Dreadful service. We had to go find menus because no server visited the table. Waited eons for beverages. Food was mediocre at best. Calabrese panini was tasty but with filling only for half. No towels in mens room and the fancy dryer didn't work. We wasted our lunch dollars.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 2
Service: 1
Alex Kennedy
Great food. They were a little slow because they were super busy but that's to be expected on a Saturday night when the flowers are blooming.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Judy T.
Food and service was good. Was there for dinner one night and lunch one day. Mussels and chicken Parmesan was very good. The salad for lunch was typical.
Karen Stewart
We received a message from our credit card company that they had added money to the tip, to a total of 37%. On the website, the phone number given is not a valid number and we are not able to reach them. We would love for them to contact us And resolve this
Service: 1
Barbara Nell
I’m a former restaurant manager so I truly know and appreciate good service. Food was really great. But….. We had absolutely no service sitting at the bar?!? Restaurant about 1/3 full at 1 pm. Manager gave us menus at bar (thought he was the bartender and would help us, but quickly vanished and he stood around back of restaurant -no eye contact - would not wait on or help anyone at bar. Finally after 15 min. we flagged down a waitress going by and ordered beer and food . She took our orders (soup and salad) we saw our food sitting on pickup for another 15 min. Flagged down another waitress - got wrong soup twice. No apologies. When I asked for the third try of my soup, manager said “what’s your hurry?” We felt sorry for people coming in after us that sat at the bar as they weee not being waited on. . We were so close to just walking out.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 1
Bree Wells
No brain cells here. Took 20 mins to be greeted or offered water after we were sat. Pizza came out fast but seemed undercooked and was Set down with no plates or no silverware. took another 10 mins to even get acknowledged to ask for plates. The second half of order(lasagna) never came out. Asked several times then finally canceled it. Was still on our bill after notifying waitress to please just cancel order and remove it. Even asking for a pizza box was like talking to a door knob. Main bartender/manger who servers were going to with questions was sitting at the bar drinking wine. Elderly man(not sure if he was the owner) was just hanging around just seemed in the way rather than helping or trying to care for customers. Witnessed several other tables having the same struggles with service and one guy finally just walked out, all he wanted was a glass of wine. Restaurant was not at capacity and did not appear to be understaffed. Just poorly managed and no one that gave an F. Takes a lot for me to write a review but places like this should not be in buisness. Try harder….do better. This place sucks!
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 2
Service: 1
Josh Lucchesi
Nice place. Bad attitude. Depressing folk singer. Weak coffee. Waitress quit(?) after taking our order but eventually our meals came out - separately. The Calabrese panini is a full sandwich bread with half a sandwich worth of contents.Men’s room was clean but hand dryer not working and nobody cared.Try somewhere else.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 3
Service: 1
Charles Mansour
I rarely ever post but feel compelled to here. I know this is a new restaurant but I'm still upset about my experience hours later. Our party of 6 was sat quickly but then no one spoke to us for about 15 minutes. We watched as at least 3 parties simply walked away after being ignored, and then we watched a few other parties get served before us.We finally ordered, but about 5 minutes later someone (I'm guessing the manager) came to our table and asked us to physically move the table because it was an emergency violation (too close to the exit). We did not place the table there, and nor did we self seat. They did not tell us they needed to move it. We were told we had to move it ourselves as if we did something wrong. We offered to simply reseat ourselves in the booths next to us and we were told no because that was for a party of 8, and we were only 6. When we told the same guy my mother (who is 70) was uncomfortable in the high top tables, he said "sorry that's all I have - I don't want to lose two seats for you." Mind you, the service was so slow and understaffed that I have no idea what he was thinking trying to fit more people in when we literally watched people walk out on the place. When my husband asked "what if we paid extra for her comfort" he said, "well, money talks." You know what, so do service and kindness. My mom was so outraged that she just wanted to cancel the order and leave. She didn't want to give money to a place like that.As we walked away, I told the guy to cancel our order, and I calmly explained why we were leaving and he was even more rude to me and made it seem like it was us simply being picky. When I told him we only moved because he asked us to he said "you needed to accommodate an emergency exist," to which I replied, "no you did. You put the table there. You sat us there. You made us move, and you made no acknowledgement that we were ignored and then shoved around." He looked at me and kept saying "you're good," but not once did I feel good about what happened there. On the drive home, all six of us were really disturbed by our interactions.For what it's worth, my parents and brothers both work in the restaurant industry and shared that they could never imagine treating customers like this, especially as a new establishment.
