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Presto Cucina is a casual Italian restaurant offering rustic pizzas, pastas and salads in a cooked to order, quick service style.
I have lived in White Rock/South Surrey my whole life and have dined at many restaurants in this area. Although the food was good, I must say that portions are just awful. Both experiences here I had picked up orders for 3 people and myself at work & everything from the pizza to pasta are overpriced for the amount you get. The service was also questionable, both times I was quoted 15 minutes for pickup, showed up in 20 & had to wait for my order. I found this odd because on both occasions I was also the only person in the restaurant aside from a few couples having coffee. Overall I would say their biggest problem is the portions of food they give,( I mean its pasta? Really? for 10 dollars fill up my plastic container...)
We like to try new restaurants, and took a risk here. We asked on the phone what a "small" portion was and our server told us that it was enough for one and a half people. Right... Maybe one and a half garden gnomes... The take out container was small and the food was 1/2 that size. Not very tasty either. Save yourself the money and try Red Rose nearby. Owners are awesome and their portions are a great value.
The last three times I've ordered takeout they managed to screw something up. Ask for no olives - get olives; wrong type of pizza; forgot to make one of the pizzas. Mostly little stuff but when it happens over and over again you have to wonder what's going on. All three times it was the same girl working the phone - mostly to talk to her friends as I discovered while waiting for my order. I spoke to a manager after the last time who was quite apologetic and sent me a 25 dollar certificate for my troubles. It was while redeeming this certificate that they managed to screw up the last order. I should say that the pizza is good but if they ever want my business again they need to fire the front counter girl and replace her with someone who expresses a modicum of interest in their job. in the meantime feel free to call and complain, your next bungled meal might be on the house.
.. not me, the restaurant (although maybe I am too and don't realize it.. which is really neither here nor there). Presto doesn't seem to know whether it's fast food or a sit-down eatery and this can create problems (which I will get to). The food has always been good and some of the pasta dishes are really great. The pizza is an excellent thin-crust type of pizza. The gelato bar is lots of fun in the summer. The problem that I and some of my friends have had is the confusion over tipping... this is a MacDonald's type restaurant in the sense that you go up to the counter and order your food (obviously the ambience is a lot nicer than a MacDonal'ds though). Would you tip in a MacDonald's? Most likely not. But I think you're probably expected to tip at this place... I say this because after eating here a number of times the girls behind the cash register give us the nastiest glares and cold service when we come in now and other than our lack of tipping, we haven't done anything to offend anybody (as far as I can tell). Tipping can be a area of confusion/ contention in any restaurant, let alone one that doesn't really have waiters and waitresses who serve you at your tables.. if you want another drink you go up to the till and pay for it or go refill your pop at the pop fountain. As I say, the whole tipping thing has created a problem and we don't feel we can go to this restaurant and eat comfortably anymore... unless we start tipping the employees... but if I do that then I have to tip the people at Burger King and I don't really want to tip the guy who just made my Whopper and fresh batch of cini-minis... do you see the problem here? Maybe I am just nuts...
I really liked Presto Cucina, sure they had some hiccups but their food was good. Even though their service was slow and challenging at times, I loved their chicken pesto penne so much it made up for it. Unfortunately the most recent incident had me shaking my head and made the ultimate decision to end this dining relationship.
As usual I order the Chicken Pesto Penne for carry out along with a soda as my beverage. I waited for the order and when it was ready the cashier confirmed my beverage choice and packed my bag. I got to the car and there was no beverage even though we had just confirmed it a minute earlier. Ran back into the store, no problem got my drink.
When I got home to enjoy my favourite dish I was sorely disappointed as they didn't add the pesto. The sauce is an alfredo sauce mixed with pesto, without the pesto all I got was bland penne. I quickly called the manager to inform them of the faux pas. The manager went on about portion control and how they have implemented quality control measures. She asked if I had even had that dish before and thats how they make it. I advised her yes I am well aware how the dish is made and advised her that there was no pesto. She went on about portion control and at this point I realized she didn't know what pesto was. I advised her it is a green sauce and I can assure her there was nothing green on the dish. She then advised me the general manager was back on Monday and she will call me. The general manager did call me an offered me a $10.00 certificate but not once apologized for the inconvenience. She also said that there was pesto in the dish, she confirmed it with the chef and that I just didn't notice it. They also have strict quality control. I realized then there was no reason to go back. They didn't care.
Presto Cucina has got to make some changes! The food is pretty good, it certainly kept us going back for a little while. Unfortunately, the service has forced us to stop enjoying the decent food. Our last visit went something like this...called to place a take-out order of a pasta dish and salad; we were told that the order would take 20 minutes; went to pick up order after the specified time had passed; employee told us that they forgot to make the order (little concern was shown regarding their error); employee offered to throw together the salad anyway; waited ten minutes while this was done; got home and tried to eat the salad; realized that the salad dressing (the best part of the salad) was left out of the order. This is just an example of the poor service. It's really too bad, as the food is quite enjoyable.
I have visited this restaurant 3 times and every time service has been way too slow. To bad because the food and ambience are good, but not good enough to visit often. Don't ever expect to grab a quick bite. My gosh, it should not take 25 minutes to cook a small thin crust pizza when there are only two other couples in the restaurant. I was also disappointed one evening to find out that the restaurant shuts it's doors at 8:45pm. Thank God for White Spot!
Folks, you sell pizza, if you want to make a buck and stick around till next year, you need to stay open later and provide delivery. Good luck.
| 1. | Abbotsford (36.8 km) | |
| 2. | Marine (40.6 km) |  |
| 1. | Rosie's Country Cafe (0 m) | |
| 2. | Forest Ale House (0 m) |  |
| 3. | Rasoi Fine Indian Cuisine (0 m) | |
| 4. | McDonald's (10 m) | |
| 5. | Steveston Pizza Co. (325 m) |  |
| 6. | Beansprout Bubble Tea House (364 m) | |
| 7. | Ricky's (389 m) |  |
| 8. | Momo Taro Japanese Restaurant (394 m) | |
| 9. | Classic O.P. Pizza (394 m) | |
| 10. | Cactus Club Cafe (411 m) | |
