Service with a Smirk
Written: Dec 03 '00
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Good pizza
Cons: Everything else is unspectacular;you give away a piece of your soul when you eat here
|
|
|
| LeopoldBloom32's Full Review: Bertucci's Brick Oven Pizzeria |
You reap what you sow. I live in the heart of one of America's most important cities, full of varied and delicious fare from any number of locally-owned restaurants, and yet I occasionally patronize chain eateries. It's probably fitting then, from a karmic point of view, that I often regret my visits to chains.
There's a Bertucci's less than three minutes walking from my apartment-- it's the one on Clarendon street, right across from Back Bay station. I've lived here two years, and patronized the place four times. My most recent visit will be my last.
I was entertaining a friend from out of town and we were both tired and hungry. We decided on pizza. I discussed our options. Domino's was theoretically a possibility, but I'd rather eat toasted rabbit doots than Domino's. The local pizza place does order-in as well, but it's exceedingly mediocre. We were either going to take the T to the North End to my favorite pizza place, or we were going to the nearby Bertucci's. We opted for the instant gratification, and we would regret it.
We strolled over to the half-empty restaurant, got seated, ordered beer, a pizza and, for an appetizer, foccacia bread. The beer came almost immediately, the foccacia took for ever. Our waiter was actually avoiding us! I made several attempts to get his attention to ask about the appetizer, and he pretended not to see me. (Note to servers reading this: if you're avoiding a customer, don't accidentally make eye contact with him/her and then violently spin your head in the opposite direction). Eventually he came over and sheepishly mumbled something about the kitchen making it incorrectly. Thirty minutes after we had ordered it, we discovered that Berucci's focaccia is actually a pizza crust folded in half, filled with a chewy blob of cheese, cut into strips and served with cold marinara sauce. It was nearly inedible. I'd recommend that much cheese only to people attempting to rid themselves of chronic diarrhea.
Halfway through our half-hearted attempts to eat the crappy appetizer that we would later pay for, our pizza arrived. I was already irritated with the server for ignoring us when we had a problem, but I compounded our mutual dislike by sarcastically announcing "Wow! And only two minutes after we got our appetizer! Awesome!" Obviously, I shouldn't have done that, but the server bruskly threw down my dinner plate and left. We didn't see him until we wanted to leave and had to send out a search party to obtain our bill.
So we've established that the service is on par with what you'd expect from the DMV. The food is serviceable. Bertucci's pizza has an excellent crust, just the right amount of cheese and sauce that is only slightly too sweet. The dinner rolls are the best anywhere. However, I've had their garden salad and cheese ravioli on previous visits, and those, while not nearly the best I've ever had, are just fine. However, Bertucci's foccacia is probably an abomination against God.
The moral of the story is that you probably have plenty of local restaurants near you that would love to have your business and their food is probably at least as good as Bertucci's. Give your business to them instead of some soulless conglomerate.
Service:
It's terrible, but I'd also be snippy and bitter if I worked in the service industry. It's much easier to just write about bad service than actually wait tables.
Decor:
Decent-- former warehouse turned into a likeable, slightly industrial atmosphere.
Recommended:
No
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
LeopoldBloom32
|
|
Location: Boston! Massachusetts
Reviews written: 46
Trusted by: 17 members
About Me:
"Mr. Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls"-- James Joyce
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.