The Pasta Bowl - Wicker Park — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

What a disappointment…. I was so excited to take my younger cousins out to eat here because they love pasta and I’ve heard a lot of amazing reviews about this restaurant. When we arrive, the host was very helpful and got us sat at a table when it was busy. But when we got to our table, our server, Maria was just plain out disrespectful. My younger cousin wanted to order from the kids menu, and when I place my order with the server, she told us with an attitude “That’s JUST for kids.” Which my response was, I know, my cousin is a kid. She then looked at my cousin and LAUGHED and said ok. Then it took an hour and a half to get chicken Parmesan, shrimp Alfredo, and the kids spaghetti and meatballs. She didn’t even tell us that our order was going to take a while until I started looking her direction because she was obviously avoiding us, and after an hour, and like 15 minutes told us our food was coming out soon. Then she came back to us and blamed the kitchen for messing up her ticket and told us it’ll be another 10 to 15 minutes. That’s when I got frustrated and told her we had been waiting over an hour and that it was unacceptable that she hadn’t even communicated to us about the wait. When we got our food, we were not even halfway done eating and dropped off our bill and it just felt so rushed after waiting so long. I really wanted to be understanding about all of this because I’ve been in the service industry for 10 years but a table next to us got sat and they got their order within 20 minutes. This was a family of white folks and it seems like this server really judges guests and determines her service by her judgment. I am very disappointed because my little cousins were the ones to experience this judgment, and it’s not really up to the server to laugh at my cousin because she doesn’t look her age. Well wake up Maria, kids can really look however they want to and you shouldn’t be laughing at any guests while working in the service industry anyways, specially not a kid. Because I know I would never laugh at a child that kind of way. It’s weird and it’s disrespectful. Everyone else in the restaurant was honestly really kind and sucks knowing that one person can just really ruin the whole entire experience. Never in my life have I left a bad review but like I said, I also work in the industry and make sure to always give a positive experience. I don’t know what I did to the server for them to be disrespectful to me and my cousins but it really is not that deep to laugh at somebody from ordering from the kids menu. You don’t know what my cousins been through, and laughing at them doesn’t make it any better. Then forgetting our order and blaming the kitchen, doesn’t look any better on you. I saw the kitchen working hard, and I know that it wasn’t their fault that it took an HOUR AND A HALF to make three pasta dishes.

I still...

I recently dined with the pasta bowl in wicker park. I frequent this location and the food is top notch. Normally, I there is no issues however I guess i was not dressed to a "t" tonight having on my gym pants and tank top on. I guess the server made an assumption that I was not intending to tip based on the parents appearance. There was an auto gratuity of 20 dollars already added to the check. It caught me by surprise because we frequent often and other times we never saw an added gratuity. I questioned the server and her response was " we just started adding this" when I asked when she stater " just recently " and I responded when because we were there two weeks ago spending 142.00 and 40 of that was the tip. Once again it's not about the money it's the principal. The manager on duty green shirt, was very unprofessional and he couldn't give clear answers as to what's changed in 2 weeks so I went back to the table .There server black sweater white hair bow who always taken care of us and she's awesome. We were also given the information that the applying the tip was optional and she stereotyped our family thinking we were not intending to tip and added the gratuity on. I left and called to speak to the manager and he was offended and confrontational because I inquired about who was the owner of the establishment and he said he was and that there was nobody else we could speak to. He said he didn't care that we weren't coming back to the restaurant and hung up while I was speaking. I'm not looking for money or anything like that I feel it's sad and b.s. to single any family out. I will never return to the pasta bowl again for this servers greed over 20 bucks where I was gonna give her over that. It's the principal that...

My new favorite pasta restaurant! Had a long wait last time + our order was wrong and they made up for it with excellent service. Coming back tonight for more :) --Its incredible that after a week this ^ review unfortunately has to be edited as I am incredibly dissatisfied with the service we've had since the first time. Tonight was the 5th time my partner and I ordered from the pasta bowl. Every time (including the first time) our order has been wrong. The first three times we paid for pasta with shrimp and chicken and we were only given shrimp. The last time we ordered for pick up and dined in near closing time. The front girl (who is usually hard to order with) needed the manager to ring up a lemonade I ordered. moments later when we sat down, after I asked about the drink, the manager claimed I never even ordered it!

Tonight we said, what the heck, we love their food lets try once more. over the phone we ordered simple. shrimp pasta only, we asked to pay for extra parmesan cheese on the side and salt and pepper, the way we prefer. After asking the woman over the phone several times to notify the kitchen about the extra chesse, she became agitated and said she had it. But when the order came -- no cheese & one salt & pepper packet. So we called hoping a manager could reassure us this isn't a common thing, maybe even treat us with the great service we experienced the night we fell in love with this place.

instead he was nonchalant and said the issue wasnt a big deal so he had no answers. He wasn't at all as concerned about our frustration as he said he was. It sucks but it seems thus far maybe we're better off ordering elsewhere. From...