Prizzi's of Summerville- there's no honor there...

According to their website, they are Summerville's Best Kept Secret. Truly, I find this hard to believe. Honestly, if what I'm getting ready to tell you had not transpired, this would be more about the mediocre food than that asinine owner. Now you will be subjected to both. OOPsie. I perused the website before going to Prizzis because I wanted to see what they had to offer as I had never heard of them. My aunt and uncle are REGULAR customers here and even their son held his rehearsal dinner here. Which makes what I am about to tell you even more ridiculous..redunkulous even. First things first - waitress informs us 18% gratuity on parties of 5 or more. HUH? That is the size of a normal family household these days. But then she informs us she can split is and we can tip what we feel is deserved. At this point, I am thinking she said this because my aunt and uncle are regulars about 3 times a month there. Got there, checked the menu. Basically the same as online. I wanted the lasagna, the pizza for Ben and inquired about a seniors portion for my mother who is elderly. The waitress stated they didn't have any thing comparable, I asked her about getting a kid's meal for her, she said that would be allowed. So mom had the spaghetti. When the waitress took my order, she suggested the lasagna special. When I inquired what that meant, I was told it included a salad. Ok. Mistake for me #1. The regular lasagna is priced at $8.99. I noticed tonight that the tossed salad is priced at $2.79. Can someone please explain to me then why the lasagna special was $15.99? Just because it included a salad? Please? WTF. You know what they say about assume-- I assumed the special would be like $10 - you know, the salad for $2 instead of $2.79. Ass - wrong. Basically the salad jacked up the meal $7. The kids meals are $4.99 each. For appetizer, my aunt and I split the spinach rolls. Which is basically a cigarette sized egg roll made of spinach and cheese. It was fairly good- although the description said to be served with tatziki sauce which to me I guess is fancy for sour cream with shredded cheese on top? The salad was iceberg- a few croutons, 1 tomato, 1 black olive, a couple onion rings and salad dressing- the house - an Italian vinaigrette..but it tasted like Wishbone. Yes, I am a salad dressing conneesiour. However, as of yet, things were not so misshapen that I was going to complain. The lasagna came. It says the noodles are homemade, however, I just made lasagna at home last week, and the no bake ones have these tiny lines running through them- these did as well - and there were 2 noodles on my whole plate. The lasagna was somewhat deconstructed. I am assuming - again, there's that word, this was meant to be this way. There were slightly roasted -or seems to me- sweated onions and peppers (red and green) on the side, and sliced Italian sausage on the side as well. Topped with shredded parm cheese. I saw red sauce not white sauce as described. Still- it was ok. I was not complaining. My son was ok with the pizza after all he eats Subway pizza all the time- this was about the same - I have a really hard time believing this pizza was home made. Seriously. I wish I had taken pics I just didn't know what was coming or I would have. My uncle had chicken parm which seemed to be good - no complaints. My aunt had same as me- she loves it..no problems there either. Love them:) Dessert- mom had cheesecake- it was a nice sized slice but I thought very overpriced for $4.99. However- didn't complain. I and my aunt had the chocolate cake. It was actually very good - but then it was dark chocolate- how can you go wrong with that?! Drinks. Please tell me why a supposedly "upscale" restaurant serves bottled soda with a cup of ice? At $2 a bottle. And I might add the menu said they were $1.59 but when the owner was yelling at me, she informed me it was $2 a bottle. and No refills. Still- hadn't complained yet. My family and I were actually having a really nice time -the best time! Until the bill came. We asked them to split the bill and my uncle stated they would get the appetizer. So the waitress comes back with theirs, he pays and then I go up to pay mine. To which they tell me the total. As I am adding my total and my uncle's total in my head it is more than that complete bill the waitress brought us the first time. I stepped back to the table and I told my aunt and uncle that I think they were overcharging us and I think it had something to do with the way they were figuring the 18%. Here is where it broke off. THE OWNER came barreling up front and yelled at me asking me what was the problem. I explained to her that the 2 bills were not adding up to the 1 and maybe it was the gratuity they had miscalculated because if we each had 18% and it split like that the total bill should not be $5 less than what we were being asked to pay separately. She began screaming at me that they were a fair business and that they had been in business 12 years, etc. I explained to her that I was only asking about the totals. Why would the 2 be more than the 1. They should equal the same. First she screamed at me that I didn't understand her. I explained to her that I was standing right in front of me there was no need to scream at me as she was doing to which she ignored- and I noticed, continued to check around the restaurant- thankfully there were only about 5 tables occupied in the whole business. She went back and recalculated 3 times. Each time coming with a different total. And each time throwing the receipt on the table. Finally, my uncle told her to void his off and put it all on one and we would split it outside. She basically refused to do this and continued to argue with me. At this point, my aunt stepped in to try to explain to her what it was we were questioning. I told the owner I didn't know if she couldn't understand me or didn't want to understand me but the bottom line is the 2 separate bills together should equal the one bill they showed us initially. She continued to scream at me and told me that they were a fair business- a family business. And did I not think the service was worth it. Let me think. The food was mediocre- over looked it. The drink situation - low rent for "Summerville's best kept secret" - overlooked it. 10 minute tirade over the total of a bill that just didn't add up-- you bet your ass I didn't think it was worth it. I told her look, let's just settle this so we can leave. This is ridiculous. I went up front to pay what they said I owed--after all, I didn't want to be locked up in Charleston- my magistrate connection are elsewhere...so when I went to the cashier- I was trying to explain to her that I was in no way trying to be difficult. I just didn't understand how we were getting 4 different totals. Before I could finish the owner comes flyin up front again and reignites. WTF. Let's see...my cousin got married 2 years ago? And my aunt and uncle have eaten there so much the waitress was on first name basis and knew my aunt's order without asking and the owner was acting like this to REGULAR FAITHFUL customers! I'd say Prizzi's is Summerville's Best Kept Secret because they have mediocre food and the worst (even worse than Bojangles) customer service I have ever seen. Good riddance!

Nonna's of Lillington

Overall, I don't have a problem with this place. The food is very reasonably priced and usually any pasta dish is spot on. The star of the pasta menu I would venture to say is the Putanesca. I know, anchovies, but do not scoff...explore the world with your taste buds, I promise if you are not deathly opposed to anchovies or are adventurous, you will definitely appreciate this journey! A+. The star of the pizza menu is the Sicilian supreme!

Now the appetizers- a different story. I think they are all frozen. The potato skins I had seriously were frozen (tasted just like the frozen Ruby Tuesday ones I make at home) but it had a half slice of American Cheese slapped on top. ewwww. They were reasonable about giving me a refund on it though.

The visit I made their just last week though was somewhat a disappointment. I got the Chicken vegetable soup and the chicken gyro. They do not offer a soup and sandwich menu, only soup and salad (oh and the salads are iceberg-minimal but the added onions and tomatoes make it a winner to me-the right light bite with the huge portions you get). The soup, which we waited 20 minutes on, while my companions had their food almost immediately, 20 min. into lunch and I was still waiting for both the soup and the gyro. Finally when it came, the soup was very bland. I'm not sure what the problem was really, as I had tasted it before when a friend ordered it and it was thick and hearty, this time it was thin and blah. The gyro- well, if it had cucumber sauce on it, I couldn't find any. And I love cucumber sauce. The chicken was ok. The meal overall was disappointing compared to everything else I'd ever had there.

I say Nonna's .....worth a visit. The pasta-never had a bad one from here and I've been working my way down the menu since they opened. Stay away from the potato skins. Oh and the Stromboli's are fabulous too! See...so many good options that totally outweigh the negatives!