Sorrentino's South

Today a couple of the girls and I decided to check out Sorrentino's South and bask in the beautiful sunshine during the lunch hour.

Ever wary of potential holiday crowds, I made us a reservation for noon. When I arrived five minutes early, I realized that my reservation wouldn't have mattered anyway - the parking lot was nearly empty, as was the restaurant.

I walked into the main foyer and waited to be seated. I waited, and then I waited some more. Nobody was at the hostess station. In fact, there weren't any staff anywhere (except inside the kitchen, where I heard lots of dishes clinking around). At one point a patron inside the restaurant cocked his head and peered at me from his booth, wondering why I was just standing there. Finally, after 5 very long minutes, one of their staff walked by and saw me, and called for the hostess to come and seat me.

Mildly annoyed but still polite, I informed them of my wait and my reservation. The official excuse according to the hostess was that she was the only one on duty, and then she muttered something about being at another "station" during the time that I was waiting. In any event, the excuse was pretty weak, but her earnestness to make up for her blunder was commendable, and she went outside to prepare a patio table for us.

We were then seated on the patio and provided with ice water and bread, even before all the members of our group had arrived. It was nice that the patio wasn't already packed; in fact, it was empty except for us. As we sat and gabbed, we found that the lone umbrella shading our two adjoining tables wasn't sufficient to block the very penetrating rays of sunlight, so we helped ourselves and moved another umbrella near to our tables; this would prove a nearly-fatal decision when our umbrella fell over due to a particularly strong gust of wind, and almost impaled Viener in the neck. Luckily, she was not injured, and another staffer (who happened to have come out onto the patio) ran over to help us better secure our umbrellas to their stands.

When everyone arrived, the server came around again to take drink orders. We then got down to business and examined our menus between discussions. I noted that Sorrentino's offered a fairly large selection of appetizers, pizzas, entrees, sandwiches, and pastas. The cuisine didn't sound remarkably original or unique, but did definitely sound tasty.

The server came back after a few minutes and informed us that their DIY pasta station and summer feature pasta dishes were not available because of the holiday. She then took our orders, and I ordered the Sorrentino burger (" Alberta AAA prime rib beef, Asiago cheese, Italian bacon, tomato, pickled jalapenos, & mayonnaise on focaccia") with a green salad (cost = $9.95).

As we awaited our lunches, I sampled a bit of the bread and the clear reddish-hued dip that was provided. Miche-Lin guessed it to be a type of oil with chilies in it. Whatever it was, it tasted okay, but wasn't terribly flavourful.

I was impressed by the size of my burger and salad when these were brought out. The salad was a fairly generous portion, and the burger was thick and large (in terms of diameter). The salad tasted quite fresh and the house vinaigrette was light and subtle. I decided not to over-carb, and instead took my burger apart to eat. The two slices of Italian bacon on the burger were tasty and crispy (in expected bacon fashion), and the medium-well done prime rib burger was hearty and filling, although perhaps a little on the bland side. The foccacia bun (which I ate a portion of) was toasted and a sweetened mayo had been spread on it; this gave the bun some flavour apart from the standard foccacia taste, and was very enjoyable eaten separately from the rest of the burger.

When we had all finished picking apart our meals and eating only the goodies out of our burgers, our server came and took away the remains. Then we sat on the patio for a good long time undisturbed, chatting and catching up; the server came by a few more times to fill up our water, and then brought us our bill. We took another long time talking before we settled the bill. The server accidentally double-charged Miche-Lin's credit card and forgot to charge mine, which was a little annoying; however, she did quickly reverse her double-charge and bring out my bill, which I was happy to see.

All in all, the company we kept as a group was fantastic, and made the experience at Sorrentino's great. However, the service was hit-and-miss, and though we passed the time effortlessly on the patio, I think some of our turnaround times for getting the bill, more water, etc., were a tad on the slow side. Considering the lack of a lunch rush that they experienced, impeccable service and prompt turnarounds should have been reasonable to expect. As well, though my burger meal was tasty, it wasn't memorable in the least, and the restaurant gave me the same sort of meh feeling that I get from going to Earl's or any other sit-down burger-and-pasta place. Overall, go to Sorrentino's if you want a relatively inexpensive, decent meal on a nice patio (or inside a nice Earls-esque restaurant). Go somewhere else for quality Italian fare.

Rating: 7 / 10