Lauren Y.
Yelp
I hate writing negative reviews but I really think it's worth mentioning as I believe feedback is important and I hope that management can take a change. TLDR: Food is awesome, the Wednesday Night combo deal is fantastic, vibes are good, service is mid, management needs to make changes to their reservation system.
My party had snagged a coveted 8:30pm reservation on Wednesday to take advantage of their $60 combo meal (pizza, pasta, appetizer/salad, dessert + bottle of wine). I arrived first in my party at 8:22p and noticed groups of folks waiting outside the restaurant with no semblance of order and no clear front of house staff. I spent about 10 min trying to get the attention of who I thought was the front of staff (gentleman in a hat) when I was finally able to check in with a waitress (long hair ponytail) who seemed visibly irritated that I was trying to talk her. Eventually, it's past our reservation time at around 8:33p the gentleman in the hat comes around, lets us know that we're checked in, but doesn't let us know WHEN we'll be seated. We have to flag him down again to ask, and he mentions that the restaurant is slammed (they had let a table of 6 turn into a table of 9 for example), and it shouldn't be much longer. He offered to bring us some wine while we waited, which we obliged to, but by the time we had our SECOND round of wine outside in the cold, we realized it was 9:18p, and we had waited nearly 50 minutes to be seated for our 8:30p reservation! I think this is extremely unacceptable, unprofessional, and just rude to us as diners. Normally, restaurants have a 15min grace period policy they impose on diners to arrive after their reservation, I'm not sure why the same standard wasn't being held for the restaurant to have a table ready up to 15 minutes after the reservation time. I really hope management can read this and put some action items into plan (maybe don't take as many walk ins or walk ins at all on the popular Wednesday night, fix the reservation system / timing, implement an actual front of house staff for clear check ins, encourage diners to leave after 90min or 2 hours). We weren't the only folks who had a reservation that was being delayed waiting outside.
------ FOOD ------
Pink Onion Salad (4/5): yummy, light and refreshing. Great way to balance out the carby dinner
Vegetarian Burrata Plate (5/5): loved the candied walnuts in this dish
Truffle Pasta (5/5): got this because the yelp reviews and have no regrets. The pasta was al dente, the truffle sauce was creamy and luscious, and the shaved truffles on top were chef's kiss
Vodka Sauce Pasta (5/5): Also a really great pasta, the rigatoni was pillowy and I loved the vodka sauce.
Magic Mushroom Pizza (5/5)
Patataccia Pizza (4/5)
Basque Cheesecake (5/5): Really nice cheesecake, not too sweet and not dense like American cheesecakes
Tiramisu (5/5): Also a really great cheesecake
------SERVICE------
I can't knock the staff due to the long reservation time because I know it's not their fault, but I wish they would do a better job at communicating with guests who were waiting outside. There was another couple who had an 8:30p reservation who ended up getting seated after us, and I just feel like it's not a good start to a dinner or good first impression to leave diners (especially those who made a reservation) out in the cold with no updates on seating. I appreciate the gentleman in the hat for offering us glasses of wine while we wait, but that can only go so far when we're hungry and cold. I also would like to note that the waitress with long hair and a ponytail was pretty rude and short to those of us waiting outside and even rolled her eyes at delivery drivers just trying to do their job.
Overall, I'm pretty disappointed with my first experience at Pink Onion. I had heard so many good things on Tiktok but unfortunately the food (which was so good!!) and even better deal were soured by the nearly hour long wait time (FOR A RESERVATION) and lack of communication/disorder.