I have had this groupon from Hell's kitchen for too long.
So, on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, we finally decided to drive out to Kits for this meal.
(more like the expiration date is approaching.....)
Hell's kitchen is not very highly regarded among the fellow Urbanspoon diners.
Guess it's time to find out on my own ;)
Upon arrival, we immediately realized that they were quite short staffed. The poor hostess girl was both a server and a hostess; therefore we were quite neglected (10 minutes+ wait before she finally greeted us!)
Can't blame her tho, more like the management.
The A/C was obviously broken, so it was quite stuffy and hot inside of the restaurant.
So we decided to sat at the patio instead.
The groupon deal came with 2 appetizer sized salads (caesar or garden), 1 large pizza (up to $22), and 2 beers.
After we were seated, we were brought two menus.
When I opened mine....
surprise!
umm, bbq sauce finger prints... Kaaaaiinda not very appetizing..... :$
The hostess girl noticed it when she brought us the water so she offered to change it for me right away.
Thank you! :)
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| coke & beer |
They were obviously understaffed today - our server seemed so busy and with 6 tables on the patio, he was serving all of us (plus who knows how many tables inside!)
We had to wait for quite a while before he came around to take our order.
The waiter was quick and efficient in taking our orders, other than the fact that we had to wait for quite a bit before we could actually catch him.
Jordan can't drink so he opted for coke, I had a lager. The beer was a tad flat tho.
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| Hell's Salad - Organic mesclun greens, romaine hearts, cucumbers and cherry tomatoes, house-made apple cider vinaigrette - $5 - 2/5 |
The Garden salad, well, it was just a normal garden salad. I had a doubt that the dressing was also store bought. It was definitely not the apple cider vinaigrette as claimed in the menu. It tasted somewhat like a honey mustard dressing (creamy, tangy, and sweet - didn't quite go with the delicate mesclun greens)
The reason I gave it a 2 instead of 2.5 is because I have found a little bit of rotten leaves in my salad... which I find it unforgivable because the only effort you need to put in, when you assemble a salad, is to see if there's any rotten or wilted leaves that are not suited for serving and the cook failed to do that.
:(
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| Caesar salad - Crisp romaine, toasted croutons, shaved asiago, house-made Caesar vinaigrette - $6 - 3/5 |
The Caesar tasted a lot better than my garden salad with the creamy and tangy dressing. However I found the anchovy flavour is very weak in the dressing and the entire salad (as you may have noticed in this photo) is composed of the outer layer leaves of a roman lettuce (not the heart of lettuce)resulting in chewier texture of the leaves (instead of "crisp" as claimed by the menu)
Nevertheless there was generous amount of asiago and parmesan cheese and Jordan liked it.
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| The Soprano - Spicy capicolla, prosciutto ham, provolone cheese, basil, chorizo - $22 - 3/5 |
Let me explain...
This pizza was quite good with ample amount of toppings they have used and the thin and crispy dough.
It was a tad oily but it was understandable as basically every topping on this pizza would produce a lot of grease when cooked (other than basil........... hah)
The spicy capicolla, together with the chorizo provided just enough kick that excited our pallet yet it didn't send me to shower my tongue with ice water.
The baked prosciutto was nice and provolone provided enough creaminess to the pizza.
But the highlight had to be the BASIL!!
It provided herby-ness and slight bitterness to the pizza to cut through the otherwise somewhat heavy tasting pizza.
My only complain would be that they could have used a tad more basil.... maybe even fresh!
Maybe 1~2 fresh basil leaves on top of each slice... (or chopped up fresh basil leaves on the pizza!)
Then why only 3/5?
It was a nice pizza - but Jordan and I had a really difficult time justifying its price at $22 (reg price)... of course we are judging based on our entire experience here and from the slow service to the dingy interior with a broken A/C and dirty menu... And then the salads....
I can come up with many excuses for them because I am using a groupon and I feel like I am getting a deal so I shouldn't be complaining but, when I put my feet in a regular diner's shoe, I can only think of myself complaining about my dining experience.
The salads weren't that great and the pizza was a quite greasy... with a flat beer and slow service, it would have pushed me to the edge.
Over all, both Jordan and I felt indifferent towards our lunch experience (we did agree that the pizza was good, but not great enough for us to pay regular price with) and unless there's another groupon offering, we will not be back.
Food - 2.5/5 - average food, pizza of good quality - yet at $22/pizza we expected better!
Service - 2/5 - really slow - but I will blame it on the management
Ambiance - 2/5 - broken A/C, VERY pub-ish looking place. Not for romantic outing but a casual outing for sure.
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