Tusca - If you like bad service, here's your place

As I stated in the last post, DB~ and I went down to the South Side last night to do a little pre-race scouting of the territory. After we were done it was 8 p.m. and we were hungry. We saw a cool looking new place on Carson (around 14th'ish Street) called Local, but we couldn't find a parking spot. We turned down Dish Osteria because we wanted to save it for a dinner with her aunt. Eventually we headed back to our starting point at South Side Works and landed at Tusca.

The only other time I was a Tusca was in early December 2007. I went with one of my married couple friends to see an uplifting little movie called There Will Be Blood. After the movie, the 3 of us went to Tusca to have some dinner. At that time, we just got some tapas (small plates) to share between the 3 of us. That night my friend and I dubbed that place as There Will Be Hunger, because tapas is a rip-off. You pay way more money than just getting an entree and you're still not full.

But this time DB~ and I went thinking we would get entrees instead. Things started off promising with our female server. She greeted us and got our drinks relatively quickly. That would be her high point. DB~ got the Mediterranean Salmon and I order the Shrimp with Polenta. Her salmon dish came out from the kitchen and we waited for mine....and waited...and waited...and waited until at least 8 minutes passed by. Our server didn't seem the least bit apologetic/enthused/interested when she flopped my "entree" down on the table. I had told Squiggle to start eating, but she still held back a little, making her dish not optimal temperature.

My dish was tiny. It had 4 small shrimp served on a bed of flavorful polenta, but the whole thing was on an appetizer plate for $16. No side dish, no salad, just this. DB~'s salmon was awful according to her. The texture and feel of the salmon was not well-prepared. The seasoning was OK she said, though. She did have a nice creamy risotto with her dish.

The worst part is that our server never came back once. Not to check on our dinners, not to refill our drinks. The place wasn't full when we got there and by 9 p.m. certainly wasn't that busy. She just was a terrible server.

She dropped off our check without ever asking if we wanted dessert, coffee, or an after dinner drink. And then after we had our credit card in the holder and she back for the check, she asked if she could clear our plates (which had been sitting there for at least 15 minutes...a huge peeve of mine).

DB~ and I agreed to only leave a 15% tip exactly, which is basically a huge middle finger nowadays to a server. Congratulations, you are in my top 5 worst servers ever.

Tusca -- There Will Be Hunger and Bad Service