Zesta Cucina — Restaurant in Yakima

I have been to this restaurant many times over the years and I have never had an experience there (or anywhere really!) as I did last night, celebrating a friend's 40th birthday with a group of 10. Although we all agree the food and atmosphere are great, we will not be back due to the terrible way we were treated. First off, I had called and made reservations for our party four days prior. The day we were to arrive, I called to confirm the reservation and was told they did not have us down. I was made to feel they were very inconvenienced by this and that somehow this was my fault. They said they could squeeze us in but we really would need to be gone within in an hour and a half. I was a little surprised at the guilt trip but my group already had this planned and didn't want to fuss with changing locations for a big party last minute.

We arrived and had a pretty normal dining experience, the waitress was fine but the restaurant was busy and I would say service was on the slower end but not surprised with how busy it was there, and besides my group didn't mind, we were all just chatting and having a good time. I mention this to say we weren't feeling super rushed by too quick of service or anything. The bills came and as we were paying them, a waiter came up to us and said they needed the table and asked if we could be gone in 15 minutes. We thought it was kind of rude but truly we were leaving anyway so just kind of said OK, yes we were going. But the really appalling thing was within 2 minutes (and I'm not exaggerating!) the OWNER came up to us and said "Hey we really need you to leave, we need this table." My friend said "Yeah, we know, your waiter just came and told us" to which he responds "Well why are you still here then?" We were so caught off guard by this totally rude and inappropriate comment!! Half of us were still signing our bill!! I said to him "Well we're just trying to pay you here, then we'll be on our way." And he says "Oh I don't care about money" and walked off. Really weird comment to make and as one of my friends pointed out, so he wouldn't mind if our meals were just on the house then? Lol! But truly, what a horrible way to treat your guests. The even stranger part was within minutes after we left, they put a standing sign up at the front door that read "We are closed". We were just standing out in front of the restaurant at this point, saying our goodbyes to each other. We saw on their door the restaurant closes at 7:45pm. Odd closing time, and especially for a Saturday. Not to mention, the restaurant was still full at that time. We just found it odd they needed that table so bad and then immediately put a closed sign out front. Needless to say, we are all appalled at that experience and won't be back. It's too bad, as they really do have good food, but respect and professional treatment speaks a lot louder and there are plenty of other restaurants in this valley that provide excellent service along...

I visited Zesta the first time in 2021. I ordered chicken parm as a standard to judge from - was pretty good & comparable to other italian places. The starter of roasted brussel sprouts was fantastic!

Visited the second time 6/2022 and was very disappointed. Chopped salad was tasteless even after parm & pepper were added. The salami was minced and not enough for salad to meat ratio. There were dehydrated herbs of some type that were dry, shriveled vs freshly chopped. The dressing was wet with no flavor.

I ordered Crab Rangoons that i had to force myself to eat. Again - no flavor.

Ordered a take home meal of chicken marsala thinking I would give the chef another chance. Terrible! Although, the chicken was nice sized and tender....the sauce was quickly & cheaply made with "sweet" marsala vs dry and cornstarch used as the thickener! Normally when using a sweet marsala, it is reduced then minutely offset by vinegars and naturally thickened. The yellow mashed potatoes were good along with the few mushrooms set atop the chicken. The vegetable side was steamed spinach....that is NOT a widely popular side. Food rating - 6

Service was good and attentive with no errors. Service rating - 9

Dessert of Chocolate Flourless Torte was FANTASTICO!! Rich, dark &...

First off, the food was excellent. I got the filet and it was wonderful. I could do without the cheese, as I felt it was quite overpowering, but I ordered it as-is and still enjoyed it. I've also heard great things about their Parmesan Halibut.

The star downgrade was for service. While they were friendly, I expected better from a place where I'm spending a decent amount of money on an anniversary dinner. A minor thing was when I ordered a bottle of wine, it was not properly presented nor was a taste given prior to the full pour. She just opened, poured, and she was gone. Speaking of gone, our waitress disappeared for long periods of time. Once we received our food, we got about half way through our meals by the time she stopped over and offered fresh Parmesan. Then we waited for about 10-15 minutes after finishing our main course for her to return so we could order dessert. This happened multiple times through the evening and the restaurant didn't seem to busy (it was a weeknight). Another thing that worried me was that this waitress, who admitted she's only worked there for 2 months, was training another waitress. I don't believe she's a good waitress, let alone a good one to be training a new waitress.

I would go again, but would hopefully get better...