Atmosphere: 2
Service: 1
Michele Ode
On vacation and staying in Borrego Springs a couple of nights. Had a long day in Joshua Tree National Park before arriving in town and food was our first stop before checking into our Airbnb for the night. Stopped here to be fairly disappointed.Right when we walked in, the host sat us down and brought us water, our drink order was taken quickly but that was the end of the good service. It was 20 min + before the owner/manager asked if we had been helped and took our order. We ordered the Denarious Salad with dressing on the side and a Prosciutto Pizza. Both were good but nothing special. I think the overall vibe of the restaurant felt more casual then the menu so it wasn’t what I was expecting.When done we waited, again, for someone to bring the bill, but no one did so I set out my CC. Finally the manager grabbed it and said, I’ll cash you out, and the server returned with my card and bill but we were double charged for drinks, forcing us to wait yet again for it to be voided and re-rung. Overall food was decent, trying a bit too hard in my opinion, but operations and logistics needs to be fixed if they want to last more than a year. I overheard them repeatedly turn customers away, saying they were booked with reservations though at least 6 tables sat empty the entire hour and a half we were there. If you’re considering take out you might have better luck…
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 1
Brandon W.
Looked good from the street.. DO NoT SPEND YOUR MONEY HERE!! You have been warned There are plenty of restaurants that would love to Waite on you, serve you and actually care about your experience. We watched the manager and owner sit at the bar enjoying a glass of wine while multiple tables of guest got tired of not getting any service and just walked out! They didn't even care!!!! Some guest were warning new guest "good luck with this place" at the door. Slow service Had to repeatably ask for plates, cutlery, waters and 2 entrees never even were served. The server never apologized or tried... not even a "sorry about that" When I asked for a manager the elderly host said there is no manager.. Took 20 minutes for the bus boy to get someone to removed the two missing items from our bill. FYI.. pizza was Meh... Costco does pizza better.. the frozen pizzas I mean! Go anywhere else... it will be better Shame on the owner and manager for doing such a horrible job.
I see other people had a similar experience to us, but the optics of our visit was horrible. We are a mixed race couple with two young kids, and yes my husband is Black. We walked in and were ignored for a few minutes. I flagged down a server and he was like let me see, we may not have room. I said okay, no problem. He comes back and says we can sit in the high top if we want to and walks away. Doesn't escort us or say we can go and I stop him to say "Okay can we just go over there?" He says we can and walks away again. It takes several minutes for someone to come by and it's just to tell us we can't have a chair at the end of the table. I am okay with being told safety rules, but he just leaves, no other service. Meanwhile we finally get water and menus. It's now been about 5 minutes. And then it happens. A group of older White men walk in. Everyone else in the restaurant is eating at this point. They get waters, put in their drink order, get their drinks, and put in their food order -- along with chit chat and banter before anyone even comes over to get anything from us. I know this because they are sitting right next to us. With two hungry kids that can melt down at any minute we decided this was not it. They could have at least communicated with us, but we were largely ignored and made to feel unwanted. The restaurant that used to be in this location was so much better. Hope it's not here when we go back to Borrego Springs, because my kiddo has such good memories in this location, but not this restaurant.
Aleksandra R.
We came here after a day hiking and off roaring in the desert. We came here around 5:30 p.m. and although we were seated fairly promptly, it took a really long time for someone to come take our order and then for us to get that food. However, our server, and from what we observed, the other servers were very kind and were definitely hustling to get orders placed and be attentive. This place does look new so I'm sure they are working through some kinks as it relates to flow. The food itself was good - nothing exceptional but it did make me slightly less bitter about the price (everything is at least $20). The gnocchi was good, as were the spaghetti and meatballs and pasta bolognese. The one dish that was not good was the lasagna. It came very sloppily assembled and the taste was a bit weird. Upon taking the first few bites, my child said, "I'll eat it, but I've had better." Overall, if we are out here again we would go back because it is a place with nice staff and a variety of food that isn't bad. Just be prepared for a wait.
Jody M.
They didn't have enough staff to seat, take orders and serve. They said their manager was out today (Saturday during Wildflower season). Nobody knew how to host. We waited very long for a seat, never got menus, and nobody came to take our order. We were not the only people to leave without being served. Too bad. Looked like it could have been a good experience.
Natalie Tsi
The food is amazing. Real, true Italian pasta. The way it is supposed to be. Heirloom tomatoes are not really heirlooms, but the cook did his best. I would go back for the spaghetti Bolognese. 5 stars to the chef Tony!!!We also loved a pistachio cake. Very tasty!!!Giving less than 5 stars because the service was slow.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 4
Recommended dishes: Spaghetti Bolognese
Denise Bergman
This is a newer dining spot in Borrego so I was able to go for lunch this past week with my son who was visiting. The food was hot, tasty, perfect portions and reasonably priced. Only one small issue was my son ordered an Arnold Palmer and received straight ice tea. Not a big deal.
