Comments on: Pasta To Go (PTG) – Roxborough http://www.phillyrestaurantreview.com/italian/pasta-to-go-ptg-roxborough/ Trust me, I know what I'm doing. Sat, 29 May 2010 16:53:18 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: PhillyTex http://www.phillyrestaurantreview.com/italian/pasta-to-go-ptg-roxborough/comment-page-1/#comment-642 PhillyTex Sat, 16 Feb 2008 16:33:41 +0000 http://www.phillyrestaurantreview.com/italian/pasta-to-go-ptg-roxborough/#comment-642 Great review! Your notes are strikingly similar to what I saw at PtG. Anyone who knows the restaurant biz can plainly see that the back of the house is driving the place. And the back of the house knows their stuff--the courses come out exactly when they are supposed to, and the genuinely fresh foods are done perfectly, with good presentation. Good timing, with all the hot foods hot, etc. is a sign that the kitchen is on the ball. The only drawback here is that I just wish they would get away from some of the "catering biz" short-cuts! If my food is coming out of a chafing dish at a buffet, or at a party with 100 people or so, I can be perfectly happy with "Restaurant Depot" ravioli, instant whipped potatoes, etc. But in the context of a small restaurant with a max of maybe 30-40 patrons in the room at any given time on a busy night, those "heat and serve" foods just stand out as sub-par, and it really takes away from the dining experience. It almost makes you forget about the perfection in the cooking and seasoning of the fish or meat, or the superb flavors and textures of the pasta sauce. But, by far, the biggest heartbreaker at PtG is the lack of management in the front of the house. The servers and busboys were all "nice", but the periodic instances of confusion and disorder, and the lax response, shows that someone needs to take charge of the front side and crack the whip a bit! The staff seems like they are on cruise-control (in a bad way) and they want to be friends rather than servers. Throw in one or two raucous or downright obnoxious groups of guests (and that WILL happen), and you have a restaurant full of people who just want to finish their meal and get out the door! (Sadly, most of them won't be coming back any time soon, either.) It seems like the waitstaff are used to serving in an institutional setting (retirement home, for example) where the guests are always the same, and some chit-chat and a smile now and then are worth more than attention to detail and swift handling of problems that arise. When we were trying in vain to listen to the specials, and a very loud group of patrons came in the front door, instead of the server addressing the issue, and politely asking the offendors for some courtesy, she laughed, greeted them as old friends, and started over with the specials. And it didn't help that the list of specials was a mile long--it seemed like there were almost as many "special" dishes as there were options on the regular menu! There were plenty of good things to report, though. First off, once we found our seats (after a bit confusion by the hostess/server), we were immediately presented with a small plate of delicious bruschetta, as well as bread and butter, while our water goblets were filled and our bottle of wine was opened and served. The menu was just large and varied enough to give us a bunch of good options to mull over, without it being overwhelming. I would have limited the specials a bit more, but I will have to concede that it probably would have been much less daunting had the table next to us been a little quieter. Progression through the courses was swift… perhaps just a tad TOO swift at some times (seemed like they wanted to get us out the door at some points during the service) but this was better than the alternative of sitting there all night with all the yakking and hacking of the people next to us. My wine glass was topped off every time I took a sip (again, seemed like they wanted us GONE) and plates were snatched away the second we were finished with them. I felt like if the waitstaff had just turned it down maybe 10% things would have been PERFECT. But I got the feeling these people had been serving this way for years, and were not going to change just because the business had branched out into restaurant dining. As I mentioned earlier, they were on Cruise Control. Overall, the food was very good, with the aforementioned caveats. The service was mediocre but not terrible (you could do a LOT worse). My hopes for the future? Step up the food that last notch (i.e.- real potatoes, no heat-n-serve raviolis, etc.) so the other 90% of the food can really shine! Get a real ass-kicker with some fine dining experience on staff to serve as the manager for the front side. I think the majority of the staff will rise to the challenge and step up their game to the level that is expected of an upscale BYOB restaurant. Weed out the weak ones and move on. When it’s all said and done, this restaurant could be a real gem, rivaling ANYTHING in the Manayunk/Roxborough/East Falls area. I’d finish it off with a name change—something Italian and memorable, to signal that this is not the same old PtG with the same old caveats (“It’s great, but…”) I think the pricing was OK, perhaps just a tad high, but if they step up and make the changes I'd like to see, I could tolerate even a modest increase in the bill. After all, there aren't many restaurants around here where you can get great food and service on a consistent basis--I think there are plenty of people around here who would appreciate it! Great review! Your notes are strikingly similar to what I saw at PtG. Anyone who knows the restaurant biz can plainly see that the back of the house is driving the place. And the back of the house knows their stuff–the courses come out exactly when they are supposed to, and the genuinely fresh foods are done perfectly, with good presentation. Good timing, with all the hot foods hot, etc. is a sign that the kitchen is on the ball. The only drawback here is that I just wish they would get away from some of the “catering biz” short-cuts! If my food is coming out of a chafing dish at a buffet, or at a party with 100 people or so, I can be perfectly happy with “Restaurant Depot” ravioli, instant whipped potatoes, etc. But in the context of a small restaurant with a max of maybe 30-40 patrons in the room at any given time on a busy night, those “heat and serve” foods just stand out as sub-par, and it really takes away from the dining experience. It almost makes you forget about the perfection in the cooking and seasoning of the fish or meat, or the superb flavors and textures of the pasta sauce.

