Today I ordered from this cool-looking breakfast, lunch and dinner place in West Hollywood, called Marco's Trattoria.
I found that their menu online gives you an option of ordering a pizza with a thin, medium, or thick crust, which is pretty cool. I, of course, had to go with the thin crust. They give you a 16-inch pie, which is more than enough for 2 people even though I ended up eating way more by myself. The 16-inch is only 12 dollars, which is pretty fair. So far so good. I picked up the pizza, and it looked pretty good, as most pizza does I suppose.
Here is a picture that looks pretty similar to other pizzas.
The one thing you notice is the crust is thin at the end too; there is no gradual rise in the dough and it doesn’t seem to be cooked as much as it should. I took the first bite, notoriously the best bite, and it was good as usual. The first thing I noticed was the sauce, it was a thick heavy sauce like a marinara and there was a lot of it. The amount may have been right for a thicker crust, but this thin crust had trouble supporting the amount of sauce. The taste, I wasn't a fan of either. The sauce was too heavy with spices and not sweet enough. The deeper you got into the slice, the less you could tolerate the sauce. It was too overpowering and the cheese was almost not even a factor. The crust was very thin and had a flaky texture to it, almost like a croissant, but a lot more density to it. The crust could have been cooked longer; it didn't have that crunchy crispy-ness to it on the bottom, and the outer edge was the same. Overall, the pizza was better than a lot of pizza I have had, but didn't really meet my expectations for average.
A friend & I had dinner at Marcos last Monday for the first time. The food was above average, almost good had we not ordered a thin crust pizza as a appetizer, the sauce was terrific but the crust was super soggy. What a shame. The meatloaf was very good and the pasta was OK, but a little too much al dente, almost hard, but better firm than soggy I guess. The dining experience itself was seriously flawed by the arrogance and the ineptness of the waiter and bus boy. The waiter rushed the ordering process [waiter's cardinal sin remember we were first time diners, so we wanted time to check out the menu] and it was downhill from there on. Although the food was OK, there were a few other items that I would have liked to have ordered, but it was close to impossible to get the attention [in this very small dining space] of either the waiter or bus boy. Kind of the waiter doesn't look you in the eye, so he doesn't see you "wink-wink". After the food arrived at the table, the waiter did not come back during the meal to see if things were OK. I continued to get try to get the waiter and/or bus boy's collective attentions, and noticed that someone at 4 of the 5 tables was also trying to get some basic service. During this time, the servers both chatted to each other behind the counter for a bit and then went to an obvious regular diner and had quite a conversation, totally ignoring everyone else. When I finally got the waiter to come over, his response to my request was arrogant and sarcastic he said, "well do you want it" after I had just requested it...of course, I wanted it, but I said, "not if it is too much trouble" so he turned on his heel without saying anything and walked off. Frankly, I as a customer did not feel that I had to ask twice or beg to get what should have been provided. We ordered several items and the table was small, but nobody came to clear the plates as we finished with them to allow us room to eat comfortably. It was the first and will be the last time at this place for us. I can't recommend this restaurant to anyone because OK food is not the only reason to go to a restaurant, but I can let the establishment's owners know that in this economy especially [the prices are competitive, meaning not cheap but the same or more as neighboring restaurants] service and a pleasant dining experience is key. Although we both were dissatisfied with service we did tip 15% NOT 20%-25% we usually do, should have left less & not rewarded poor service. There are several neighboring restaurants that are better experiences for the money.
ReplyDeleteOk you can't write a comment that is longer than the post. This is ridiculous. Sorry you got bad service but save it for yelp.
ReplyDeleteJust kidding Im glad you are visiting my site. But seriously get a friend to vent to.
sucks. new location. diner quality everything.
ReplyDeleteis that short enough for you