Dreadful service. We had to go find menus because no server visited the table. Waited eons for beverages. Food was mediocre at best. Calabrese panini was tasty but with filling only for half. No towels in mens room and the fancy dryer didn't work. We wasted our lunch dollars.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 2
Service: 1
Great food. They were a little slow because they were super busy but that's to be expected on a Saturday night when the flowers are blooming.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Food and service was good. Was there for dinner one night and lunch one day. Mussels and chicken Parmesan was very good. The salad for lunch was typical.
We received a message from our credit card company that they had added money to the tip, to a total of 37%. On the website, the phone number given is not a valid number and we are not able to reach them. We would love for them to contact us And resolve this
Service: 1
I’m a former restaurant manager so I truly know and appreciate good service. Food was really great. But….. We had absolutely no service sitting at the bar?!? Restaurant about 1/3 full at 1 pm. Manager gave us menus at bar (thought he was the bartender and would help us, but quickly vanished and he stood around back of restaurant -no eye contact - would not wait on or help anyone at bar. Finally after 15 min. we flagged down a waitress going by and ordered beer and food . She took our orders (soup and salad) we saw our food sitting on pickup for another 15 min. Flagged down another waitress - got wrong soup twice. No apologies. When I asked for the third try of my soup, manager said “what’s your hurry?” We felt sorry for people coming in after us that sat at the bar as they weee not being waited on. . We were so close to just walking out.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 1
No brain cells here. Took 20 mins to be greeted or offered water after we were sat. Pizza came out fast but seemed undercooked and was Set down with no plates or no silverware. took another 10 mins to even get acknowledged to ask for plates. The second half of order(lasagna) never came out. Asked several times then finally canceled it. Was still on our bill after notifying waitress to please just cancel order and remove it. Even asking for a pizza box was like talking to a door knob. Main bartender/manger who servers were going to with questions was sitting at the bar drinking wine. Elderly man(not sure if he was the owner) was just hanging around just seemed in the way rather than helping or trying to care for customers. Witnessed several other tables having the same struggles with service and one guy finally just walked out, all he wanted was a glass of wine. Restaurant was not at capacity and did not appear to be understaffed. Just poorly managed and no one that gave an F. Takes a lot for me to write a review but places like this should not be in buisness. Try harder….do better. This place sucks!
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 2
Service: 1
Nice place. Bad attitude. Depressing folk singer. Weak coffee. Waitress quit(?) after taking our order but eventually our meals came out - separately. The Calabrese panini is a full sandwich bread with half a sandwich worth of contents.Men’s room was clean but hand dryer not working and nobody cared.Try somewhere else.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 3
Service: 1
I rarely ever post but feel compelled to here. I know this is a new restaurant but I'm still upset about my experience hours later. Our party of 6 was sat quickly but then no one spoke to us for about 15 minutes. We watched as at least 3 parties simply walked away after being ignored, and then we watched a few other parties get served before us.We finally ordered, but about 5 minutes later someone (I'm guessing the manager) came to our table and asked us to physically move the table because it was an emergency violation (too close to the exit). We did not place the table there, and nor did we self seat. They did not tell us they needed to move it. We were told we had to move it ourselves as if we did something wrong. We offered to simply reseat ourselves in the booths next to us and we were told no because that was for a party of 8, and we were only 6. When we told the same guy my mother (who is 70) was uncomfortable in the high top tables, he said "sorry that's all I have - I don't want to lose two seats for you." Mind you, the service was so slow and understaffed that I have no idea what he was thinking trying to fit more people in when we literally watched people walk out on the place. When my husband asked "what if we paid extra for her comfort" he said, "well, money talks." You know what, so do service and kindness. My mom was so outraged that she just wanted to cancel the order and leave. She didn't want to give money to a place like that.As we walked away, I told the guy to cancel our order, and I calmly explained why we were leaving and he was even more rude to me and made it seem like it was us simply being picky. When I told him we only moved because he asked us to he said "you needed to accommodate an emergency exist," to which I replied, "no you did. You put the table there. You sat us there. You made us move, and you made no acknowledgement that we were ignored and then shoved around." He looked at me and kept saying "you're good," but not once did I feel good about what happened there. On the drive home, all six of us were really disturbed by our interactions.For what it's worth, my parents and brothers both work in the restaurant industry and shared that they could never imagine treating customers like this, especially as a new establishment.
