sarafino's

we called to see if we could reserve space 3 or 4 weeks in advance. they told us they don't take reservations, but that we shouldn't have a problem. they took our name and also told us to call the day of. sounds suspiciously like a... i don't know... reservation?? so we did that. we show up for our "reservation" and guess what?restaurantis full, and the rude employees are claiming they have no idea what we're talking about and have no record of our name. ok, how long will we have to wait for tables to open up? they have no idea, could be hours. did i mention this was my wedding rehearsal dinner? i was pisssssssssssssssed. maybe don't tell people that their wedding rehearsal party of 17 will have no problems getting into your restaurant? this was several years ago and out of the kindness of my heart then, i didn't post a scathing review. fast forward to this new year's eve and we find ourselves at sarafino's with a group of friends. we get seated and in my absent-mindedness of their byob policy, order a titos and soda. a large, sloppy, obviously drunk man proceeds to make fun of me the entire night because of it. "how's your titos??!!" he yelled to me several times. did i mention the sloppy man was the owner of sarafino's? my friend called therestaurantahead of time on nye to see how late they're open etc. they tell her we can't arrive until 5 or 6 pm because there's a private party scheduled for 4 pm that day. you mean a private party that was reserved for 4 pm that day? i thought to myself, "that sure as hellllllll had better be a sarafino's employee party." i suspect sarafino's caters to their "regulars" in the italian crafton mob. although our waitress was polite and efficient, and the food is good, the service is reprehensible. if you're not the owner's friend, you don't matter. why be professional and kind to customers or keep your filthyrestaurantclean when you can get by on the business of your friends?

the food was delicious and the service was friendly. the bread also tastes freshly baked and was delivered warm with dipping oil/sauce. amazingly delicious. we got the white clam sauce, red clam sauce, and veal parmesan - all three were delicious and we all had leftovers. i highly recommend therestaurantand will go back.

also, they have a small lot on the side of the restaurant, but we saw it as we were passing it, so we just parked on the street. plenty of street parking, too. therestaurantis very small, so getting there early is probably a good idea. i'm not sure if they take reservations.

(my dad went to the rest room and that is upstairs and apparently pretty far away, so not good for someone who can't walk too well.)

it is byob with a $5 corkage fee (even for a twist cap that requires no opener), which is a bit much especially since they don't sell alcohol, so it's not like you're trying to cheat them out of business, but their soda is insanely cheap, so if anyone isn't drinking alcohol it's a bargain. they didn't give us a bag for our leftovers, which was a problem when it was placed on the back seat and we got oil all over everything, since they just have the styrofoam containers that don't seal, so you might want to ask for a bag and/or hold your leftovers very carefully on the way home. there will be leftovers. tons of food.

poor service and tacky glasses. i have been to thisrestaurantmany times and always enjoyed it. it is a byobrestaurantand they always provided nice wine glasses. on a recent visit they are still charging a corking fee but now give you small jelly glasses for your wine (like you used to get free in the grocery store free). it kind of takes the good taste out of wine. also, the waitress we had needed to be chased down twice for items. she served the food and disappeared. she also disappeared after our first up of coffee and we had to hunted down for a second cup. i was very disappointed as this used to be one of my favorite restaurants. :(

horrible customer care:: i don't care if you are a "regular" at this restaurant.. or if you have connections with the owner, you should not have special privileges to be seated over someone who had been waiting for over an hour. i don't mind waiting at a goodrestauranton a busy night.. it happens.. but i do expect to be seated when a table is ready.. this did not happen. my boyfriend and i waited over an hour to have a "regular" steal the table that should have been ours. i will not be returning... the food at segneri's in coraopolis is better. i've been to italy multiple times.. you can trust my opinion..

