I had been planning for the last month to check out a new restaurant in Snohomish, . We arrived at our Snohomish destination and found it to be packed with locals. This is truly a good sign but I just wasn’t willing to walk two blocks to find parking and then wait for an hour to get a table. So, I did what I call a walkabout.
A walkabout consists of cruising the city for a new dining location that I had not seen before. Snohomish is small town and it did not take long to realize there were no other new places to try. So what to do? I decided to make a break for new stomping grounds in Monroe Washington. Not knowing what to expect we ended the night very surprised.
As you drive east bound on highway 2 through Monroe you can see off to the left a large easy to read sign that says Tuscano’s. The building and design are reminiscent of a chain of Italian restaurants in Florida. It turns out the restaurant is a family owned and operated business, and this is their only facility. The owner recently sold his four Canyon restaurants and opened this very nice Italian place.
We dropped in for a late meal in the bar and ended up taking our kids there for lunch the next day. Customer service is what I am all about and the service provided that night was the finest. The thing that impressed me the most was the team effort to take care of us, the customer.
My wife always has a lot of questions about drinks and food. Some food service professionals don’t have time for questions and treat you like an idiot, especially when you ask a simple question! We have also been lied to so many times from servers that tell us they have tried a menu item and have not. We usually don’t even ask that question anymore.
Tuscano’s professional staff worked with my wife to answer all her questions, when the server was asked if she had tried a dish she told us that she had not. WOW an honest answer. Not only did she tell us she did not know what the dish tasted like, she then sourced two other employees that had tried the dish. All three servers came to our table and very accurately described the dish for us, which sold it for my wife. Just after we ordered the dish, the manager came by and told us the same information again. Can you say great communication amongst staff? This is the difference between corporate and family establishments.
It had been a few years since I had tasted a really good Putanesca so I ordered this from the menu and my wife ordered Mama’s macaroni and cheese with Prosciutto. The prices are very good . I would compare the food quality to Applebee’s or Olive Garden. So, we are not talking 5 star dinning here.
My Putanesca was not prepared in the traditional style (which is what I was expecting) but it was flavorful and most likely a healthier version of the original. The presentation of the dish was lack luster as you can see from my slideshow photos. As a matter of fact every meal we purchased there over a two day period was presented at the most mundane level. We humans do tend to eat with our eyes.
The Mamas Mac and Cheese was not that great, we expected homemade and I think we got something somewhere in between. The sauce tasted like a combination of some sort of powder or canned cheese mixed with real cheese. My wife insisted that it was cheese whizz. The presentation was again lack luster and all the meat was clumped together, she did not finish her meal and left it for our kids to eat later. My nine year old loved it.
I told you that customer service is very important to me and even though we had some trouble with our meal that night we decided to try the place the very next day with our two youngest kids. I was able to get a lot of photos on this trip so please check out my slideshow for more details about or lunch trip to Tuscano’s.
I have always said that customer service starts at the front door and ends at the table. Meaning; do you feel welcomed and did that feeling carry through to the end of your meal? In many cases this never happens, sometimes they stumble at first then later finish with greatness or visa-versa. Our lunch service was what I would consider good, (our server may have had too many tables) there was a team effort by all to keep the flow of services rolling. Our server did a wonderful job but this is hard work when you have a lot of tables. What I missed was that feeling of family and welcome-ness from the night before.
Tuscano’s is a wonderful family restaurant that has good service with excellent family meal value. Our family will return for more meals and I am sure it won’t be long before we have eaten our way through this menu; as we have with so many locally owned restaurants in the past.
Eat well and enjoy every bite like it’s your last.
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