Great Pizza in Siberia...

[Matthiasb]

With thanks to Maxzook's recommendation, we went to Caiottis with our two kids (7 & 10) in tow with high expectations last week. First impressions were positive - a pleasant room with plain tables and chairs but a cool vibe, almost full at 7pm, was a good sign. Unfortunately the tone of the of the evening was set when we walked in, and I hit the rather grim but cool looking waiter with my most winning smile, and said 'hi!' and he walked right by me. We were then greeted by a very nice manager, who found us a table quickly, and after seating us, never spoke to us again, and seemed to spend most of her time at the bar, chatting to people ordering takeaway pizza.

Grim cool guy served the table next door to us - got them iced water, menus, brought them garlic balls, and generally set a cracking pace. Meanwhile, we got...nothing, oh, except for a corkscrew thrown at me in passing (BYOG with no corkage is awesome but do they have to throw the corkscrew down on the table)?

Eventually the third waitress finally came along, dropped menus, and one glass of iced water, and, whilst very pleasant, looked distinctly overworked. For some reason she was managing 2/3 of the tables in the restaurant, whilst grim cool guy had the other 1/3 of the tables, and so was able to cruise around, whilst our poor waitress just looked overwhelmed.

We did finally get to order (just as our friends next door got their salads and first pizza), and when the food arrived, it was delicious. They have this really cool idea where they have all of the cutlery in a cigar box in the middle of the table - it was really cool until we opened ours to discover that we only had one fork (we got up and got our own...)
I had angel hair pasta in a fresh tomato and basil sauce with shrimps ($14). my daughter had a really nice beef dish booked in a Dutch Oven ($18). which was melt-in-the-mouth, and had a beautiful cranberry gravy. My son Ethan had a classic Margarita Pizza ($10), which was light and airy, with just right amount of topping, and my wife had Lobster and pumpkin Ravioli ($15) which was really well-flavored, and generous.

We also ordered a house salad...which never arrived. When we pointed this out, they did send it out, with a perfunctory apology, and it was a nice salad.

Total bill - $60 - Tip - $5 (the price of Siberia I guess)

In Summary - great food, nice location in a quiet tree-lined street, and maybe we were just unlucky with the serice, but it definitely dented what would otherwise have been a great night out.
m

[OCAnn]

I'm sorry to hear you had bad service @ Caiote Pizza (it's often hit or miss there). It used to be one of my favourite places when I frequented NoHo. In any case, at least you got to try the Ed LaDou's (RIP) place and enjoyed some good grub. =)

[Matthiasb]

Ocann, completely agree - Grub was great, and I'm sure I could go back there tomorrow and have a great experience, as the food was very good, and it was a cool place - I hope everyone understood the tone of the review in that light. I still gave it 3 stars, and it wouldn't take much to make it 4.
m

[Midlife]

OK............... help me out here. Lived in The Valley (Northridge) years ago and don't get back there much, but Caiotti's sounds like a good spot to remember or recommend. But.................. just for the education................ what's the Siberia reference all about? Is it just some 'city' smack talk at The Valley, or is there a heavy Russian influence in that area, or???

[Servorg]

Siberia - you feel a chill there at all times of the year, and you sense that you've been banished there for "misdeeds" even if you weren't guilty of anything more than wanting a bowl of borscht and a bit of brown bread (and someone to open your wine for you!)... ;-D>

[happybaker]

<SNICKER>

Beautifully said!

[Matthiasb]

I concur - you beautifully summarised our feelings on the night...

[Midlife]

Duh! That one went totally over my head. Thanks for the clarification.

[silence9]

Please clarify a point in the original post: you stated that "the third waitress" (by which I assume you mean 'third server', since one of your servers was not female, per your description as "grim cool guy') who became _your_ waitress seemed "pleasant" but "distinctly overworked", since she was handling 2/3 of the tables. You then even refer to her in the next sentence as "our poor waitress" and repeated that she seemed overwhelmed. So was it "our poor waitress" that you gave a $5 tip on a $60 tab? Really? I wonder what you would have left "our poor waitress" as a tip, had she not apologized for the overlooked salad... It seems like you were upset that both the "grim cool guy" and the hit-it-then-quit-it manager set the tone for lackluster customer service at a venue whose food you actually enjoyed. But I run into a cognitive dissonance when contemplating your description of the overworked/overwhelmed "our poor waitress" and the approximately 8.5 % tip she received. Was she simply guilty by association, for having co-workers that snubbed you? Or was her own performance as server enough to override any previous empathy for "our poor waitress"? I really am trying to better understand your original post. Thanks...

[Will Owen]

Yeah, that grated. $12 would be normal; above and beyond should merit $15 anyway. And this woman by the OP's description was working above and beyond.

[Matthiasb]

Sorry guys, just to clarify - whilst I had sympathy with her being overworked, she also wasn't very good, so the $5 tip (and yes even as a non-tipping Aussie, I would normally have tipped around $10-12) was also a reflection on her performance. There was a lot of dithering, a lot of taking orders to the wrong tables, and a lot of time spent chatting to some guys who came in a long time after us, and were served more quickly and efficiently than we were. And as for apologising for late salads, or lack of cutlery or any of that, they were pretty perfunctory apologies.
Hope that clarifies things a little, and yes, apologies for messing up terminologies re Server etc - bit of Oz speak there. Silence9, completely impressed that managed to work Cognitive Dissonance into a Chowhound review!
If you ever come to Sydney Australia, I can recommend some great places to eat...
cheers
m

[Servorg]

I still have fond memories of the Oaks in Neutral Bay...good company, good fun and good drinks. Cheers to you too.

[silence9]

Thank you for the clarification, mate!