Gino's — Restaurant in Salinas

Started out with ordering a Diet Pepsi for my elderly mother and a Maker’s Mark Old Fashioned for myself. First serving was good, tasty, albeit just a bit heavy with the simple syrup. Ordered a wedge salad for my mother and meat ravioli with meat sauce and a side Caesar salad. The wedge salad was offered with grilled chicken which my mother opted for; what she got was two huge wedges of iceberg lettuce, topped with red bell pepper, guacamole, tomatoes, cucumbers, and ranch dressing on the side? No bacon, no Bleu Cheese crumble, dressing... like classically served. Thought this to be a bit odd but mom didn’t seem to mind the take on a classic salad. My ravioli, sadly, was machine made, not homemade, previously frozen, topped with a red meat sauce that was a bit watery, not thick like I’ve have had in the past at other Italian restaurants. It was tasteful, but the ravioli pasta was chewy, not melt in your mouth. The Parmesan cheese offered was dried crumble, almost like what you get off the shelf at the grocery store, not a freshmen shaved Parmesan cheese you get out of the deli section.

While eating, our server checked with my mother to see if the food was acceptable, which it was, but before leaving our table, she asked if I would like another cocktail or water, which I agreed to water, she took what remaining drink I had away, which still had another two sips in it... the next time the waitress returned to our table, my mother remarked to the waitress that she had taken the drink away a bit early, for which the waitress was apologetic and stated that she would return with a half drink serving of the same. I stated that she didn’t need to but she insisted that she did; what she returned with was incorrectly made with soda water, not tasteful at all.

My mother asked for a box to take home the remaining salad, which she received, then asked for a side of bleu cheese dressing from the busboy. The waitress brought our bill, and the host/cashier came to our table to take the check, process the credit card transaction, and promptly returned it. No sooner than I had filled in the tip, total on the credit card receipt and completed the customer survey which also was included with in the payment folder, the waitress returned to our table to take away the payment receipt folder before my mother and I had a chance to stand up, leave the table. As I exited, I noticed the waitress had returned to the cashier’s stand, and had handed the manager the survey I had written. I felt this was a bit distasteful in how it was handled as a waiter/waitress should not be rushed to get the payment receipt off the table until after we had departed.

While I still think of Gino’s as one of the go to destination restaurants within Salinas, I don’t feel this was the best of dining experiences for what you pay; I recently enjoyed the same meal in San Jose at an Italian meat deli which cost me $12.99, for the meat ravioli, the Caesar salad topped with bacon crumble and cherry tomatoes, and fresh sliced sourdough bread. Here, at Gino’s, I paid $14.99 just for the ravioli, an additional $2 for meat sauce and $3 for the side Caesar salad. I get that I am paying for service here at Gino’s but for the extra money paid for lackluster food, the service should be spectacular and it wasn’t. While I didn’t cheat the waitress and staff out of a tip on the receipt, I generally try to tip 20% or higher based upon the quality of the service and food quality. This didn’t warrant a nice tip, and I was saddened by that, as this place had been better in the past. Again, just one experience out of many, but one I hope they learn from when...

The server is a big part of the experience and unfortunately our visit was ruined by the person that served us. First he asked us if we wanted appetizers, I said I just wanted a soup. And my sister didn’t want any appetizers. He already seemed annoyed, “I’ll give you guys a couple of minutes then” but we were already ready to order. That’s when he left and we stayed there sitted waiting for him to come. When he came back he asked us what we wanted we wanted the steak with ravioli. I read it right off the menu. He looked at me confused and asked if we were sharing. Not sure why he thought we were sharing. I asked him if it was a big steak and he said not really. So I said two plates please. Then he said okay two plates coming up. Did you guys wants the soup or salad. I asked for a soup he said they had minestrony and some other one I said I wanted minestrony then he began to mansplain to me what minestrony soup is. Because he told me after I asked for it I felt like he looked down on me with the way he was talking to me as if I were a toddler. My sister wanted a salad. Because he was rushing so much he was talking super fast and he was like do you want blue Chesse ranch or bla bla bla and my sister said “pardon” so he sighed all annoyed and said I said blue Chesse bla bla or bla speaking super fast. So my sister was confused and got the vinegar dressing. Which she hated because she thought it came with Chesse because he was talking so fast and being impatient with us. Then he left and came back with our food. The steak only but the ravioli wasn’t there. When I tried to tell him that we ordered it with ravioli he said that no we didn’t but i did because i read it off the menu and my sister heard. I think he didn’t catch it because he was acting as if he were in a hurry. Then he said a ravioli and a steak wasn’t a thing. I said I wanted to see the menu then. Then he said it is a thing but i didn’t order that. I was so upset by then. I said I’m okay with no ravioli but my sister wants some. Then he brought us both ravioli when I said I didn't want any. He didn’t apologize and he never offered us refills but he offered all the other tables refills. With the other customers he was laughing and being kind and patient and refilling their cups. I felt rejected, and the food was overpriced and honestly terrible. Dry hard steak and very plain, very basic mashed potatoes and veggies, for 90 bucks. Even Denny’s steak is better. What hurts the most is watching my sister’s birthday be ruined by him because he treated us like less. He treated us like people that weren’t worth his time or patience and people he couldn’t listen too when we have a complain about our order...

Bad food and service. Togo order. Food was Package to leak, which it did all over the entire order. The salad was full of brown lettuce, the bleu cheese salad dressing was watery, diluted and flavorless. Pacific grove scampi was void of flavor and the shrimp are small salad sized. The entree chicken piccata. At my request they packaged the mash potatoes separately from the chicken but sever said he was unable to separate the steamed vegetables from the plate of chicken, so the undercooked vegetables came drenched in piccata sauce, the remaining sauce from it leaking all over the bag and the order. Top all that with an upset stomach in the middle of the night. After the upset stomach I decided I needed to talk to the manager. I spoke with an employee who listen to my complaint and said she would have the manager call. Wonder when and if I’ll hear from him. Either way I would have appreciated a review like this to warn me of a disappointing experience like this. After several calls and left messages with several employees NO reply from Peter the manager. Spare urself from this overpriced and aggravating situation. This was my daughter’s birthday dinner. What a freaking shame. Terrible business...