The Red Grape — Restaurant in Sonoma

2nd time going. The pizza was good the first time but the service took a while and beer was warm coming out of the tap but they still brought it and served it to us. We sent it back. Decided to go back for another shot. The pizza I liked was not on the menu anymore so I got a similar one and asked instead of goat cheese I could just get mozzarella and to switch prosciutto with bacon and I was told sure, no problem. My wife asked to try a small taste of 2 wines she was deciding on but the server said no and that he would just describe his thoughts on the two. So I just told my wife to do one after another since we were going to have dinner and be there for a bit. We looked at the menu for a while and decided on getting steaks but when we ordered he told us there were no steaks available, would have been nice to know when they gave us the menu. I decided on the pizza and my wife got butternut squash ravioli. After waiting a very long time for our food it came out and the pizza was pretty good but the ravioli was not great, very dry and luke warm. Coincidentally the couple sitting next to us had to send their salmon back because it was cold. They ended up leaving before the replacement food arrived because of the length of time it was taking. We tried to stay humorous about the situations. When the bill came out I saw that he had charged us for the substituions of mozzarella and bacon. When I asked about it he said there was nothing he could do and that is the way the owners wanted it done. Why didnt he tell us there was going to be a charge? If I knew they were going to charge me for it, I never would have ordered it. I think we will be going elsewhere for date night...

Made a reservation for 1:45 pm after the lunch rush (we were traveling on a tour from San Francisco), because we had a limited amount of time and we didn't want to spend a lot of time waiting. We sat for over 10 minutes before someone came over to take our drink order (we placed our meal order at the same time due to time constraints). Our meals were brought to our table, but we had not received the appetizers we ordered. When we brought this to the attention of the server (not the same person who took our order), her response was strange. She told us that the pizza maker "got slammed" with to-go orders and that was why our appetizers were not made before our main meals. She then asked us if we wanted her to bring the food back to the kitchen. We explained that we just needed to be served some food as soon as possible. She took the meals back to the kitchen and returned a couple of minutes later with the appetizers (which had obviously been made and were waiting to be brought to our table). Unfortunately this resulted in quite a lot of food being served within a relatively short amount of time. Caesar salad was nothing spectacular (and an extra $6 for a few small pieces of grilled chicken wasn't worth the cost). The grilled cheese was extremely salty (parts were inedible) and the cheddar cheese was very grainy (unpleasant texture). The potato wedges that came as a side with the sandwich were very good- crispy and seasoned nicely. Wasn't the worst meal we have ever had, but certainly wasn't anything special. More care and attention to detail would have made our experience...

We were visiting the area, and decided we wanted Italian food. We ended up eating there twice in our 3 day trip to the area. Our first server was Carmen. She was bubbly and seemed genuinely thankful we chose to dine there. The appetizers come out quick, but definitely freshly cooked. The garlic bread and onion rings were both good, but the pizza was great. I got the Sonoma pizza, and it had the best pepperoni that I can remember having. The fennel sausage was really good, too. Salad was a big hit among our group. Nobody ordered any pasta, but I would think the way they feel about their food, they do it right; no shortcuts. The second trip was a pizza and sandwich for lunch trip, and much like the first time, it was quick and good. Jennifer was our server and she too, smiled and was bubbly. She told us she had been there for 10 years and she was 25 years old now. We learned that it was a really good place to work and they were more of a family than coworkers. That may explain why our servers enjoyed what they were doing and sometimes your server can determine whether you are having a good meal, or a great meal to me. Definitely...