But also place your trust in the VNOB when he says that this restaurant has other issues which outweigh the Spaghetti al Checa. Here goes:
Firstly, our reservation was for 8:30PM - we didn't sit down until 9:30PM. I can deal with a 5 or 10 minute delay, 15 or 20 minute is ok as long as you bribe me with a drink on the house, but seriously - you are going to make me wait ONE HOUR for a RESERVED TABLE and not even distract me with free food, drink or an apology? Yeah, right- we'll see how long our relationship lasts...
Secondly, when we were seated, we waited another 15 minutes for service. That's right - no wine, no bread, no "welcome to Pane e Vino, here are our specials for this evening...". And it gets better - when we finally sat down, our server was the bartender from the outside bar that had refused to give us a free drink. So needless to say, because our "server" was also the "bartender", our "service" left a lot to be desired.
So, it was about 10PM by the time we got our first bottle of wine. And even when the bread was served, we had to ask three different times for salt and pepper. You can take that with a grain of salt, but I really had to ask three times?
But the piece de resistance was the bill. We were a party of six and gave three credit cards to split the bill evenly. You would think that this would be an easy task for our bartender friend. Nope. She proceeded to automatically add a 20% gratuity onto the bill without showing it to us. ARGH.
And bad service at Pane e Vino was not a one off experience - I talked to a colleage and he and his wife had the same experience there too.
And finally, one more gripe - the wine is really expensive. So, if two people go, it's hard to walk out of there for less than a Benjamin.
So, all in all, it was a very frustrating experience at Pane e Vino. If you want great Italian, I strongly suggest Bacco on Coleman Blvd in Mount Pleasant. Not only is the food awesome, but the service lives up to the word. In Bacco the VNOB trusts.
