La Cucina di Sophia — Restaurant in Soap Lake

My sister came from CA to visit me with her 3 little kids, this happens once a year or two. This is very special event for me. Because with the kids we can't have privet sister time and talk we left the kids with my husband and went to nearest restaurant which happens to be "Sophia", not just to eat, but have a sister time. For a quick bite we could just stay home and eat there or go to McDonald's... So, this was very special and important time. We came when it's just got open, we were first ones, no one told us we have limited time there because of some reservations before we were sitted, otherwise we would leave and choose something else, maybe go to Moses lake even. So, we ordered food, pizzas and dessert, we liked the food, ( even though the pizza quality went down after kovid time, but I never left reviews complaining, I just stopped going, also because of the prices too, it went up like in big cities), but because of the special event me and my sister went there more just to have a good time, not much for the food, this time pizza was very good again like it was when the restaurant just got opened. We've been there many times, my family, husband and five children, for my sister it was the first time, she's from Sacramento and very spoiled by many restaurants and excellent customer service, she never had an experience like we had here at Sophia. So, we ate and talked, we were already finishing up when a waitress came and said we need to leave because there is another reservation, my sister said we are finishing up and we will leave soon, when the waitress came she interrupted very important talk and we just wanted to finish, but the waitress wasn't leaving and kept saying we need to leave, she never gave us a few mins to finish up and wanted us to leave immediately, she also never offered us alternative like move us outside since no one was sitted there anyway, this was very rude and unexaptable. There were free tables outside if the people didn't wanted to wait they could of sitted them there. My sister got agitated by this rudnes, so we left, when living my sister said to Azad that she won't be coming again and he yelled: "don't came back", this is very rude and unexaptable, I feel very sad for such experience. I cant say I won't be back, I still may, but I'm very sad for the situation and such experience. Azad having some kind of anger control problem, would be great if he could take that under control and provide excellent customer service. And we still left some tips, should of taken that back. I just feel very very sad and disappointed. I'm living very near by "Sophia", like one minute drive, and I felt proud to have this nice little restaurant in our small city, but after this situation I feel disappointed and not sure if I would like to take my guests...

Wanted to take our brother and sister -in Law out for their 27th anniversary and try to make it special. Had 2 trusted co-workers who highly praised Sophia's, so we made reservations in advance and made sure we arrived early. No problem, they got us seated right away and the place was already packed at 5 pm on a Saturday. The decor is authentic, and had the feel of real, family run business not a national chain. The star of the show is the ornate, tiled brick oven that is well done to isolate its immense heat from overwhelming the dining area, all of which is very tightly packed. The open view cooking area seems immaculate, and the staff has obviously gotten their choreography down. We ordered wine and an appetizer that arrived in quick order, giving us an opportunity to scour the menu and make decisions. The excellent Crostini Rosso with spicy infused oil was so good, a creamy cheesy blob infused with pesto in the center hit the spot. We had a classic Magherita Pizza, Fettucine Alfredo, Ribeye Steak, and the pasta special Cheese Tortellini in Pomodoro Sauce. Everybody sampled each other's fare, and it was all very, very good. My brother-in-law lived in Italy during his service in the Vietnam era and raved about how good this was. We had a couple of budget bottles of Malbec and could have licked the plates clean but had to save room for a little Gelato and Tiramisu with an Espresso. Our waitress was very busy, yet efficient and very pleasant, taking time to answer any questions and offer information. As for the cost, well nothing is cheap anymore it seems, but for the quality of the food and the quaint, authentic experience, we were not put off and will...

To start with the good: food is delicious and our server was lovely. However, we went in at 6:15 yesterday and the hostess copped a major attitude with us, initially acting like we couldn’t be seated and then saying that the only way we could be seated is if we ordered within 15 minutes. That’s a perfectly reasonable amount of time to order, so we chose to be seated. She followed us to the table, and when our server took our order (maybe 2 minutes after sitting down), she told us that appetizers would take at least 30 minutes because they had so many steak orders in. The restaurant is half full, if even. We said we weren’t in a hurry and that was fine, and she repeated that it would take “AT LEAST 30 minutes”. We again said that was ok, and she put her hands on her hips, sighed, very visibly annoyed. We all looked at each other, unsure what to do since she wouldn’t come out and say we COULDN’T order them but obviously didn’t want us to. Eventually we said that if we couldn’t order the appetizers that was fine, but that we wanted them if possible even if they came out after our entrees. Well it took all of 5-10 minutes for the appetizers to come out so I don’t know what her deal was. She clearly wanted to get off of work early, and was so incredibly rude. It was embarrassing because we had guests visiting from out of state, and recommended eating there because the first time we ate there it was great. Despite the good food, will definitely never take someone else there with such awful customer service. Edit: We have returned and had much better experiences since my initial review. Staff have been pleasant and food is...