Kianti’s Pizza & Pasta Bar — Restaurant in Santa Cruz

A busy joint nestled out Santa Cruz Downtown. We got dinner here at 9 P.M., and it was still packed with a 10 minute wait and we were hoping the food would be a reflection of the wait time, so we waited, and I am so glad we did! The restaurant had great vibes with decent service from young kind waiters. There was barely any attentiveness however since there were so many people. It was cool because you could see chefs cooking out the restaurant so that made the vibes nicer. There was lots of outdoor seating for warm days and lots of indoor seating which is why we were able to get sat down pretty fast!

For a bev we started with the ginger mojito which was refreshing, gingery, sour, and sweet all at the same time. The mojito was INCREDIBLY carbonated which just amplified the flavor! The only thing was the drink just had wayy too much ice in it , so definitely ask for less ice if possible. I got the Kianti’s gourmet pasta with bacon on the side so my vegetarian friends can try some and I appreciated their ability to put some ingredients on the side. The pesto sauce was insanely creamy and tasty which the perfectly cooked bowtie pasta well. The pasta also had plenty of sun dried tomatoes on it adding plenty of texture and a sweet and savory taste. The pasta also came with some really fresh bread which accompanied the remaining sauce from my pasta really well! Now the pizza was amazing with a cool salad on top of a regular pizza. The crust of the pizza was super soft and tasty, but on the menu the pizza is listed with a thin crust but the crust was not thin so beware when ordering. The soft crust paired perfectly with the crunch of the leafy greens and roasted almonds from the salad on top! The 2 dishes and the drink was enough for 3 really hungry people and we even had leftovers of the large pizza. The bills was $67 pre tip so would say it was somewhat affordable for an Italian place.

OVERALL, for its somewhat affordableness,their tasty and innovative dishes, and their happening location Kianti’s is a must try for people who haven’t been yet, and I hope to come again...

Really disappointing experience.

We ordered delivery: the Family dinner with Creamy Fettucini, added on chicken and bay shrimp. We also got the shrimp salad and spicy breadsticks.

The pasta was basically flavorless, only a vague suggestion of a cheese taste, No garlic, no spices apparently whatsoever.

The fettucine itself was al dente and fine. The chicken was not dry, but totally unseasoned and could have been tofu. The shrimp were microscopic (Krill sized) and obviously canned, and not more than a couple of tablespoons worth. Not worth the $9 upgrade. The dish wouldn't have been good regardless. I mean, really sub-sub par.

The salad was tolerable, with the same micro shrimp but tasted OK.

The spicy breadsticks were plausible and not too dry. The other breadsticks that came with it were obviously old pizza dough and hard as all get out, with some green bottle powdered fuzzy type parmesan sprinkled on top. They were horrific.

Basically, it was at very best, say, hospital food quality, and left me really ticked off that I'd spent $70 on it.

I was mad at myself for ordering delivery as I could have made much better for much less.. Or gone to Olive Garden (Who oddly enough couldn't deliver same day, asking you to order by 5pm the day before..) which I'm not super enthusiastic about, but is sadly way way better than what we got from Kiantis.

But, it was just one of those "Let's order in something nice" days. Sigh.. It wasn't. I'm really not trying to savage the place, I've never been into the restaurant itself, and never write negative reviews. Maybe they had a super off day?

The restaurants in Santa Cruz have really taken a nosedive since I've returned home. I left for about a decade, and all of the good Italian restaurants are gone, and there really aren't many good options anymore.

And don't get me started on the...

I'd wanted to try this place for a while and came in excited. The pizza I ordered did not disappoint, but the LONG WAITS and unexpected extra charges were otherwise...

We waited for maybe 30-40 minutes for one pizza, and we had already been hungry when we arrived. I'm pretty sure part of why the food tasted so good was also because we were famished by the time the food came.

I had also asked if it'd be possible to remove the spiciness, and our waitress said she was thinking the meat was the spicy ingredient and would look into it, and asked which meat(s) I'd prefer if they couldn't make the meat non-spicy. She never mentioned any extra charges. When we got the check, the price of the pizza was MORE than what had been on the menu, and there were also EXTRA CHARGES for replacing the meat (which they did end up doing). She took a look and said we had a good eye and that something was off, took the check and came back, but the extra charges were still there... And only then when we asked her specifically about it did she say that there were extra charges for replacing the meat - which was odd because we had replaced beef with a split of chicken/sausage, which are both less expensive than beef.

Then we waited another 20+ minutes for our waitress to come collect our payment (she was busy serving other tables). I ended up having to get up and go to the front to pay, but the worker there told me he couldn't help me, and I needed to wait for our server... Thankfully the manager walked up to me to process my payment.

Overall... A very disappointing experience, especially since the pizza was actually good and our waitress seemed really nice... It was just the long waits and unexpected charges that totally threw us off and were very...