Gino's Sicilian Express — Restaurant in Santa Barbara

Went in for lunch today with my girlfriend and walked in to this pizza place after me and my girlfriend craved pizza and walked in to this restaurant expecting really good pizza based on the reviews, we ordered a large pepperoni pizza and waited about 20 minutes, while waiting the guy at the register which I’m assuming was the owner kept on starring at my girlfriend. So of course maybe he would’ve stopped as soon as I turned back but he started starring at me every time I looked back. So I started to wonder why is this man starring at me and my girlfriend? So I thought maybe he just wanted too see a reaction of us trying the food, but another costumer walked in (female) and the cashier started giving her a smug look and obviously she felt uncomfortable and sat outside where he proceeded to give her a pizza on the house and starred at her as she left the place, so of course I wanted to get out of here so me and my girlfriend finished our pizza got our left overs and started to speak on how he just made us feel uncomfortable overall. Just a weird and Pervy experience giving the fact that we are under-age and the fact he just watched us eat slowly the entire time. Just really weird won’t be coming back mediocre pizza at best drenched in oil, just horrible overall.[edit] I can assure you that this was a grown man with white hair and was a cashier there was a guy w tattoos and a cool earring on his ear, a another guy with long hair and was white, the cook, and this old man who was obviously older than all of them starring at us. [edit again] look I’m not here to try and play guess who I’m sure there is cameras in the restaurant, and I am also sure you can review the tapes from 4:25 until around 5pm, the young gentlemen in the back brought me a sprite and a water and said I had to wait until the worker who made us feel uncomfortable rang me up for the drinks. again I just want to address the situation, but as I said watch the tapes and you will see this man standing where the register is at...

I’m an east coaster and Italian. If somebody sold a large margherita pizza for $30 and delivered this in the east coast they’d probably be out of business in a day. How this is SBs highest rated pizza is beyond me. It’s basic at best. This pizza is A crime in the east coast. A margherita pizza has fresh basil and fresh mozzarella. That’s a basic cheese pizza they are selling as a margherita. Somebody needs a new recipe or to check any basic margherita recipe.

The garlic knots were somehow both burnt AND soggy. The worst garlic roll I have ever had. I could only eat one. Perhaps the worst item I have had from a restaurant ever. And the only time I didn’t finish all the knots. Good news is somehow somebody figured out how to both burn something and get it soggy at the same time. I have faith if Gino’s can create burnt soggy garlic rolls - somebody else can figure out how to make an edible one.

When I called the restaurant the girl who answered had such attitude ( June 20, 2023, at6:25-ish pm). When I told her I received completely burnt and soggy garlic knots she said … and I quote. “Uh, Ok!” Then when I prompted her what she would do about it she Told me she couldn’t help me & To contact grub hub about the burnt food. To sum, garlic knots inedible, pizza average and over priced and misrepresented as a margherita, customer service entirely lacking. And general reviews are way off base. This pizza is a C...

So, where do I start? The pizza is amazing and delicious! No doubt about that. However, the customer service is getting worse from visit to visit. We booked them for our weeding about 2 years ago and everyone loved their pizza. I believe her name was Loren who was such a sweetheart and helped up make our day so special. But with every visit there after, the service gets more and more rude! I have corporate benefits through my company and they are clearly listed on the app. The person at the register refused to even listen to what I had to say about the discount and rather accused me of showing a “fake” coupon! The statement was as clear as it can be that the coupon is fake. When I told them that’s it’s not fake, they may want to contact the company who apparently stole their information and are advertising that Gino’s Pizzeria in Santa Barbara is having a coupon to corporate benefits members, he instantly said that it’s not his job to do that! I hope he did not except a tip after this humiliation! To top it off, after we went outside to wait for the pizza, we heard him talking to his coworkers about how ridiculous my question about the coupon was! The only ridiculous and sad part is that he should probably not be doing any type of...