service industry off and on for over 20 years. So I try to give people the benefit of the doubt. Our entrees came before the appetizer. We were more than half way through our meals before Jess F. came over to ask us if we needed anything. And that was only because she happened to look over and notice us both staring at her. I informed her that we would like the appetizer removed from our bill. She brought me more dressing for my salad and brought us the bruscetta to go. We were pleasant with her through our entire experience. I grabbed the attention of one of the other servers, who was lovely and incredibly helpful. (Wish I could remember her name, she was so great I would request her and recommend anyone else do as well.) I asked if Jess F. happened to be new (no) or if she had additional tables in another section that we could not see (yes, she did have table indoors). Again, trying to give her the benefit of the doubt and gain a better understanding of why she may have been providing such lousy service. The other server grabbed us a box for our leftovers and let Jess F. know we were waiting for our check. And this is where she pushed it over the edge for me. Jess F dropped our check off at the table, took my card to collect payment and brought it back without saying another word to us. No apology for taking so long (with everything), no ownership of the fact that she might have been having a difficult shift, no thank you and have a good night. Nothing. Not a single word. As if, we had done something wrong to her just by being there. Upon leaving I spoke to the manager who was at the host stand, letting her know that while we understand how difficult it can be to work in the service industry this time of year, the attitude Jess F had toward us was completely unwarranted. The Tuscan Market experience has been such an incredible addition to Salem. Just a friendly piece of advice from one consumer to another…steer clear of Jess F. You’ll be able to pick her out in the crowd. She’s the one with the chip on...

I generally can't stand to give a bad review but this place made it real hard to have positive notes about it. There was one person in the entire staff that was remotely concerned there were customers and did anything to help out of maybe 9 people I saw about. It was also almost completely dead for a Friday evening. Maybe a total of 10 groups of people came in the hour I was there between the dessert counter, deli, general store, and restaurant.

Three people at the hostess stand but no one told my server I'd been sat despite being in direct line of sight from the stand and watching her walk past me a handful of times. When she finally got to me, the service was uncomfortable, like I felt out of place asking for things. That being said, food and drinks were brought along pretty quickly. Hibiscus tea was pretty good, lemonade was $3 for minutemade, which seems kinda crazy. Artichoke bruschetta was very savory, just a bit sour with a ton of cheese. I liked that but it might be excessive for some. Pasta was al dente, sauce was bright and seemed fresh but a bit under flavored. I'd probably try something else if I went back but I'd get it again in general.

Gelato was very powerful, passable texture, nothing to write home about. Pastries were very good, cannolis were prefilled and had a 2 hour drive home but were still crispy. Cheesecake was a fluffy texture, not a more dense NY style, which worked fine for me.

Two staff members were talking at the meat counter, one on the customer side one behind the counter the entire time I was in the store, about an hour including my meal. Front checkout was occupied for a grand total of 5 minutes and when I went to check out with the two things I had, I couldn't get a single person to talk to me. Stood there for 10 minutes, someone picked up an order next to me and the staff member walked away after giving them the food. Two staff members made themselves pizza right across the counter, looked at me and walked away. Eventually I got bored, put my things back and left.

A bit of a side note too, the restaurant had scorching enclosed porch seating that was bad enough for one of the three tables to ask for the windows to be open. Overall the food and the store were quite good but it's been a long time since I've seen such uninspired staff and on a Friday at around 6pm? It was quite an odd experience. If they sorted this out, it could be a reasonable alternative to Eataly but at the moment, it's only worth stopping if you're already in the plaza for something else. Kinda hard to recommend a store where you can't...