viva italiana!!!. stop what you are doing and go to this restaurant. i have been going here for a few years and turned my friends on to it but kept my mouth shut to the general public because therestaurantis too small. my advice is to go there in off hours like my husband and i did yesterday. the sides are heaping bowls of goodness. my greens and beans and polenta with pomodoro sauce appetizers are brought to the table along with the freshly baked crusty bread and dipping oil we were already enjoying. byob always makes it better but as we had been out shopping, a bottomless glass of ice tea was a refreshing break from the hot day. i tried the recommended fare for the day which was an asiago ravioli made with red pepper dough in a delicious vodka creme sauce. i always order the meatball's on the side because with their marinara they are one of the best in the city. my husband ordered the capalini bolognaise with meatballs, their food is always well executed and delicious. large portions were also being brought to the table adjoining mine and the people were in awe proclaiming "this is a side dish" when their heaping plates arrived. obviously they had not been there before. abondanza. great service tops it all off. if your waiter or waitress is busy someone else steps in with a smile and without even thinking about it to fill your glass or bag your delicious leftovers for the trip home without so much as a look from you. during my first visit to this location i had a butternut squash lasagna which i have not been lucky enough to catch on the specials menu since but i keep returning hoping that someday i will get to once again taste that joy that i experianced my first time there. it should be a regular menu item. my true wish is that they would tear down the adjacent buildings and make a larger space so you could have parties there. be sure to call ahead if you are bringing more than a 4 top. bravo sarafino's keep up the good work!

poor service. a good friend recommended this restaurant. the food was very good thank god because the service and friendliness of the waitress was absent. we were seated by the door and everytime someone came in or out of therestaurantare friend had to move or got bumped. the waitress didn't even try to move us when we first arrived and i immediately asked for another table. she said there weren't any, although all night long, people kept coming into therestaurantand continued to the back room. i must say i was embarrassed for bringing my coworkers and there parents from out of town to this restaurant. i would not recommend my friends go there, merely because the poor service made the dining experience horrible.

first time review. my wife and i tried therestauranton the recommendation of a friend and the reviews on urbanspoon.

we weren't in the mood for pasta or pizza (having eaten both recently) so we decided to try a sandwhich. it was a cold night and a bowl of soup also seemed in order.

it wasn't very busy and the waitress was very nice and quite funny. she recommended the potato-leek soup, which i tried, my wife had the old standby wedding soup. the soups were good but not great, i added cheese to mine for more flavor, my wifes wasn't hot enough.

i ordered the seared steak panini, supposedly with "filet tips". the steak was so tough you couldn't chew it. my wife and i both shared the steak because the waitress brought her a meatball sandwich, she had ordered a hot sausage so we sent the meatball back. we should have sent the steak back as well.

the hot sausage when it came (soon after) was good, we shared that and picked at the "side salad" (as stated on the menu). it was actually a side "pasta" salad, one of the reasons we ordered a sandwhich was because it came with a "side salad", never thought i would have to ask if that meant actual "salad". we even asked for the house dressing on our salad and the waitress never batted an eye or explained the salad was a pasta salad. weird!

when we paid the bill we told the waitress that the steak was too tough. to her credit she said that we should have said something, they would have gotten us something else. she was right and the next time we will.

one more thing, when we got our food this fruit fly (gnat to some) appeared and started hovering around. i saw that on a few other reviews and assumed that being the middle of winter the flys would be dead. guess not. i think the owner needs to close the place down for a few days and give it a good cleaning.

would we go back....maybe, and try something they are known for, like pasta.

amazing food. a few people have been raving about the food they ate at sarafinos. we recently tried it....they were right. it was absolutely delicious. one downside was it was a hot summer saturday night and it was soooooo hot inside that we had to move outside on the sidewalk. i was perfectly fine because i enjoy outside seating but if you do not like it, hope that they have the airconditioning fixed. we ate lots of bread with the delicious diping oil, they brought us more baskets as we needed. i ordered the pasquele, which was penne with spinnach, sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms and feta cheese. fantastic! i had enough left over for 3 more meals if iwanted to....but ate the rest the next day because it was so good! my husband got the sarafino and enjoyed it. he's more of a meat & potatoes type of guy but he still really enjoyed his pasta dish. we also got the almond cake and it was amazing for desert--husband didn't like it as much because there was coconut. best part....byob. i love when arestaurantallows us to bring out own wine. i believe there was a $5 corking fee. please try this place. it is fantastic.

italian gem. we can't believe that we've lived a few miles from thisrestaurantand just discovered it in december. therestaurantis small and intimate, but worth the wait for a table! we have always found the waitstaff friendly and attentive.

the standard menu has a lot of good options, but the specials really rock. we try something different on each visit and have never been disappointed.

therestaurantis byob.