Atmosphere: 2
Service: 1
On vacation and staying in Borrego Springs a couple of nights. Had a long day in Joshua Tree National Park before arriving in town and food was our first stop before checking into our Airbnb for the night. Stopped here to be fairly disappointed.Right when we walked in, the host sat us down and brought us water, our drink order was taken quickly but that was the end of the good service. It was 20 min + before the owner/manager asked if we had been helped and took our order. We ordered the Denarious Salad with dressing on the side and a Prosciutto Pizza. Both were good but nothing special. I think the overall vibe of the restaurant felt more casual then the menu so it wasn’t what I was expecting.When done we waited, again, for someone to bring the bill, but no one did so I set out my CC. Finally the manager grabbed it and said, I’ll cash you out, and the server returned with my card and bill but we were double charged for drinks, forcing us to wait yet again for it to be voided and re-rung. Overall food was decent, trying a bit too hard in my opinion, but operations and logistics needs to be fixed if they want to last more than a year. I overheard them repeatedly turn customers away, saying they were booked with reservations though at least 6 tables sat empty the entire hour and a half we were there. If you’re considering take out you might have better luck…
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 1
Looked good from the street.. DO NoT SPEND YOUR MONEY HERE!! You have been warned There are plenty of restaurants that would love to Waite on you, serve you and actually care about your experience. We watched the manager and owner sit at the bar enjoying a glass of wine while multiple tables of guest got tired of not getting any service and just walked out! They didn't even care!!!! Some guest were warning new guest "good luck with this place" at the door. Slow service Had to repeatably ask for plates, cutlery, waters and 2 entrees never even were served. The server never apologized or tried... not even a "sorry about that" When I asked for a manager the elderly host said there is no manager.. Took 20 minutes for the bus boy to get someone to removed the two missing items from our bill. FYI.. pizza was Meh... Costco does pizza better.. the frozen pizzas I mean! Go anywhere else... it will be better Shame on the owner and manager for doing such a horrible job.
Restaurantji Recommends
I see other people had a similar experience to us, but the optics of our visit was horrible. We are a mixed race couple with two young kids, and yes my husband is Black. We walked in and were ignored for a few minutes. I flagged down a server and he was like let me see, we may not have room. I said okay, no problem. He comes back and says we can sit in the high top if we want to and walks away. Doesn't escort us or say we can go and I stop him to say "Okay can we just go over there?" He says we can and walks away again. It takes several minutes for someone to come by and it's just to tell us we can't have a chair at the end of the table. I am okay with being told safety rules, but he just leaves, no other service. Meanwhile we finally get water and menus. It's now been about 5 minutes. And then it happens. A group of older White men walk in. Everyone else in the restaurant is eating at this point. They get waters, put in their drink order, get their drinks, and put in their food order -- along with chit chat and banter before anyone even comes over to get anything from us. I know this because they are sitting right next to us. With two hungry kids that can melt down at any minute we decided this was not it. They could have at least communicated with us, but we were largely ignored and made to feel unwanted. The restaurant that used to be in this location was so much better. Hope it's not here when we go back to Borrego Springs, because my kiddo has such good memories in this location, but not this restaurant.
We came here after a day hiking and off roaring in the desert. We came here around 5:30 p.m. and although we were seated fairly promptly, it took a really long time for someone to come take our order and then for us to get that food. However, our server, and from what we observed, the other servers were very kind and were definitely hustling to get orders placed and be attentive. This place does look new so I'm sure they are working through some kinks as it relates to flow. The food itself was good - nothing exceptional but it did make me slightly less bitter about the price (everything is at least $20). The gnocchi was good, as were the spaghetti and meatballs and pasta bolognese. The one dish that was not good was the lasagna. It came very sloppily assembled and the taste was a bit weird. Upon taking the first few bites, my child said, "I'll eat it, but I've had better." Overall, if we are out here again we would go back because it is a place with nice staff and a variety of food that isn't bad. Just be prepared for a wait.
They didn't have enough staff to seat, take orders and serve. They said their manager was out today (Saturday during Wildflower season). Nobody knew how to host. We waited very long for a seat, never got menus, and nobody came to take our order. We were not the only people to leave without being served. Too bad. Looked like it could have been a good experience.
The food is amazing. Real, true Italian pasta. The way it is supposed to be. Heirloom tomatoes are not really heirlooms, but the cook did his best. I would go back for the spaghetti Bolognese. 5 stars to the chef Tony!!!We also loved a pistachio cake. Very tasty!!!Giving less than 5 stars because the service was slow.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 4
Recommended dishes: Spaghetti Bolognese
This is a newer dining spot in Borrego so I was able to go for lunch this past week with my son who was visiting. The food was hot, tasty, perfect portions and reasonably priced. Only one small issue was my son ordered an Arnold Palmer and received straight ice tea. Not a big deal.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4