But, by far, the biggest heartbreaker at PtG is the lack of management in the front of the house. The servers and busboys were all “nice”, but the periodic instances of confusion and disorder, and the lax response, shows that someone needs to take charge of the front side and crack the whip a bit! The staff seems like they are on cruise-control (in a bad way) and they want to be friends rather than servers. Throw in one or two raucous or downright obnoxious groups of guests (and that WILL happen), and you have a restaurant full of people who just want to finish their meal and get out the door! (Sadly, most of them won’t be coming back any time soon, either.)

It seems like the waitstaff are used to serving in an institutional setting (retirement home, for example) where the guests are always the same, and some chit-chat and a smile now and then are worth more than attention to detail and swift handling of problems that arise. When we were trying in vain to listen to the specials, and a very loud group of patrons came in the front door, instead of the server addressing the issue, and politely asking the offendors for some courtesy, she laughed, greeted them as old friends, and started over with the specials. And it didn’t help that the list of specials was a mile long–it seemed like there were almost as many “special” dishes as there were options on the regular menu!

There were plenty of good things to report, though. First off, once we found our seats (after a bit confusion by the hostess/server), we were immediately presented with a small plate of delicious bruschetta, as well as bread and butter, while our water goblets were filled and our bottle of wine was opened and served. The menu was just large and varied enough to give us a bunch of good options to mull over, without it being overwhelming. I would have limited the specials a bit more, but I will have to concede that it probably would have been much less daunting had the table next to us been a little quieter.

Progression through the courses was swift… perhaps just a tad TOO swift at some times (seemed like they wanted to get us out the door at some points during the service) but this was better than the alternative of sitting there all night with all the yakking and hacking of the people next to us. My wine glass was topped off every time I took a sip (again, seemed like they wanted us GONE) and plates were snatched away the second we were finished with them. I felt like if the waitstaff had just turned it down maybe 10% things would have been PERFECT. But I got the feeling these people had been serving this way for years, and were not going to change just because the business had branched out into restaurant dining. As I mentioned earlier, they were on Cruise Control.

Overall, the food was very good, with the aforementioned caveats. The service was mediocre but not terrible (you could do a LOT worse). My hopes for the future? Step up the food that last notch (i.e.- real potatoes, no heat-n-serve raviolis, etc.) so the other 90% of the food can really shine! Get a real ass-kicker with some fine dining experience on staff to serve as the manager for the front side. I think the majority of the staff will rise to the challenge and step up their game to the level that is expected of an upscale BYOB restaurant. Weed out the weak ones and move on. When it’s all said and done, this restaurant could be a real gem, rivaling ANYTHING in the Manayunk/Roxborough/East Falls area. I’d finish it off with a name change—something Italian and memorable, to signal that this is not the same old PtG with the same old caveats (“It’s great, but…”) I think the pricing was OK, perhaps just a tad high, but if they step up and make the changes I’d like to see, I could tolerate even a modest increase in the bill. After all, there aren’t many restaurants around here where you can get great food and service on a consistent basis–I think there are plenty of people around here who would appreciate it!

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