Review of Prunella

If I was rating the food alone, my rating would be much higher. Everything we ate and drank was quite good, but the dining experience itself was both frustrating and needlessly stressful. When I made the reservation, I noted that I have celiac. When our waitress approached the table, she opened by stating "I know we have someone with celiac at the table and I wanted to let you know that we are out of gluten free pizza dough. We have gluten free pasta but there's cross contamination." I was bummed because we had chosen Prunella specifically for the pizza, but was ready to be flexible and pivot to pasta, until I asked her what she meant by cross contamination and she noted that they cook the gluten free pasta in the same water as the regular pasta. This is bonkers and will make anyone with celiac extremely sick - it's crazy that a restaurant wouldn't note something like this on their menu. I asked if they could boil my water separately, otherwise I wouldn't be able to eat the pasta, and she said the kitchen "did not have capacity to boil separate water." At this point, I'm pretty frustrated, since without the pizza and pasta, there are no gluten free entrees on the menu for me to safely eat. Since I'm in a group of 4, I ask my waitress if I can grab a gluten free pizza from SNAP around the corner to eat at the table while my friends and husband eat at Prunella (vs. us all leaving!) and she says she'll have to check with the manager. She returns five minutes later and says the manager is going to come over to talk to us. Another ten minutes go by, and the manager arrives to say (with no apologies) that they can't do anything differently about the pasta, but that the chef has 'whipped up' some more gluten free pizza dough. OK fine, now that we've wasted 25 minutes discussing something that is now a non-issue, I was able to order a gluten free pizza and get on with the meal. Overall - such a frustrating experience, made worse by the manager's cavalier attitude. I worked in a restaurant for a long time and I'd never be anything less than profusely apologetic if I couldn't deliver an item for a customer with a food allergy, especially if my restaurant purported to offer the options. Truly, everything could have been handled better and with more grace. Other small things - the water is served lukewarm without ice and the outdoor tables are totally sloped and uneven so the pizzas and drinks slide - could be easily fixed by propping something under to level them. Overall, the food was good, but Prunella has a lot of kinks to work out in their service and management model, especially for the prices they're charging.

How confident are you that this establishment takes safety precautions against cross-contact?

— Not at all

Is there a gluten-free menu?

— No gluten-free information on the menu

How much of the menu is available gluten-free?

— Not Much

How would you rate the taste and quality of the gluten-free food you tried?

— Good